The hosting of PA official Mahmoud Al-Habbash. Blessed be the useful idiots?

...What Al-Habbash means by “religious tolerance” is that Islam’s enemies can be tolerated only after being subjugated or eliminated. And if the enemy is willing to cooperate with his own demise, blessed be the useful idiots.

Dr. Emmanuel Navon..
i24 News..
03 December '14..

Ben-Gurion University (BGU) has announced that it will be hosting Palestinian Authority (PA) official Mahmoud Al-Habbash to talk about “The religious aspects of the Israel-Palestine conflict and the need for religious tolerance.” On paper, this sounds like a welcome event: with religious tensions spiraling in Israel, calling for tolerance is certainly the right thing to do. Except that asking Al-Habbash to talk about religious tolerance is like asking Al Capone to talk about tax compliance.

Al-Habbash is the “Supreme Shari’ah Judge of the Palestinian Authority” and “Advisor on Religious and Islamic Affairs” of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. On 22 October 2014, the PA-controlled newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida reported that Al-Habbash declared that, according to Islamic Shari’ah law, the “entire land of Palestine” is Islamic waqf and it is forbidden to make peace with Israel. On 5 November 2014, commenting on the Palestinian terrorist attacks in Jerusalem, Al-Habbash declared on PA television: “We kiss every forehead, every hand and even every foot that carries out ribat (i.e. religious war over land claimed to be Islamic) at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and in Jerusalem... We are behind them. The leadership is with them... We are with them in every movement, in every action and every deed, and we welcome what they are doing at the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

Al-Habbash used the term "ribat" to describe the recent murder of Israelis by stabbing and hit-and-run car attacks. Referring to the recent Palestinian terrorist attacks, Al-Habbash said in his Nov. 5 TV interview: “A few days ago, President [Mahmoud Abbas] greeted them, reinforced them and requested more ribat from them. This statement may have angered the Israelis and the occupation, that the President is inciting the Palestinians from Jerusalem to [perform] ribat. Yes, we are inciting the people in Jerusalem to [perform] ribat. Ribat means to protect and to hold on to your ground.”

Karsh - Betraying Ben-Gurion

Efraim Karsh
Hudson New York
22 December '11

http://www.hudson-ny.org/2671/betraying-ben-gurion


It is ironic that Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), Israel's only university bearing the name of the Jewish state's founding father, and established in the ancient desert he dreamt of reviving, has become a hotbed of anti-Israel propaganda at the expense of proper scholarly endeavor.

So much so that an international committee of scholars, appointed by Israel's Council for Higher Education to evaluate political science and international relations programs in Israeli universities, recently recommended that BGU "consider closing the Department of Politics and Government" unless it abandoned its "strong emphasis on political activism," improved its research performance, and redressed the endemic weakness "in its core discipline of political science." In other words, they asked that the Department return to accurate scholarship rather than indoctrinate the students with libel.

The same day the committee's recommendation was revealed, Professor David Newman -- who founded that department and bequeathed it such a problematic ethos, for which "achievement" he was presumably rewarded with a promotion to Deanship of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, from where he can shape other departments in a similar way -- penned an op-ed in the Jerusalem Post in which he compared Israel's present political culture to that of Nazi Germany. "I will no doubt be strongly criticized for compared making such a comparison," he wrote,

Im Tirtzu - An open letter to the president of Ben-Gurion University

Amit Barak
Im Tirtzu
JPost
05 December '11


http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=248244

Im Tirzu challenges Prof. Rivka Carmi to implement the CHE commitee's recommendations or resign.

Dear Professor Rivka Carmi,

In May 2010 Im Tirtzu submitted to the Knesset Education Committee its findings of severe political bias on a number of university campuses throughout Israel, particularly Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

Following our appeal, the Knesset Education Committee asked the Council for Higher Education (CHE) to examine these allegations.

Thereafter, the CHE appointed a committee of international experts which evaluated our findings.

The international committee determined that the Department of Politics and Government is politically biased, does not meet the required standards of professionalism and fails to promote intellectual pluralism. The international committee, therefore, decided that if the department does not undergo extensive modifications, which include replacing lecturers, adding classes and amending class syllabi, the university would be required to shut it down.

With the publication of our study, we implored you to be attentive to this criticism.

We asked you to increase intellectual pluralism in the Department of Politics and Government, and we called you to improve the poor academic level resulting from the department’s policies.

Apparently, such policies are based on ideological affinities, rather than standards of academic excellence.

In addition, many university donors also reject the anti-Israel incitement that has become prevalent at the university. As a result of your incompetence, many donors have already decided to withdraw their contributions and others are considering doing the same.

We (and now, evidently, world-renowned scholars) demanding that you turn your attention toward the evident connection between the strong political bias in the Department of Politics and Government and its poor academic levels of achievement.

