Two West Marin community centers faced the same decision earlier this month: whether to allow a controversial pro-Palestinian activist to deliver a talk on Gaza, where many believe Israel is perpetrating genocide.
The Dance Palace said yes. The San Geronimo Valley Community Center said maybe—but not right now. It wants time to deliberate.
Alison Weir, a nationally known activist who lives in Nicasio, fears she is being censored for her opposition to Zionism, as do some of the local activists organizing anti-war protests and fundraisers to benefit Palestinians.
Her attempts to speak locally, and the responses to her requests, have brought home the fevered national debate about free speech, which intensified after the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk and ABC’s suspension of comedian Jimmy Kimmel.
“I was astounded that they wouldn’t talk about Gaza when anybody who’s paying any attention knows this is an extremely tragic, massive problem,” Ms. Weir told the Light. “To just say ‘No, we’re not going to talk about it?’”
Ms. Weir is the founder of If Americans Knew, a nonprofit that focuses on the Israel-Palestine conflict. She is an outspoken critic of Zionism, the influence of AIPAC and other pro-Israel lobbying groups in American politics, and the mainstream media’s Middle East coverage, which she believes has a pro-Israel bias. She has spoken at Harvard and Stanford Universities, at the National Press Club and at international venues.
Ms. Weir was recruited to give talks at the San Geronimo and Dance Palace Community Centers by activists who organize weekly protests in Point Reyes Station, including Jim Emmott, whose wife, Kate Swenson, approached both centers on Ms. Weir’s behalf.
“Free speech has been censored,” Mr. Emmott said, standing with a dozen other protesters on Sunday at the corner of Highway 1 and Sir Francis Drake as supporters streamed by. “It was censored under the premise that the subject was too divisive and too complex for them to host. But we weren’t asking them to host. We just wanted to rent a room.”
Ms. Swenson said the community center’s secretary initially told her the venue was available on Sept. 6; the center then sent a rental contract to Ms. Weir, who signed it online and returned it. After a short holiday delay in processing it, Ms. Swenson dropped by the center to follow up, and the secretary informed her that the board had decided not to rent the room at that time. Though the group had yet to obtain a rental agreement, Ms. Swenson had already circulated fliers publicizing the event.
Alexa Davidson, the executive director of the center, said the board deferred a decision on whether to let Ms. Weir speak. It is possible, she said, that the center might hold a Gaza event in the future with Ms. Weir alone, with Ms. Weir and another speaker, or with entirely different participants.
“As soon as her request came in, I began hearing from community members with strong but differing concerns—some dismayed at the idea of hosting Alison based on her record as an activist, and others worried that declining her request would amount to silencing a perspective,” Ms. Davidson said in an email.
Given the sensitivity of the matter, she decided to consult the board rather than make a unilateral decision.
“At our September 9th meeting, the board held a thoughtful discussion about how to respond to potentially divisive rental requests in a way that keeps the center aligned with our mission: to be a place of belonging and inclusivity that builds community, not deepens divisions,” Ms. Davidson wrote.
The board appointed a task force to clarify its rental guidelines.
“No one on our board was opposed to hosting an event related to the situation in Gaza,” Ms. Davidson said. “The concerns came primarily from Ms. Weir’s specific record as an activist.”
In 2015, the largest progressive Jewish anti-Zionist organization in the world, Jewish Voice for Peace, sent an open letter to Ms. Weir, disassociating itself from her work. J.V.P. advocates for an immediate ceasefire and Palestinian freedom.
“You have been a repeat guest of white supremacist Clay Douglas on his hate radio show, the Free American,” the letter states. “Clay Douglas is concerned primarily with the survival of the White race and sees malign Jewish influence everywhere. His racist, anti-Jewish, and anti-gay rhetoric can be found across the front pages of his multiple websites.”
On his show, according to the J.V.P., Ms. Weir remained silent as Mr. Douglas read from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, one of history’s most infamous antisemitic screeds.
“Your troubling associations and choices further include giving interviews to a range of far-right outlets including The American Free Press, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has identified as a hate group, and the anti-gay, anti-Jewish pastor Mark Dankof,” the letter continued. “One of your articles appeared in an anthology that was promoted by the infamous Holocaust-denial organization, the Institute for Historical Review. We see no evidence that you have disavowed any of these outlets or institutions.”
Shortly afterwards, one of the nation’s largest and most influential pro-Palestinian groups, the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, also disassociated itself from Ms. Weir, concluding she had repeated anti-Jewish tropes, in violation of the group’s anti-racism principles.
