ANOTHER YEAR OF GLOBAL ACADEMIC ANTI-SEMITISM
By Manfred Gerstenfeld
FrontPage magazine.com
September 19, 2008
CA
The academic year 2007-2008 saw ongoing anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic
incidents in various countries. Among them is Israel Apartheid Week,
which has become an annual ritual in a number of cities on several
continents. So have the calls of the University and College Union
(UCU) in the United Kingdom for discriminatory measures against Israeli
universities and academics. In several universities, such as on some
campuses of the University of California, anti-Israelism is endemic.
Much of the visible anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism occurs in the
academic world of Britain, Canada, and the United States. There are
problems in many other countries as well. The situation is obfuscated
by limited media attention.
Effective counteractions are also increasing. There is now more
exposure of Islamist racism and anti-Semitism on American campuses. In
Canada protests against anti-Israeli actions are on the rise. There are
also European and British initiatives to enhance academic collaboration
with Israeli universities. External monitoring bodies are more and
more exposing the hate culture and biased actions of some university
lecturers.
The onslaught against Israel and Jews is not an isolated
phenomenon. What happens to Jews has usually been a pointer to their
societal environment and a sensor of events to come. This is also
the case regarding academic anti-Israelism. Academic freedom has been
abused so much that in its present form it has outlived part of its
academic and societal usefulness for fostering knowledge.
The academic year 2007-2008 saw ongoing anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic
incidents in various countries. Among them is Israel Apartheid Week,
which has become an annual ritual in a number of cities on several
continents. So have the calls of the University and College Union
(UCU) in the United Kingdom for discriminatory measures against
Israeli universities and academics.
In several universities, such as on some campuses of the University
of California, anti-Israelism is endemic. In many others it has seen
highs and lows over the years. The situation is obfuscated by the
fact that, with a few exceptions, the incidents this academic year
were not given much media publicity.
On the other hand, effective counteractions are also increasing. There
is now more exposure of Islamist racism and anti-Semitism on American
campuses. In Canada protests against anti-Israeli actions are on
the rise. There are also European and British initiatives to enhance
academic collaboration with Israeli universities. External monitoring
bodies are more and more exposing the hate culture and biased actions
of some university lecturers.
It is mistaken to assume that hate campaigns can be largely
counteracted or balanced by positive programs on Israel. Because
of their extremism, the hate campaigners’ damage to Israeli and
Jewish causes runs deeper than the superficial impression left by the
positive activists. This also reflects the intense motivation of Muslim
and far-Left racists and anti-Semites. Their activities are often
supported de facto by the passivity of university authorities. Although
they may explicitly oppose anti-black or anti-Muslim racism, these
authorities are often far more reluctant to take similar actions
against anti-Semitism and its new mutation anti-Israelism. It is
usually easy to prove that these double standards operate.
A complete overview of the many anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic actions
on campuses worldwide is not possible. The following should thus be
seen as a selection of important trends and events. It focuses mainly
on Britain, Canada, and the United States where many of the problems
are concentrated.[2] Yet academic anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism are
rife in many other countries as well. As these problems are hardly
monitored and little is written about them, the illusion is often
created that they do not exist.
Israel Apartheid Week Israel Apartheid Week or similar anti-Israeli
activities took place in February 2008 in twenty-five locations in
the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, South Africa, and the
Palestinian Authority. Since 2005 such activities have been increasing,
and February 2008 marked Israel Apartheid Week’s fourth anniversary.
The programs include calls for boycotts, divestments, and sanctions
against Israel. One goal is to raise "awareness and disseminate
information about Zionism, the Palestinian liberation struggle and its
similarities with the indigenous sovereignty struggle in North America
and the South African anti-Apartheid movement."[3] These activities
should be seen in the wider framework of the anti-Israeli campaign.
The website called "Israeli Apartheid Week" gives no information on
who is behind this project other than mentioning that: "Prominent
Palestinians, Jewish anti-Zionists, and South Africans have been at
the forefront of this struggle."[4]
Originating at the University of Toronto The origins of Israel
Apartheid Week can be traced to the University of Toronto in 2004,
where groups supporting the Palestinian cause tried to delegitimize
Israel. The first annual event there was organized by the Arab Students
Collective (ASC) and took place in early 2005. Over the years other
organizations at this university joined, such as the Coalition against
Israel Apartheid and Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights.[5]
In Canada groups at the Universities of Toronto, Montreal, Ryerson,
Ottawa, and McMaster all took part in Israel Apartheid Week 2008. This
year it received media attention partly because of the reactions
to it. The organizers at the Canadian universities reached out to
include other campus organizations such as the United Black Students
and Indigenous Environmental Network, whose representatives spoke on
the first day of the week and introduced the topic of apartheid.
Events at the University of Toronto this year included speeches by
notorious anti-Israeli figures such as Ward Churchill, a professor
who in 2007 was fired from the University of Colorado for research
misconduct, as well as displays and a march starting at the Israeli
consulate and called "Breaking the Silence." Churchill claimed
among other things that the mass murder of the Jews was not "a fixed
policy objective of the Nazis." This was yet another example of how
anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism go together.