Victory for ignorance and prejudice

Petra Marquardt-Bigma
The Warped Mirror/JPost
27 March '11

http://blogs.jpost.com/content/victory-ignorance-and-prejudice-0

Last week, South Africa – which faces a severe water crisis that has grim implications for the country’s development – hosted a three-day event to mark World Water Day. However, the University of Johannesburg (UJ) decided that this was a good time to downplay South Africa’s water crisis and to focus instead on what really matters to them: ending collaboration with Ben Gurion University (BGU) on research intended to combat the algae that is contaminating the drinking water of Johannesburg.

The decision will take effect “as per protocol on 1 April” – I kid you not.

The cheerleaders for this preposterous act of academic April 1 foolishness are ecstatic. In their Orwellian world, “Palestinians, South Africans and the international academic and solidarity community rejoice at this decisive victory.” They hope fervently for a “domino boycott effect,” asserting that UJ has set a “worldwide precedent” by becoming the first academic institution in the world to hand supporters of the anti-Israel boycott campaign a victory by formally cutting ties with a university that Nelson Mandela once described as representing “the best in the traditions of the Jewish people: a sense of mission; internationalism; inventiveness. It is an institution that gives inspiration through its chosen mission, summed up in the words of the prophecy: ‘The desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.’”

When battling the boycott efforts last year, BGU was certainly right to describe them as “based upon ignorance and prejudice,” but the problem is that it’s a carefully cultivated kind of “ignorance and prejudice.”

There is a huge treasure trove of arguments that demonstrate the hypocrisy, bigotry and political failure of the anti-Israel boycott campaigns at Engage; and since all of this material is written from a staunchly left-wing point of view, the many boycott enthusiasts who would describe themselves as “progressive” are actually working hard to give the left a bad name.

One issue that should be highlighted in this context is the racism of low expectations that is reflected in the fact that the anti-Israel boycott enthusiasts generally have no interest in making sure that the Palestinian universities they supposedly support with their activism conform to norms that are worthy of left-wing “solidarity.”

This is particularly relevant in the case of the UJ boycott decision, because one condition for continuing the collaboration was reportedly that BGU find a Palestinian partner university. Indeed, UJ vice-chancellor Professor Adam Habib claimed that he had even sent a delegation to the Palestinian territories in an attempt to find an institute of higher learning to collaborate with BGU, but all these efforts were “to no avail.”

Habib also claimed last year in an interview with Al Jazeera that it was important to create “an enabling environment for reconciliation and the achievement of human dignity.”

It would seem that the pursuit of this worthy goal precluded UJ engagement with several Palestinian universities.

The most obvious example is Gaza’s Islamic University, a Hamas institution where students have a chance to be taught not only by hard-line Islamists and jihadists, but also by Iranian military experts who know everything about the manufacturing of explosives.

Then there is the problematic record of Al-Najah University in Nablus, which used to serve as a “stronghold for […] various terrorist organizations.”

Birzeit University provides yet another example of a campus that nurtured terrorism and remains active in propagating “resistance” and opposition to any “normalization” with Israel.

For the anti-Israel activists in South Africa, all this may not matter much – after all, as long as they boycott Israel, they don’t run the risk to be blown to pieces in places like the Hebrew University cafeteria or the parking lot of Sapir College.

But one thing is for sure: anybody who thinks that only Israeli universities should be expected to provide “an enabling environment for reconciliation and the achievement of human dignity,” while Palestinian universities should be entitled to glorify “resistance” and to oppose “normalization,” has precious little interest in peaceful coexistence.

Admittedly, it’s perhaps too much to expect the South African proponents of the boycott campaign to be interested in peaceful Israeli-Palestinian coexistence when problems much closer to home – like South Africa’s water crisis – seem of little concern to them. Indeed, Professor Habib dismissively opined that this was a problem that could easily be solved with money.

So no need to collaborate with Israeli experts, and really, no need to worry: even if it turned out that South Africa would find it difficult to provide the necessary financial resources, it’s safe to assume that Professor Habib would easily be able to afford buying imported bottled water for himself and his family.

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A Lesson in Politics : The Integrity of Ben Gurion Unversity is on the line

Israel Resource Review
05 January '11

By Kalman Liebskind, 
Senior Investigative Reporter
Maariv Daily Newspaper, Tel Aviv, Jan 4, 2011

Ben Gurion University is in stress. The recent reports published by
the “Im Tirtzu” student movement about the Post-Zionist political
control dominating important parts of the university have had their
effect and impact. They have managed to attach labels to the
university’s name in the world with which it is uncomfortable. In the
(leftist) media, in which “Im Tirtzu” was denounced as “censors,” the
university was enjoyed seeing itself defended by journalists. But it
turns out that “Im Tirtzu” managed to get out its message in dialogue
with the wider public, talking to them over the heads of the official
commentators on the TV news shows.

The vast majority of citizens, those who serve and whose children
serve in the Israel Defense Forces, have no affinity for faculty
members calling for worldwide boycotts of Israel, who denounce Israeli
soldiers, and who call on their own students to refuse to serve in the
army. An official statement issued last week by the country’s Council
on Higher Education (the public body that overseas Israeli
universities and colleges) was yet another slap in the face for large
swaths of Israeli academia. The Council proclaimed: “Situations must
be prevented where students or faculty members face rejection,
silencing, penalization or discrimination because of their personal
views or characteristics, including their political opinions.”
(Clearly the Council meant the harassment of non-leftists by leftist
faculty members - SP)

The donors to Ben Gurion University also saw the reports and started
asking questions. Many of these people, who live abroad and send
their generous contributions to the institution of higher learning
that bears the name of David Ben Gurion, had not been aware of the
atmosphere of political extremism that dominates large parts of the
university.

