Christopher Hitchens delivers the Daniel Pearl Memorial Lecture at UCLA
On March 3, 2010, author and journalist Christopher Hitchens delivered the 2010 Daniel Pearl Memorial Lecture at UCLA. The lecture was presented by the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations, the Daniel Pearl Foundation and the Yitzhak Rabin Hillel Center for Jewish Life at UCLA. A well-known commentator on contemporary thought, politics and culture, Hitchens has written more than a dozen books and corresponded from more than 60 countries. He has contributed regularly to the Atlantic, Slate, Vanity Fair, the New York Review of Books, the London Review of Books, Washington Post Book World, the Nation, the National Review and the New Left Review, among other media outlets. Honored frequently for his reporting and the literary quality of his prose, Hitchens received a National Magazine Award in 2007 and was a finalist for a 2007 National Book Award. He appears frequently on radio and television broadcasts. BACKGROUND: Daniel Pearl was a prominent Wall Street Journal reporter and the paper’s South Asia bureau chief when he was kidnapped and murdered by terrorists in Pakistan in early 2002. Pearl’s father, Judea Pearl, a computer science professor at UCLA, and his family established the Daniel Pearl Foundation to promote and continue Daniel’s mission of fostering cross-cultural understanding throughout the world. The lecture series, established at UCLA in 2002, features scholars, journalists and policymakers who have contributed original analyses or constructive …
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@AhmadAmor
Mosquitoes aside, I recommend you read ‘Blaming the Victims’, a book of essays which Hitchens compiled alongside the great Palestinian Edward Said.
It forms a denunciation of the Zionist movement.
Hitchens has been condemning the recent resurgence of Jew-hatred, but he does not support Israeli policy. Fair enough.
As for the question of religion, he views Judaism, Christianity and Islam as being equally bad. You may not agree with him, but you cannot say he is unbalanced in his views.
@AhmadAmor
I think people should stop complaining about the term ‘anti-Semitism’
The phrase was popularised by a bigoted German named Wilhelm Marr in the 1870s to make his Jew-hatred seem more political and palatable than all other forms of racism
The term ‘anti-Semitism’ may not be ideal, but we all know what it means; it’s a useful enough term for the time being
As for poor old Mel Gibson, I did not say he was wrong to make the film, and I actually criticised Hitchens for complaining about it
Well that says it all Mr. Hitchens . Why don’t you speak at a a memorial for Palestinian women and children ( 1300 ) who lost their lives at the hands of the Zionists in Gaza ? Or indeed the Turkish people shot through the head on board the aid ship bound for Gaza ? Oh no , only if they are Jewish eh ? I now understand why you hate the Catholic Church as well. You and Stephen Fry are the ‘empty vessels’ oft spoken about. And as irritating as a couple of mosquitoes.
@terratrema no no no …..Jews in Europe and USA are Ashkenazim , descendants of the Khazars in S. Russia who converted to Talmudic Judaism around 750AD. They are NOT Semitic . Mel Gibson was absolutely right to make the film ‘ The Passion of Christ’ . It was a very accurate portrayal. The Holocaust ( a term coined in the 1960’s) was indeed terrible but it has been used as a rod to beat everyone with ever since.
@terratrema no no no …..Jews in Europe are Ashkenazim , descendants of the Khazars in S. Russia who converted to Talmudic Judaism around 750AD. They are NOT Semitic . Mel Gibson was absolutely right to make the film ‘ The Passion of Christ’ . It was a very accurate portrayal. The Holocaust ( a term coined in the 1960’s) was indeed terrible but it has been used as a rod to beat everyone with ever since.
@terratrema Actually, he specifically said “questioning the Holocaust”, and went on to say that any actual denial must be motivated by anti-Semitism. What he meant was that, like any complex and chaotic historical event, the precise story of what exactly happened hasn’t been resolved in every detail. Since investigation into the tragedy is still ongoing, some historians may question accounts of certain parts of the story with genuine intellectual integrity without necessarily being anti-Semitic.