Churchill had also spoken at the event in 2006.[6] Past events in
Canada have included figures such as former Knesset member Azmi
Bishara. More recently Bishara has fled Israel and may be arrested
on suspicion of treason if he ever returns.
This year for the first time, the week at the University of Toronto
ended with a one-day conference for high school students.[7] There
were also outdoor events such as demonstrations at mock Israeli
checkpoints. Not only student organizations but also university
academic departments sponsor the week.
McGill University and Carleton University organized activities on a
smaller scale. Participants there also picketed Indigo Books and Music,
a retail chain with locations throughout Canada. Its main shareholders
are financial supporters of the Heseg Foundation for Lone [Israeli]
Soldiers.[8]
Reactions from the Jewish Community After years in which the Jewish
community reacted only in minor ways, a change occurred in 2008. The
University of Toronto’s Israel Apartheid Week received much more
attention this year from Jewish groups on campus, B’nai Brith, and
the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies. The
pro-Israeli community at the University of Ottawa also staged a
counterevent, including a lecture by the Israeli ambassador to Canada
on "Israel, the Only Democracy in the Middle East."[9]
McMaster University, for its part, banned the words "Israel Apartheid"
because they demonstrate intolerance. Controversy then erupted on
campus as to whether the administration meant all use of "Israel
Apartheid" or just the use of the term on printed displays. Students
at Ryerson University and the University of Toronto also staged
a protest.[10]
The Jewish community, including leaders of the abovementioned
organizations, made the University of Toronto administration aware of
their views. In April, 125 Jewish and non-Jewish professors took out
a full-page ad in the National Post calling on the administration
to prevent the university from hosting future Israel Apartheid
Weeks. They noted that, while the university prohibits Islamophobia
and discrimination toward other minorities and specific individuals,
it permits freedom of speech for Israel Apartheid Week.[11]
The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies also sent
a letter to David Naylor, president of the University of Toronto,
expressing their disappointment at the school’s response to Israel
Apartheid Week by dismissing the issue simply as one of freedom
of speech.[12]
Boycott Motions at the University and College Union On 28 May
2008, Britain’s UCU adopted three anti-Israeli motions at its
annual conference. They were passed by approximately a two-thirds
majority. The UCU has 120,000 members, who include most of the British
university teachers and related academic staff.
Although the UCU motions against Israel are usually referred to as
proposed boycotts, their current content now stops somewhat short of
directly calling for such actions. In 2007 the UCU received a legal
opinion that boycotting Israel would be illegal. Its details have
not been made public. One of the 2008 conference motions says that
British academics should consider the moral implications of working
with Israeli universities and discuss "the occupation" with Israeli
colleagues with whom they work.
Before this year’s UCU conference, British Jewry’s Stop the Boycott
Campaign published a legal opinion it had obtained. This stated among
other things that if the UCU were to adopt and implement one of the
proposed motions it might breach the British Race Relations Act.
At the UCU’s invitation a delegation from PFUUPE (the Palestinian
Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees) visited
UK universities and colleges during the past academic year. As Jonathan
Halevi notes, "The discussions between UCU and PFUUPE were concentrated
on promoting fields of cooperation and supporting the Palestinian
academia, ignoring the fact that in all these universities there is
a strong presence from the Palestinian terrorist organizations."[13]
Condemnation As in previous years, the UCU resolutions prompted some
condemnations. British minister of higher education Bill Rammell
stated that he found boycotting academics deeply disturbing.[14]
Paul Goldschmidt, former director of the European Union, wrote to
José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, that he
should condemn the UCU decision.
Labor parliamentarian John Mann, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary
Group against anti-Semitism, stressed the motion’s discriminatory
character against British Jews: "Boycotts do nothing to bring about
peace and reconciliation in the Middle East but leave Jewish students,
academics and their associates isolated and victimized on UK university
campuses."[15]
Israel’s ambassador to the UK Ron Prosor published an article
in the Daily Telegraph in which he wrote: "Israel faces an
intensified campaign of delegitimisation, demonisation and double
standards. Britain has become a hotbed for radical anti-Israeli
views and a haven for disingenuous calls for a ‘One state solution,’
a euphemistic name for a movement advocating Israel’s destruction."[16]
Minister Rammell responded:
I do not agree that there is widespread radical anti-Israeli
sentiment on our higher education campuses. I do not believe calls for
academic boycotts of Israel have anything more than small minority
support amongst academics. Universities have a vital role to play
in challenging those views that we may regard as uncomfortable or
distasteful and, where such views do exist, it is the responsibility
of staff and students to isolate the very small minority who promote
extremism.[17]
Attorney Anthony Julius, representing various members of the UCU, wrote
a letter to its general secretary Sally Hunt. He pointed out why one
of the motions, number 25, was anti-Semitic, and argued that the UCU’s
behavior was "continuous with episodes in anti-Semitism’s history."