McCarthyism and post-Zionism

All Im Tirtzu asked from BGU is that a solution be found to the extreme bias found in the Political Science department, where only post-Zionist opinions are presented.


Dan Illouz
In the Spotlight/JPost
23 August '10

Academic freedom is an essential component of the mission of the academy. Scholars should be able to hold political positions without fearing repression. This is precisely the principle that guided Im Tirtzu’s recent efforts to fight the silencing of Zionist opinions in Israeli academia. Unfortunately, these efforts were met with misinformation, McCarthyism and outright lies. As is often the case when Zionism is attacked, the victims have been portrayed as aggressors while the aggressors were portrayed as victims.

Several months ago, at the request of the Knesset Education Committee, Im Tirtzu published a report revealing frightening information about academia. The report recorded testimonies from students who complained about a strong anti-Zionist bias in universities. Those students also testified about instances in which professors used intimidation and threats to silence Zionist views. Im Tirtzu demanded action be taken to defend the freedom of speech of Zionist students.

As Im Tirtzu demanded the right to free speech for all, the post-Zionist sectors of the academic world accused it of denying their free speech. However, freedom of speech does not include freedom to silence other opinions. In an effort to silence Im Tirtzu, its opponents accused it of McCarthyism and thought policing.

In reality, the whole purpose of Im Tirtzu’s efforts was to remove thought policing from Israel’s academic world.

Im Tirtzu is not the only organization to have dealt with this issue. Over the past few years, Israel Academia Monitor has monitored the anti-Zionist behavior of Israeli academia, building a database of testimonies on-line. NGO Monitor researched the dependency of academics on foreign donors who often hold anti-Israel views.

(Read full story)

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Freedom to give Nazi salute

Op-ed: No other state would allow Ben Gurion University-style 'academic freedom'


Haim Misgav
Israel Opinion/Ynet
19 August '10
H/T Michal Dar-El

The Israeli Academy of Sciences and Humanities is raising the banner of academic freedom in vain. There's nothing academia-like about the publication of articles in anti-Semitic, pro-Nazi, Holocaust-denying websites that call for boycotting Israel in universities abroad or for indicting IDF officers and prime ministers on war crime charges.

The heads of Israeli academia, who on Wednesday openly called for safeguarding the independence of Israel's academic institutions, are preaching to others while being guilty themselves. The hornets' nest that has developed at Ben-Gurion University's politics and government department needs to be dried up, as one deals with a festering wound.

If, for example, a senior lecturer in that department dares travel to Palestinian government headquarters in Ramallah (while blatantly violating the law) a day after one of the most terrible massacres we've ever seen here, in order to support Yasser Arafat and pose next to him in a photo where both hold their arms up, does this constitute academic freedom? Is this about the freedom to explore, or about a despicable act by someone who under false pretenses holds on to a job in a publically funded academic institution?

And if this department includes students who take part in an illegal rally at campus following the Turkish flotilla raid, while being photographed (knowingly) giving the Nazi salute, does this have anything to do with academic freedom? Are Nazi salutes a part of the education offered to politics and government students?

(Read full article)

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The Nest of Vipers

The Bagelnosher Blog
23 June '10

BGU - Ben Gurion University of the Negev – suffered parallel snake problems this week. On two separate occasions, they had to deal with serpents in their midst.

One of the critters they had captured, bagged and hauled away. But when confronted with the other snake, this one they wanted to keep right where he was -- in front of the classroom.

The first serpent – a black three-foot long species native to Israel – surprised the staff when it was spotted lurking behind a desk at the nanotechnology building on the University’s main campus. Officials called Beersheba’s official snake catcher who responded to the scene. “The snake wasn’t a poisonous variety,” the snake removal man said afterward. “It appeared to have gotten into the building through an improperly secured air vent. The snake was aggressive, but I caught it and later released it in a remote place where it won’t do any harm.”

The second, equally aggressive, snake is far more dangerous. This one, known as Neve Gordon, walks upright on his own two feet, although he, too, lurks behind a desk at BGU where he’s spent almost a decade bombarding students with his anti-Israel, anti-Semitic tirades. This snake in the grass is treated far differently by BGU officials. Not only was Neve Gordon not bagged and hauled away -- instead, the President of BGU, Rivka Carmi, promoted him.

Again.

Up to now, Neve Gordon had been merely a “lecturer” but this week, he was promoted to “Assistant Professor.” For an undistinguished academic, whose writings tend toward hysterical anti-Israel propaganda, how did they justify it? Officials assembled a panel of far-leftist evaluators, who requested letters from other far-leftist anti-Israel radicals, and that did it. Like promotes like.

(Read full post)

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