I like Hitchens very much, but:
He spends a great deal of time at the beginning of this video going on about Mel Gibson, a useless Hollywood idiot, then later goes on to say that Holocaust denial is not inherently anti-Semitic.
This doesn’t make no sense to me.
Every Holocaust denier on the planet, if you listen to their comments about Jews in general, is excruciatingly anti-Semitic.
Free speech is important. But just cos someone exercises it doesn’t mean they’re automatically decent.
Hitchens implication is right. On some level, the reason that anti-Semitism is still around is because many of the great thinkers of our age were Jewish, and their great intellectual capacity caused them to undermine the credibility of political and religious dogma which gave many people a sense of security. All you have to do is think of the way Marx’s and Einstein’s ideas impacted people’s religious and political perspective. Those who promote great change are always the most reviled.
I love that line in minute 9:00 - 9:20. “If whiskey made you anti Jewish then the Pearl family wouldn’t have invited me to be here”. Hilarious.
19:00 wrong, racists do discriminate - in their behaviour towards different human beings by chopping them up into “races”.
What if a ‘white’ and a ‘black’ produce a child that looks ‘arab’. Is that child of an ‘arab’ race? What if the child looks ‘asian’? Is he then classed as ‘asian’?
The non-racist doesn’t have that problem. We make an assessment of their physical ‘look’, but make no assumptions on their BACKGROUND and CULTURE because of it.
We don’t ACT on “race” as a concept.
“the liberation (occupation) of Iraq”
When the sound man turned down the sound, he spoiled the whole thing. I can’t hear a damn word he says after that. Thumbs down. Shame, I would have liked to have heard this.
@xXxXTravisBickleXxXx And yet you seem to spend all your time debating and insulting believers… the psychiatrists say that you often hate the thing you most resemble. So how would you describe `believers`? What kind of idiot would be offended if a stranger tried to pull them out of the way of what they perceived to be an oncoming vehicle? If there’s nothing there neither you or I have lost anything… if there is, your children can thank me. Other than that, I don’t really care what you think
@MrBasilGanglia I don’t look up to fictional characters like you ,i like scorsese as a movie director but thats another discussion that i am not going to have with you :)
@xXxXTravisBickleXxXx I suppose you think Jesus was a fictional character? Fair enough, if you want to think that. Travis Bickle was a fictional character as well and was a paranoid freak who murdered people. I would rather have Christ as my “Fictional” hero to look up to than Bickle…even if he is fictional…so piss off you paranoid freak.
@MrBasilGanglia thats quite a statement… what do you base that on?
But if that was true it doesn’t change the fact that priests get protection from vatican city and can continue their disgusting perversion at other churches.
.
Also good to know that the current pope has been responsible for 25 years as cardinal ratsinger to cover up the child abuse scandals in the roman chatholic church
@silvi01977 i am 2 years older then you.
.
is it so hard to believe that there are people like me that you can’t turn into a believer
@xXxXTravisBickleXxXx What a wonderful envoy you are for anti-theism. Spewing bile like an atheist who’s just BEGGING for life to catch up with him. Are you 16 or 17 years old?!
@xXxXTravisBickleXxXx The percentage of Priests who molest is less than the general population who molest.
@bammbamm12
Hitler was never a Christian, neither were half of our presidents. Sometimes Leaders just have to lie, actually…all the time
@xXxXTravisBickleXxXxWell said!
Brilliant, irrefutable - what an incredible mind. Above all, deeply moral.
Get well soon, Hitch.
@revpgesq mr Hitchens doesn’t need your santa to get cured he needs doctors not your fairy tales.i am not going to have a discussion with you i just want to say that i find it disgusting that you would bring up his illness and associate it with with your non existent friend jesus.And you type a prayer and a smiley like you won the argument and that mr hitchens is now going to be a believer ,it says allot about your personallity.I suggest you busy yourself with the child raper epidemic in church!
Much respect to Daniel Pearl. Also, I hope Hitchens recovers from cancer as quickly as possible.
Hitchens answers the question “Can Antisemitism be Flattering?” in the affirmitive; Nietzsche did too.