Julius also mentioned the possibility of "a likely claim against the
UCU for harassment under s. 3A(1) of the Race Relations Act, that
is, the creating of an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating
and/or offensive environment for Jewish members of the union and/or
violating their dignity." He then listed various points on which such
a court case could be based.[18]
Those who propose and support the anti-Israeli motions are well
aware that these are unlikely to influence those British academics
who collaborate with Israeli universities. Their true aims are
different. Many are Trotskyites who seek to attract public attention
to various issues concerning the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Another
aim is to demonize Israel, while presenting themselves as moral people.
The Absentees Two parties are surprisingly almost absent from the
boycott-motions debate. One is the great majority of UCU members who
want their union to focus on salaries and social conditions instead of
political issues. Yet this majority is so silent that it has allowed
the Trotskyite faction, the UCU Left, to take control.
The other major absentee is the Israeli universities. One would have
expected those who are attacked to be the first to respond. They have,
however, left the battlefield to British Jewry and its activists. Among
the latter are Ronnie Fraser, founder and director of Academic Friends
of Israel, and Engage, an organization that includes both Jewish and
non-Jewish academics and has worked against the boycott since 2005.
Until the end of 2007 the International Advisory Board for Academic
Freedom and its executive director Ofir Frenkel were at the forefront
of the battle against Israel’s academic enemies worldwide. This
body, founded by Bar-Ilan University, had evolved into an umbrella
organization of all Israeli universities. However, a lack of funds
forced it to discontinue its activities.
The Israeli government was willing to make partial funding
available, but this was conditional on the universities providing the
remainder. Israel’s university presidents however did not discuss
the matter in their meetings.[19] The academic world would like to
believe it is at its best when outsiders leave it alone. The Israeli
universities’ failure to deal with attacks against them is yet further
proof that this is a fallacy.
Other Events The Oxford Union is a very old student debating
society. In late 2007 its leadership proposed discussing the topic
"This house believes that one state is the only solution to the
Israel-Palestine conflict." The debate had to be canceled because
as representative of the pro-Israeli side the union chose Norman
Finkelstein, an academic who had been fired from DePaul University
"for his lack of scholarship and his ad hominems against pro-Israel
writers."[20]
The Oxford Union held another event in November 2007 in which
Holocaust-denier David Irving and Nick Griffin, leader of the far-Right
British National Party, debated the subject of free speech. Irving
had been jailed by an Austrian court in 2006 for his pro-Nazi
statements. The debate was accompanied by heavy protests.[21]
New Israeli Academic-Collaboration Agreements When British prime
minister Gordon Brown visited Israel in July 2008 he, together with
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, launched a new academic- exchange program
between the UK and Israel called BIRAX (Britain-Israel Research and
Academic Exchange Partnership). The program is to run initially for
five years and will be administered by the British Council.
Julia Smith, deputy director of the British Council said the program
was not related to the boycott. Prof. David Newman of Ben-Gurion
University, who has been active in fighting the boycott during a
sabbatical in the UK, disagreed and said the program "has a great
deal to do with the boycott. Because of the ongoing discussion of
boycotts, the British government decided that the most appropriate
response was to strengthen ties."[22]
In the same month European Commissioner for Education, Culture and
Sport Jan Figel signed a joint declaration with Israeli education
minister Yuli Tamir on the occasion of the inauguration of the first
Tempus office in Israel. The Tempus program promotes the exchange
of students and academic staff between the EU and neighboring
countries.[23]
On the other hand, two leading British universities have received gifts
from Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Abdul Aziz Alsaud. Centers for Islamic
studies will be set up at Cambridge and Edinburgh universities with a
$31 million endowment. The prince had earlier made gifts to Harvard and
Georgetown universities.[24] Then-New York mayor Rudy Giuliani refused
a $10 million gift from him after the 9/11 attack because the prince
had suggested that American policies had contributed to the crime.
The financing of chairs in Western universities by Saudi Arabia and
other Arab dictatorships is an issue that will require increasing
scrutiny. Jay P. Greene, head of the Department of Education Reform at
the University of Arkansas, says Gulf Arabs have donated a total of $88
million to fourteen U.S. universities from 1995 to the present. His
own university was the largest recipient.[25] Prof. Anthony Glees,
director of Brunel University’s Centre for Intelligence and Security
Studies, says that eight British universities-among them Oxford and
Cambridge-have accepted more than £233.5 million from Saudi and
Muslim donors from 1995 to 2008.[26]
United States: The Ad Hoc Committee to Defend the University Another
initiative that de facto serves the anti-Israeli racists on campuses
is a statement of the Ad Hoc Committee to Defend the University. This
was partly an attack on the pro-Israeli forces and those fighting
anti-Semitism in American academia. In November 2007 professors
from the University of California-Santa Cruz, Princeton, Harvard,
and Columbia jointly launched a petition on academic freedom.
