BY THE VILLAGE SUN | Judson Memorial Church will be holding “A People’s Fair for Palestine” this Sunday afternoon. Some worry, though, that the event’s treatment of the Middle Eastern conflict won’t be fair.
Micah Bucey, Judson’s senior minister, told The Village Sun the day would feature “various perspectives.”
“Judson has always been a commons for uncensored dialogue serving the work of collective liberation, with a dedication to the marginalized,” the reverend said. “We’ve hosted many conversations focused on the vulnerable human beings at the heart of this conflict and history, including a recent event with Combatants for Peace. We are witnessing the rising death toll in Gaza move past 30,000 and we are sorely in need of more spaces for community-building and co-creative strategizing.”
However, one lifelong local peace activist who attends services at the historically liberal Washington Square South church and alerted the newspaper to the event, shared his concerns about it. Requesting anonymity, he predicted the affair would be an “anti-Israel, anti-Semitic jamboree…basically, an all-day anti-Jewish blast.” He added the fair was being “co-sponsored by 30 rabid groups.”
The Feb. 25 event, at Judson Church, at 55 Washington Square South, will run from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. and feature tabling, activities, workshops, performances and speakers. Participating groups include Writers Against the War on Gaza, Palestinian Youth Movement, Palestinian Feminist Collective and Mamas 4 A Free Palestine.
Although the church is holding a pro-Palestinian fair, it recently hosted a months-long run of performances by Asi Wind, an Israeli-born magician, that reportedly brought in healthy revenue for Judson. Wind’s residency was presented by David Blaine, who is also Jewish.
On another note, Bucey said he is finally off crutches and healing well after being hit by a wrong-way e-bike that fractured his knee outside Stuyvesant Town in October.
“‘Judson has always been a commons for uncensored dialogue serving the work of collective liberation, with a dedication to the marginalized,’ the reverend said.”
What claptrap from this limousine liberal!!
Back in the 1980s, when ten IRA volunteers fighting for a united Ireland were dying on hunger strike in a British prison to protest inhumane conditions imposed by Margaret Thatcher, I belonged to a group in the USA that supported the hunger strikers.
Noticing signs on the entrance of Judson advertising meetings supporting militant groups like the FALN in El Salvador and the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, I scheduled a meeting with the pastor of Judson to request if we could also hold a meeting in one of their meeting rooms, because the other church where we used to meet down the street, a Methodist church, was under renovation.
Our meeting began with my simple request to the Judson pastor to have our meeting there. Without batting an eye, he immediately said, “No.” The meeting ended in 30 seconds.
End of story, but no end to the hypocrisy of these types.
I guess it is all right for the WASPs at Judson when people of color need support in far-flung place in the Third World, but not all right for Irish fighting their British kinfolk’s oppression.
These are the type who give liberals a bad name.
Pointless “article” by a commenter who needs to appreciate free speech rather than stonewall it. Keep up the narrative that those can’t unite against genocide. How much did AIPAC spend on advertising this year?
$0.
Freedom,
Just a mention….in my extended multigenerational family there are a variety of opinions and significant disagreement about Israel-Gaza.
But there seems to be grudging consensus about one thing — that virtually no one has cared about the atrocities, violence, genocide etc in other parts of the world, like Sudan, Myanmar and more.
Folks not interested in stuff unless it is “cool.”
You don’t protest genocide to be cool but because your heart is breaking. Over 12,000 children have been killed and thousands more wounded. The U.S. doesn’t supply the bombs and bullets to Sudan and Myanmar to commit their atrocities. Israel conducts its slaughter of innocents with our weapons. We are complicit.
You hit the nail on the head, Stuart.