It's one of those inevitable and awkward moments that so well exposes the hypocrisy of Western progressive academic institutions aligning themselves closely with autocratic gulf sheikhdoms.
While speaking to graduates at NYU Abu Dhabi on Sunday, former US Secretary of State John Kerry opined that "true civil discourse" is under threat around the world, yet in an irony that appeared lost on him the whole event was censored by NYU, possibly under orders from United Arab Emirates authorities.
John Kerry speaking at NYU Abu Dhabi's graduation ceremony on Sunday. Image source: Associated Press.
The Associated Press reports that at the last minute "the school blocked journalists from filming" even though NYU Abu Dhabi had invited multiple journalists, including the AP, to film and report on Kerry's full speech. Despite New York University president Andrew Hamilton also decrying “disturbing trends of anti-intellectualism and anti-factualism” at the event, the press was blocked from filming and was warned that NYU Abu Dhabi would have full editorial control over all content.
According to the AP:
NYU Abu Dhabi invited reporters to cover Kerry’s speech, then just before the ceremony said journalists from The Associated Press and others could not film his full remarks. They said the school would offer video that it would editorially control after the event.
The AP's commentary further ascribes the censorship to UAE's sensitivity over Kerry's possibly criticizing President Trump's decision to pull the US out of the Iran nuclear deal — considered the foremost policy achievement of Obama's legacy. Though Kerry and other Obama-era cabinet members have elsewhere aggressively denounced Trump's move, it appears Kerry was careful to censor his own remarks at the graduation ceremony.
Kerry shared the stage with Emirati Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash — who had long represented the UAE in campaigning against the Iran nuclear deal — thus it appears Kerry meekly acquiesced to NYU Abu Dhabi's unwillingness to rock to boat. The AP itself bluntly acknowledged it as likely a "courtesy to his hosts in the capital of the United Arab Emirates."
The AP journalist who was granted access noted that "while obliquely criticizing President Donald Trump, Kerry did not mention the 2015 Iran nuclear deal he secured with other world powers" and the former Secretary of State never actually named Trump, but noted "our politics has become almost all accusatory and all bombastic."
And in an apparent reference to both Trump's 'America first' platform on which he campaigned and perhaps indirectly to Trump's pullout of the Iran deal, Kerry said, “We won’t win, any of us, ultimately, by retreating within our borders, by focusing on our own nations only, or by going it alone.”
The UAE is a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) state firmly in Saudi Arabia's corner when it comes to viewing Iranian influence as the...