By August 2008 this declaration had about 650 signatures including
those of academics representing almost every Ivy League school. The
Ad Hoc Committee released the statement on its website for viewing
or adding one’s signature.[27]
The statement itself begins by stressing the essential role of academic
freedom. Without citing any specific examples, the text discusses how
it has recently become necessary to protect this freedom because of
limitations on the type of material taught in classrooms and effects
on the tenure of professors.
The language of the petition directs the blame for these limitations
at pressure or lobby groups. It singles out pro-Israeli activities. It
also states that "a greater percentage of social scientists today
feels that their academic freedom has been threatened than was the
case during the McCarthy era."[28]
According to supporters of the declaration, the Israel lobby has taken
control of the universities through donations, linking anti-Semitism
to being anti-Israeli, and other types of influence. Thus the petition
calls for lecturers to have the freedom to teach what they consider
appropriate in the classroom without fear. The signatories also
state that the right to scrutinize their work belongs primarily to
their peers.
Organizations such as Campus Watch have criticized the professors who
support the petition by saying they "are sealing themselves from the
society that supports them…and are ivory tower intellectuals who
regularly render harsh judgments against the practitioners of other
professions-but claim immunity from criticism when it is directed
towards themselves."[29]
Campus Watch director Daniel Pipes unmasked the hypocrisy of the Ad
Hoc Committee by pointing out that the anti-Israeli academic Noam
Chomsky has no problem speaking at American universities and added:
"When I go on universities I can barely give a talk."[30]
Investigations at the University of California-Irvine Anti-Semitism
and anti-Israelism are rife in a number of U.S. universities. A prime
example is the University of California-Irvine. Incidents there in
recent years have been described in an essay by Leila Beckwith.[31]
In 2006 the Hillel Foundation of Orange County set up a task force to
investigate anti-Semitism on the UC-Irvine campus. They interviewed
people about incidents that had occurred there. Officials from the
school, however, including the chancellor, refused to be interviewed
claiming it was against school policy. The interviews began in February
2007, but by August of that year Hillel decided the task was too
extensive and discontinued its association with the project.[32]
The investigation was later continued by members of the Jewish
community of Orange County. They published their report in February
2008. This document is of major importance as it examines the
structural problems of anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli hate at one
American university in their totality rather than dealing only with a
number of incidents. It can serve as a model for similar investigations
at other universities, Columbia and UC-Santa Cruz being among the
prime candidates.
The new group’s report states that "acts of anti-Semitism are real
and well documented. Jewish students have been harassed. Hate speech
is unrelenting." Furthermore, "Some faculty members have used their
classroom as a forum for their anti-Israel agenda."[33]
The authors also assert that: "The Muslim Student Union…allies
itself and identifies itself with terrorist groups that are enemies
of the Unites States." About the administration they note:
The Chancellor has failed to exercise his moral authority as an
educator and leader by abrogating his leadership responsibilities. The
boundaries of rational and reasonable discourse by constituencies
that have differing positions on emotional issues have not been
established. There is no indication that the University is at all
concerned about the disconnect between campus values and the values
of the greater society.[34]
The report also mentions that the Jewish community as a whole has not
been proactive. It even includes a suggestion that Jewish students
should not attend school at UC-Irvine.
At the request of the Zionist Organization of America, the United
States Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR)
also launched an investigation into anti-Semitic incidents at
UC-Irvine. After some initial inquiries, the office claimed it had
not been informed in time and, based on this technicality, ceased
the investigation. The task force of the Jewish community, however,
concluded that there was evidence that all twenty-six incidents the
OCR was supposed to investigate had indeed taken place, and that
there had been additional ones as well.
An Abundance of Anti-Israeli Events The 2007-2008 academic year was
marked by numerous anti-Israeli events at UC-Irvine. In February
2008 an Israel Apartheid Week was held. This included a lecture by
Imam Mohammad Al-Asi titled "From Auschwitz to Gaza: The Politics
of Genocide."[35] He said Israel was an apartheid state and that
"Israel is on the way down…your days are numbered. We will fight
you until we are martyred or until we are victorious."[36]
Al-Asi returned to UC-Irvine in May 2008 to take part in a weeklong
event to commemorate the Nakba, that is, the Arabs’ catastrophic defeat
in the 1948 war against Israel. Other speakers were Norman Finkelstein
and the imam Amir Abdel Malik Ali, who praised Palestinian mothers
who sent out their children as suicide bombers.[37]
When Daniel Pipes spoke in January 2008 at UC-Irvine on the threat
to Israel’s existence, he was interrupted by pro-Palestinian students
who were then removed from the audience. They continued their protest
outside, saying things such as "it’s just a matter of time before
the state of Israel will be wiped off the face of the earth…just
keep on doing what we are doing, our weapon, our jihad, our way of
struggling. May Allah give them strength."[38] Pipes, later interviewed
by Hannity and Colmes on Fox News, said the school did not care about
this type of disturbance.
Twenty students and alumni at UC-Irvine who were dissatisfied with
the handling and representation of the events on campus wrote a
letter to UC chancellor Michael V. Drake. It began: "We are deeply
concerned about the anti-Semitism at UCI that has been frequently
couched as false and hateful attacks on Israel. We do not believe that
Chancellor Drake has exercised his responsibility as an educator and
university leader in response to the anti-Semitism."[39] Drake, while
condemning hate speech, never specifically condemned anti-Semitism
and anti-Israelism even though they were rife on campus.
