Hilton Obenzinger

Overview

Hilton Obenzinger has shown support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, demonized Israel and glorified Rachel Corrie.

Obenzinger is a Professor of American Studies at the Stanford University (Stanford).

Supporting BDS

Obenzinger signed a statement, published by Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP) on September 19, 2016, condemning the cancellation of an upcoming Black Lives Matter (BLM) benefit concert because of its decision to collaborate with the BDS movement. 

The statement denounced the cancellation of the concert by New York cabaret club Feinsteins/54 Below and claimed that the action “undermines the visionary leadership of the Movement for Black Lives…” 

Obenzinger also signed a 2016 open letter, proposed to the Modern Language Association (MLA): “calling on the association to pass a resolution endorsing the boycott of Israeli academic institutions.”

In July 2014, Obenzinger signed a petition alleging that: “Gaza was an open-air prison” and that the Israeli air force had been “bombing both military and civilians targets almost indiscriminately.”

The petition went on to charge that “The deprivation of the rights of the Palestinian people has been an organic aspect of the Zionist project, which has been supported by the Western imperial powers since 1917” and to endorse the BDS movement as a “potent tool to hold Israel accountable.” 

Obenzinger also signed an open letter to former United States President Barack Obama and the American Congress, demonizing Israel and calling for an end to foreign aid. 

The July 31, 2014 letter, addressed to former U.S. President Barack Obama and the American Congress, called “to suspend US military aid to Israel, until there is assurance that this aid will no longer be used for the commission of war crimes.”
In 2014, Obenzinger also signed a petition expressing support for an upcoming BDS resolution at the University of California (UC) and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at John Jay College. 

Signatories of the petition wrote: “We feel an obligation to express our solidarity with Palestinians living under a system of legal apartheid, Palestinian refugees and their descendants, as well as our solidarity with the growing majority of people around the world who stand in support of the Palestinian right of return and against Israeli apartheid.”

Obenzinger signed a petition, published in March 2011, calling on the financial consultant company, TIAA-CREF, to “divest from Israeli occupation.” The petition provided a list of Israeli companies from which signatories demanded TIAA-CREF divest its funds. 

Demonizing Israel 

On April 27, 2014 Obenzinger co-authored an article with anti-Israel activists David Palumbo-Liu and Joel Benin, slamming another professor’s recent critique of BDS and defending the movement.

In the article, the authors rhetorically asked: “can/should Israel persist as a state which undemocratically accords privileges to 80 percent of its citizens and millions of Jews around the world who are not its citizens while discriminating against 20 percent of its citizens, oppressing over four million Palestinians…allowing the 650,000 Jewish settlers in the occupied territories to practice wanton vigilante violence against the Palestinian Arabs, and refusing to acknowledge the rights of the Palestinian refugees?”

The authors went on to write that “A unique feature of Israel is that it is the only settler colonial society that is currently overtly trying to expand, consistently engaging in colonizing activities and creating colonial “facts on the ground.”

In January 2013, Obenzinger signed the Jews for Palestinian Right of Return (JFPROR) Statement.

The statement charged that “For more than a century, Zionists have sought to construct a ‘Jewish state’ through forced removal of the indigenous Palestinian people” and goes on to say that “the Zionist regime officially denies the Nakba, the ethical equivalent of Holocaust denial.”

On March 7, 2013, Obenzinger gave an interview about “Israel, Zionism and the Radical Sixties.”

Obenzinger stated that “From my point of view, Zionism turned out to be a moral disaster for the Jews. American Jews have been suckered into supporting Israel in unthinking ways. This has been changing, but not enough American Jews are yelling and screaming to stop Israel’s expansion.”

When asked about Israel’s future, Obenzinger predicted that “Israel might move further in its current colonialist direction, creating reservations for the natives and a large open-air prison in Gaza.”

On March 15, 2007, Obenzinger was one of four professors and graduate students who “presented papers whose primary goals were the deconstruction, delegitimization, and elimination of Zionism and its realization in a Jewish state” at a conference held at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC).

Obenzinger’s presentation was titled:  “Jewish Opposition to the Occupation since 1967: A Personal and Public Journey,” throughout which he “portrayed Israel as an imperialist and colonial-settler state in partnership with the United States, and encouraged members of the audience to take responsibility for ‘ending this empire’.” 

Obenzinger wrote review praising the 2014 anti-Israel book, titled: “Zionism in the Age of Dictators” and its author, who “thoroughly documents collusion between the established Zionist organizations and fascists of all stripes.”

Glorifying Rachel Corrie 

On November 19, 2009, Obenzinger was featured on a panel of professors at a student production of the play titled: “My Name is Rachel Corrie.” The panel “contextualized the play and the vitriolic response to it by pro-Israel supporters.”