Speaking with the Light, Ms. Weir pointed out that about 2,000 pro-Palestine advocates—including members of J.V.P.—signed a letter in her defense soon after the J.V.P. and the U.S.C.P.R. separated themselves from her. She said she does not endorse the views of Mr. Douglas or any other far-right interviewers but believes in taking her message wherever she can.
“Early on, I made the decision that I would not vet whose shows I would go on and whose I would not,” she said. “I wanted everybody to hear the facts that I give them without exception. Everybody. It’s our tax money, so every American should know.”
In her email informing Ms. Weir of the decision, Ms. Davidson did not mention the controversies that have marked Ms. Weir’s career as an activist, leaving her to conclude that the decision was solely based on her subject matter—Gaza.
“If they’re not going to let me do it, it certainly suggests that they’re not going to let anybody do it—that they’re just not going to talk about this subject,” she said.
Ms. Weir called the community center to discuss the matter and offered to preview her talk to the board and address any concerns. She said a staffer declined, and explained that the center does not host political events.
When Ms. Weir shared that exchange with members of a Marin-wide pro-Palestinian email group, the explanation struck some as disingenuous. A few pointed out that the center held months of events after the murder of George Floyd and hosted forums on conflicts in Central America.
“I was disappointed that they didn’t have the courage to be more honest and say either, ‘We learned something about Alison that makes us nervous,’ or ‘We have people in our community who don’t want Palestine to have a platform,’” said Suzanne D’Coney, a member of Coastal Marin for Palestine, which has raised money for Palestinian aid.
Meanwhile, the Dance Palace agreed to let Ms. Weir rent its space for a talk. Its policy states: “The Dance Palace is a neutral venue available for rental by community groups of varied perspectives. Rental of our space does not constitute or imply endorsement of any group, event or viewpoint.”
Ms. Weir’s Friday evening presentation covered the broad sweep of the Israel-Palestine conflict, from the roots of Zionism to the 1948 partition of Palestine to the forced removal of 750,000 Palestinians to the emergence of a repressive police state in the West Bank and Gaza.
She described how her advocacy began with a trip to Gaza in the early aughts, after she retired from a reporting job at a weekly paper in Sausalito. She was aghast at the treatment of the people she met and began reading extensively on the subject. Eventually, she wrote her own book, “Against Our Better Judgment: The Hidden History of How the U.S. Was Used to Create Israel.”
On Friday evening, she shared a slideshow that showed babies with their limbs blown off and neighborhoods reduced to rubble, while recounting facts and figures: at least 65,000 Palestinians killed, more than half a million injured, at least a million displaced. Blockades of food deliveries for starving women and children.
“Is it genocide?” Ms. Weir asked. “Yes, according to researchers from Israel, the Netherlands, the U.K., Australia, Croatia, Canada, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch. Expert after expert has determined that it does fit the definition of genocide. But even if it doesn’t, there’s no doubt that it’s mass slaughter.”
Her enthusiastic audience nearly filled the Dance Palace Church Space. Among those in attendance was David Mandel, who lived in Israel for 10 years and helped start the Sacramento chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace.
He didn’t concur with everything Ms. Weir said, but he agreed with her central message, and he stressed that her 10-year-old radio appearances should not disqualify her from speaking out about injustices in Palestine.
“We certainly don’t consider her the enemy,” Mr. Mandel said. “That was a long time ago, and I hope she’s learned from it. I hope we can all work together on the most important problem right now: stopping this horrific genocide that’s going on.”
With partisan tempers high, vandals sprayed graffiti this week on a “Free Palestine” mural in Point Reyes Station. The mural was painted—and quickly repainted—by members of Coastal Marin for Palestine, which will be hosting a screening of “No Other Land,” an Academy Award-winning documentary about the conflict made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective. The film shows at 7 p.m. Friday in the same Point Reyes Station venue where Ms. Weir spoke.
Norman Solomon, an Inverness Park resident and outspoken critic of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, said he hoped the San Geronimo Valley Community Center would open its doors to discussions by Zionists and anti-Zionists alike.
“There are a lot of Jews in West Marin, including myself, who know this issue very well and denounce the genocide,” he said. “The question should not be fogged up by the virtues of Alison Weir. The basic issue is whether the San Geronimo center is going to ban speakers who challenge the genocide.”
Ms. Davidson stressed that the board simply wants time to refine its guidelines to ensure that they are fair and consistent.
“At this moment, our board will be working through these questions with care and intentionality,” she wrote in her email to Ms. Weir. “This will allow us to more fully consider requests such as yours in the future. We are grateful to you for bringing this opportunity forward and for sparking an important conversation within our board.”