Hillel Invites Drake Several of these students also wrote a letter
to Hillel International president Wayne Firestone, saying they were
upset that Chancellor Drake had been invited as a guest speaker at
the National Summit of Hillel to lead a session on "Fostering a More
Civil Society." Firestone answered that it is better to work with
such people than to dismiss them.
Regarding the invitation to Drake, Morton Klein, president of the
Zionist Organization of America said: "By giving him a podium to
give a speech, that only sends a message to him and to others that
we are reasonably comfortable with the actions he’s taken to fight
anti-Semitism and Israel bashing on campus when in fact he has said
virtually nothing to give comfort to Jewish students on campus."[40]
Isi Leibler, former senior vice-president of the World Jewish Congress
criticized Firestone’s statement that there was no relationship between
anti-Israeli activity and anti-Semitism: "It is surely disconcerting
for a Hillel president to express views by now repudiated even by
such bodies as the European Union and the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe, not to mention the US government."[41]
Columbia University Columbia University has had a number of
anti-Israeli incidents in recent years. Once again the fact that it
only concerns a limited number of the staff is no consolation.
At a conference organized in New York by the David S. Wyman
Institute for Holocaust Studies, Prof. Stephen H. Norwood recounted
how then-Columbia president Murray Butler had tried to establish
friendly relations with German universities in the mid-1930s. He said,
"Butler was morally indifferent to Nazi crimes during the critically
important early years of Nazi rule." Some professors who opposed his
behavior were fired.
Norwood, who received his PhD in history at Columbia and teaches at
the University of Oklahoma, told the Jerusalem Post: "Sixty years
after the Holocaust, Columbia has never acknowledged that they did
anything wrong, even when we now know what the failure of confronting
Nazism led to. They don’t care enough to look back and say injustices
were done."[42]
In recent years Columbia’s Middle East and Asian Language and
Cultures Department has been accused of intimidating pro-Israeli
students. Dozens of cases were exposed in the David Project’s 2004
documentary Columbia Unbecoming.[43] The university then had no
choice but to carry out an investigation by an academic committee
that obfuscated more than it clarified.[44]
Columbia stood out negatively once again in September 2007 when it
invited Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak at its World
Leaders Forum. The idea of inviting him had already been raised the
previous year. At the 2007 lecture, Columbia president Lee C. Bollinger
challenged Ahmadinejad and others did so as well. Yet the event gave
legitimacy to Ahmadinejad.
In January 2008 the Iranian news agency Mehr claimed that a number
of Columbia professors intended to travel to Iran to apologize to
Ahmadinejad for Bollinger’s behavior. This was denied by various
Columbia sources and nothing more was heard about it.[45]
In April 2008 Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs
held a faculty panel discussion on "60 Years of Nakba: The Catastrophe
of Palestine 1948-2008." A key speaker was Joseph Massad who had been
the prime academic investigated for intimidation of pro-Israeli
students after the showing of Columbia Unbecoming. Massad had
been found at fault in the cases where this conclusion was almost
unavoidable but no disciplinary measures against him were proposed.
A writer in FrontPage Magazine summed up this year’s panel: "Using the
‘renaming’ strategy to make the destruction of Israel more palatable
to the West was the faculty panel’s primary theme. Portraying the
only democratic state in the Middle East as a brutal, non-democratic
‘Jewish supremacist and racist state,’ as Massad once put it, was
the secondary theme."[46]
James R. Russell, a professor of Armenian studies at Harvard wrote:
Is this Columbia University? A professor of anthropology calls for a
million Mogadishus, a professor of Arabic and Islamic Science tells a
girl she isn’t a Semite because her eyes are green, and a professor
of Persian hails the destruction of the World Trade Center as the
castrating of a double phallus. The most recent tenured addition
to this rogues’ gallery is to be an anthropologist, the principal
thrust of whose magnum opus is the suggestion that archaeology in
Israel is a sort of con game meant to persuade the unwary that Jews
lived there in antiquity.[47]
The latter accusation referred to Nadia Abu El-Haj’s book Facts on
the Ground. Russell said it "fits firmly into the postmodern academic
genre, in which facts and evidence are subordinate to, and mediated
by, a ‘discourse.’" He concluded that the battle against ideology at
Columbia was probably lost.[48]
To balance the one-sided pro-Arab teaching at Columbia, a new
Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies was established. However,
the professor appointed as its director, Yinon Cohen, had signed
a statement in May 2002 supporting Israelis who refused to serve
in military operations in Gaza and the West Bank during the Second
Intifada. Such a person was obviously not the right one to provide
an Israeli perspective.[49] This model of hiring people to represent
Israel whose views belong to the margins of Israeli society manifests
itself at a number of universities. Some of these academics are even
outspoken Jewish anti-Semites.[50]
Other Campuses Although UC-Irvine and Columbia are among the main
universities where the problem of anti-Israelism is structural,
many incidents have taken place on other campuses. Some involved
anti-Semitic graffiti, vandalism, or personal insults, such as at the
University of North Dakota,[51] Rutgers,[52] and UC-Santa Cruz,[53]
another university where structural anti-Israeli bias occurs.
