"Gatekeeping" is the act of preventing others from recognizing an important, often vital, truth. The practice of willful gatekeeping is a deceptive and dishonest form of communication; a lie of omission, commission, and/or inference; a kind of disinformation. It typically involves keeping people from seeing the big picture, by withholding or suppressing some vital piece of circumstance-altering information, under the guise of telling people everything they need to know (excellent example of gatekeeping).
Ideally, a gatekeeper will keep certain thoughts from ever entering people's heads. Failing that, gatekeepers (usually plural) will distract and divert their attention from such thoughts, and try to get them to forget or, better still, disregard or even reject such ideas. One way to think of a gatekeeper is as the opposite of a sidewalk barker.
Dr. Norman Finkelstein spoke on Friday September 26, 2008 to a predominantly Muslim audience at the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn, Michigan. I'd liked a few things I'd read by and about him. His style was engaging and he had generally good things to say - that is, until he started giving the audience practical tips. He said that while his PhD dissertation was about Zionism, we should not get into "ideological conversations about who is a Zionist." What mattered was focusing on stances on torture and house demolitions. He also advised that Palestinians be “reasonable” and consider compensation instead of their full rights.
I challenged him on this point during Q&A in that opposing occupation without condemning Zionism is like opposing slavery without condemning white supremacy, and that we American taxpayers and participants in the genocide of Palestinians (whether intentionally or not) should have more humility than tell Arabs whether or not to discuss the ideology behind their dispossession. Otherwise, we would look like gatekeepers on the discourse.
Finkelstein became angry insisted that we not engage in "Starbucks discussions" about Zionism! He referred to Chomsky as an example of someone who should not be considered an enemy in spite of their Zionism. Then he deferred to the Palestinian academic sitting next to him who said he agreed with Finkelstein; that Arab nationalism was no longer useful; and that he even supported a Kurdish state! It was unclear why he supported Kurdish nationalism, the existing mode of which divides a war-torn Iraq and serves imperialism, but not Arab nationalism.
With all due credit to his bravery as an academic who lost his career to stand up for (some of) Palestinians’ rights, Finkelstein is not the primary victim of Zionism. Palestinians are, and for them discussion of Zionism is not an armchair philosopher’s debate. To suggest to Arabs not to discuss Zionism is disturbing (while nobody tells Jews and Roma not to discuss Nazism, or African-Americans not to discuss white supremacy). This is what happens when Arab leaders who unequivocally oppose Zionism are either martyred, imprisoned, defeated or sold out.
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He does untold harm to the Palestinian people and the justice and peace movement by peddling his 'softer' but disguised Zionism to his adoring fans in the cloak of "the international consensus," etc. This makes him much more dangerous to the Palestinian solidarity movement than people like Netanyahu or Dershowitz because so many folks are unable or disinclined to see past the impressive surface to the heart of Finkelstein's pro-Zionist discourse. As Malcolm X once said, "I'd rather walk among rattlesnakes, whose constant rattle warns me where they are, than among those … snakes who grin and make you forget you're still in a snake pit."
read the whole thing @ palestine think tank
there's a lot more gatekeeping going on out there, especially at some of the slicker progressive liberal sites who claim to be fighting for the palestinians but just as long as nobody has to say anything rude and make sure you cross every T and dot every i blah blah blah. fucking useless. here's a tip: the truth isn't pretty. - ed.
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