There are also hostile acts by individual academics against which
Israel’s supporters should react. One example is David Mumford. This
Harvard mathematician, who received the Wolf Prize in Israel,[54]
decided to give part of the prize money to students of Birzeit
University near Ramallah so that they could travel abroad.
It is worth recalling, though, that in the 2003 elections for the
Birzeit student government council, the campaign featured models of
exploding Israeli buses. In the debate, the Hamas candidate asked
the Fatah candidate: "Hamas activists in this university killed 135
Zionists. How many did Fatah activists from Birzeit kill?" The people
murdered are mostly Israeli civilians.[55]
Mumford accepted money from an Israeli body and used it to fund
students of a Palestinian university where major incitement to murder
Israelis takes place. If he will become known more for his vicious
mind than for his academic achievements it will serve as a lesson to
others. It is sadly clear that in such battles Israeli universities
that do not tend to their own direct interests will not be much of
a partner.
Exposing the Abuses The many ideological abuses on American campuses
have led to a number of counteractions. "In October 2007 more than
a hundred campuses hosted Islamo-Fascism Awareness weeks to make
university communities aware of the Islamist threat and the danger it
poses. In April 2008 a second Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week focused on
the network created in America by the Muslim Brotherhood." Yet another
campaign is planned for October 2008 on "Stop the Jihad on Campus."[56]
The highly politicized nature of the Middle East Studies Organization
(MESA) has led a number of scholars to create an alternative
organization, the Association for the Study of the Middle East and
Africa (ASMEA). Its chairman is the well-known scholar Bernard Lewis
and another leading academic, Fouad Ajami, is vice-president of its
academic council. Its members already include five hundred scholars
in forty countries. Its first meeting was held in April 2008.[57]
Italy In Italy over several months in 2007 and the beginning of 2008
a list appeared on the internet of 162 Italian university teachers
of Jewish origin. When the Rome Jewish community complained to the
Interior Ministry, the internet service provider took the site off
the web.
Professor Roberto della Rocca, a historian at the University of Rome
III had already asked the provider in September 2007 to remove this
site because he said it was a threat to him personally. Giuliano
Amato, the interior minister, said that what he had seen on the blog
violated both Italian culture and law. The ministry then launched
an investigation.[58]
The Less Visible There are also, however, many factors less
visible than incidents that slowly pervert the teaching atmosphere
on campus. These include, for instance, the selective choice of
books for libraries, or the one-sided assigning of books in lecture
classes. These are almost underground phenomena that are not monitored
in any way.
A problem apart is self-hating Israeli academics, some of whom
are outright advocates of Israel’s genocidal enemies. Others, less
extreme, defame Israel in various ways while remaining silent about
the context in which Israel operates or without even mentioning the
murderous attitudes that permeate Palestinian society.
An example of Israeli self-hate was cited by former Israeli minister
Amnon Rubinstein. A visiting professor at Columbia when Ahmadinejad
spoke there, he relates: "Inside the hall sat an Israeli student
who applauded Ahmadinejad. I asked another Israeli who witnessed
this behavior to tell me about her. I asked: ‘How can she applaud
someone that wants to exterminate her?’ His matter of fact reply:
‘She’s known to be a leftist.’"
Rubinstein concluded:
In other words "leftists" applaud a tyrant, a Nazi, a persecutor of
minorities, oppressor of women, stoner of "adulterers," and executioner
of homosexuals. If he protests the oppression of the Palestinians,
then he must clearly be a member of the "left" and should therefore
be cheered. Later, I encountered other Israeli academics at Columbia
who added more fuel to the fire of hatred against Israel-all belonged
to what is known as the radical Left.[59]
Organizational Requirements The abovementioned examples of anti-Semitic
and anti-Israeli actions on campuses in a number of countries are
far from comprehensive. At present no one is tracking such incidents
systematically and globally. There are several reasons why such a body
is needed. Israel Apartheid Week has demonstrated that developments
on one campus may spread to others, both in the same country and
internationally. Only an international monitoring body can keep track
of such developments.
Furthermore, individual students and Jewish organizations in various
countries need a backup organization that has expertise in countering
anti-Semitic phenomena on campus. Since academia is usually a world
apart from society at large, off-campus Jewish organizations have
great difficulty understanding how to cope with such developments. In
addition, many incidents such as professors demonizing Israel in
class go unrecorded.
Although certain aspects of these problems are competently covered in
some countries by various Jewish organizations, there is a lack of an
overall global picture, and of monitoring of many of the hate phenomena
against Israel and the Jews. There is a need for a body to concentrate
the knowledge on the various actions against Jews and Israel and how
people respond to them. Only with this knowledge can effective action
be undertaken-in other words, a more proactive policy is needed.
Conclusion It would be mistaken to consider the onslaught on Israel
and Jews as an isolated phenomenon. What happens to Jews has usually
been a pointer to structural elements of the societal environment in
which it takes place and is also a sensor of events to come. This is
also the case as far as academia is concerned. Academic freedom has
been abused so much that it has outlived part of its academic and
societal usefulness for fostering knowledge in its present form.
If any further proof was needed, Columbia University’s invitation to
Ahmadinejad to lecture there provided it. In view of his incitement to
genocide, the natural place for him to speak should be as a defendant
before an international court. Similarly the many anti-Israeli hate
campaigns on campus prove that the principle of academic freedom in
its present form is partly obsolete.
The defenders of what now passes for academic freedom should largely
be seen as an elitist interest group that tries to protect acquired
privileges. Being powerful in society and having good public relations
enables universities to present the current, ostensible academic
freedom as a moral value, whereas actually it is an expression of
extreme corporatism. The declaration of the Ad Hoc Committee to Defend
the University is a prime example of this aberration.
Outsiders such as Campus Watch and FrontPage Magazine fulfill
important roles in exposing misbehavior on campuses-all the more
so because academic peers and administrations have often failed in
preventing it. One can only hope that external scrutiny of what goes
on in academia will increase further.
One important example of how an investigation can shed light on
a troubled, insufficiently known area was Britain’s All-Party
Parliamentary Inquiry into Antisemitism.[60] It paid substantial
attention to anti-Semitism on campuses.
There is a similar need for more comprehensive external investigations
of the academic world, particularly its openness to hate teaching
and bias. This includes elements such as political correctness, the
promotion of ideology, the distortion of knowledge, and the protection
of the hate promoters and falsifiers of knowledge as well as other
malfunctions of campus administrations.
Notes [1] The author expresses his thanks to Emily Bernstein who was
the research assistant at the JCPA for part of this project.
[2] For a historical overview see: Manfred Gerstenfeld (ed.), Academics
against Israel and the Jews (Jerusalem: Jerusalem Center for Public
Affairs, 2007).
[3] "About IAW," Israel Apartheid Week, 9 March 2008. .
[4] Israel Apartheid Week, 9 March 2008. .
[5] Avi Weinryb, "The University of Toronto-The Institution where
Israel Apartheid Week Was Born," forthcoming, Jewish Political Studies
Review, Fall 2008.
[6] Abe Selig, "Canadian Professors Slam ‘Israel Apartheid Week,’"
Jerusalem Post, 2 April 2008.
[7] "Toronto," Israel Apartheid Week, 9 March 2008. .
[8] "Schedules," Israel Apartheid Week, 9 March 2008 .
[9] S. Sheri, "Jewish Groups Work to Counter Israeli Apartheid Week,"
Canadian Jewish News, 9 March 2008.
[10] Alexander Nino Gheciu, "Ontario Students Protest Ban," Excalibur,
27 February 2008, 4 March 2008. .
[11] Selig, "Canadian Professors."
[12] Avi Benlolo, "Israel Apartheid Week at U of T," 5 February 2008,
Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies, Toronto.
[13] Jonathan D. Halevi, "UCU’s Dubious Moral Standards," Middle East
Strategic Information (MESI), 8 June 2008.
[14] "Minister Wants No Israeli Boycott,"
The Press Association, viewed 1 June 2008.
10AmXikO0Fy9h6EXz9Irvw9w.
[15] Jonny Paul, "Ex-EU Official Condemns UK Academic Boycott Call,"
Jerusalem Post, 1 June 2008.
[16] Ron Prosor, "Britain Is a Hotbed of Anti-Israeli Sentiment,"
The Telegraph, 10 June 2008.
[17] Anthea Lipsett, "Rammell Defends British Universities from
Charges of Extremism," Education Guardian, 11 June 2008.
[18] Anthony Julius, "Letter to UCU from Anthony Julius on UCU Boycott
Motion," published in SPME Latest Academic News, 3 June 2008.
[19] Personal communication, Ofir Frenkel.
[20] Alan M. Dershowitz, "The Oxford Union’s Destructive ‘Debate,’"
FrontPage Magazine, 15 January 2008.
[21] Reuters, "Protesters Disrupt Oxford Debate with Holocaust Denier,"
Haaretz, 28 November 2007.
[22] Ehud Zion Waldoks, "PM, Brown Launch New Academic Exchange
Program," Jerusalem Post, 20 July 2008.
[23] Ehud Zion Waldoks, "Israel Boycott a ‘Lose-Lose’ Situation,"
Jerusalem Post, 16 July 2008.
[24] Aisha Labi, "2 British Universities to Benefit from Saudi Prince’s
Gifts," Chronicle of Higher Education, 9 May 2008.
[25] Jamie Glazov, "Why Arabian Gulf Countries Donate to US
Universities," FrontPage Magazine, 9 June 2008.
[26] Anthea Lipsett, "Concerns over Funding of Islamic Studies,"
Education Guardian, 17 April 2008.
[27] Joan Scott, Edmund Burke, Jeremy Adelman, Steven Caton, Jonathan
Cole, and Organizing Committee, "Our Petition," Ad Hoc Committee to
Defend the University. .
[28] Ibid.
[29] Ben Harris, "Anti-Israel Academics Say Their Speech Is Stifled,"
JTA, 25 October 2007.
[30] Ibid.
[31] Leila Beckwith, "Anti-Zionism/Anti-Semitism at the University
of California-Irvine," in Gerstenfeld, Academics, 115-21.
[32] Joseph Serna, "Jewish Org. Nixes UCI Probe," Daily Pilot,
7 October 2007.
[33] Task Force on Anti-Semitism at the University of California
Irvine, Report and Addendum (Huntington Beach, CA: Orange County
Independent Task Force, 2008), 26.
[34] Ibid., 27
[35] Aaron Elias, "Al-Asi on Israel: Yes, He Really Said That,"
New University, 9 March 2008. .
[36] Michal Landau, "Fight UC Irvine Campus Anti-Semitism," Jerusalem
Post, 3 April 2008.
[37] The Editors, "The ‘Nakba’ at UC-Irvine," FrontPage Magazine,
20 May 2008.
[38] Brad A. Greenberg, "Report Says UCI Is a Hostile Place for Jewish
Students," Jewish Journal, 22 February 2008.
[39] UC-Irvine Students, Letter to Chancellor Drake, Students Concerned
about Anti-Semitism on Campus, UC-Irvine.
[40] Ben Harris, "Debating How to Respond on Campus," JTA, 18 March
2008.
[41] Isi Leibler, "Candidly Speaking: Hillel Goes Post-Modern,"
Jerusalem Post, 31 March 2008.
[42] Etgar Lefkowitz, "Columbia Skips NYC Event on University’s Nazi
Ties in ’30s," Jerusalem Post, 3 April 2008.
[43] For a transcript of Columbia Unbecoming, see:
[44] Noah Liben, "The Columbia University Report on Its Middle Eastern
Department’s Problems: A Paradigm for Obscuring Structural Flaws,"
in Gerstenfeld, Academics, 95-102.
[45] Peter Kiefer, "Report: Columbia Professors to Apologize to
Ahmadinejad," New York Sun, 9 January 2008.
[46] Mary Madigan, "Columbia’s Catastrophic ‘Nakba’ Conference,"
FrontPage Magazine, 9 May 2008.
[47] James R. Russell, "Ideology over Integrity in Academe," The
Current, Fall 2007.
[48] Ibid.
[49] Jared Irmas, "New Columbia Israel Director Denounced
‘Occupation,’" New York Sun, 28 February 2008.
[50] Asaf Romirowsky, "In Academia, Hiring Token Jews," Washington
Times, 4 August 2008
[51] Ben Harris, "Ignoring Anti-Semitism in N. Dakota?" JTA, 29
April 2008.
[52] Ben-Zion Jaffe, "Big Jew on Campus: Anti-Semitism
Goes to College," Jerusalem Post blog, 16 April 2008.
_semitism_goes_to_college.
[53] J. M. Brown, "UCSC Police Investigating Anti-Semitic Graffiti,"
Santa Cruz Sentinel, 30 April 2008.
[54] Ofri Ilani, "U.S. Prof. Gives Israeli Prize Money to Palestinian
University," Haaretz.com., 26 May 2008.
[55] Mohammed Daraghmeh, "Hamas, Fatah Compete over
Killing Israelis in Campaign for Student Council
Seats," Associated Press, SFGate.com, 10 December 2003.
le=/news%20/archive/2.
[56] David Horowitz and Reut Cohen, "Islamo-Fascism Week III: ‘Stop
the Jihad on Campus,’" FrontPage Magazine, 5 August 2008.
[57] Richard Byrne, "First Meeting for New Group on Middle East and
African Studies Places Islamic Extremism at Center of Its Agenda,"
Chronicle of Higher Education, 28 April 2008. See also Cinnamon
Stilwell, "Truth about Islam in Academia," FrontPage Magazine,
7 July 2008.
[58] "Lista dei prof ebrei La Procura apre un’indagine," La Repubblica,
9 February 2008. [Italian]
[59] Amnon Rubinstein, "Homemade Israel-Bashers," Jerusalem Post,
28 February 2008.
[60] "Report on the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Antisemitism,"
Stationery Office Ltd., London, 2006.
Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld is Chairman of the Board of Fellows of the
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He is an international business
strategist who has been a consultant to governments, international
agencies, and boards of some of the world’s largest corporations. Among
the fourteen books he has published are Europe’s Crumbling Myths: The
Post-Holocaust Origins of Today’s Anti-Semitism (JCPA, Yad Vashem,
WJC, 2003), Academics against Israel and the Jews (JCPA, 2007), as
well as the just published Behind the Humanitarian Mask: The Nordic
Countries, Israel and the Jews (JCPA and Friends of Simon Wiesenthal
Center for Holocaust Studies, 2008).
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