Kreisel - The Israeli academic Left and the Im Tirtzu movement

Haim Kreisel..
Op-Ed Contributor..
JPost..
05 February '12..



I have often been reminded of Marx’s famous dictum that history repeats itself, first as tragedy then as farce.

In the academic world to which I belong the latest examples of “history as farce” are recent attempts by some of my colleagues on the Israeli (radical/anti-/post-) Zionist Left to create a new bogeyman that they then claim is persecuting them and poses a dire threat to the freedom of Israeli society, if not to Western civilization.

I am referring to the recent comical attempts to depict all those who challenge this movement’s growing strength in the academic world as the heirs to the late Senator Joseph McCarthy, in particular the mainstream Im Tirtzu student movement and its purported “blacklist.”

I am not disputing the claim that Im Tirtzu compiles lists of academics who write and teach against the Zionist Idea (or Israel as a Jewish State) and even goes so far as to criticize some of them publicly. Im Tirtzu occasionally even calls for the ouster of an academic whose salary comes mostly from the government but still calls for international boycotts of Israel, and even of its universities of which he/she is a member.

But calling this a “blacklist,” with all the historical associations involved is, well, ludicrous.

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.

IMRA - Haaretz reporting bias

Quotes critic of report against BGU without mentioning she founder of Peace Now

Dr. Aaron Lerner
IMRA
29 November '11




[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA:

Question: If a founder of Gush Emunim criticized a report for being prejudiced against the national camp, would the Haaretz article covering the story mention the connection to Gush Emunim?

Of course. And that would be proper.

So here we have Prof. Galia Golan, a founder of of the radical left Peace Now, criticizing a report that slammed the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev's Politics and Government Department for pushing a radical left agenda.

And not a word about Prof. Golan's past.

Oops.]

=========================================

Education body to vote on report on 'slanted' BGU faculty
Panel member admits criticism in report may also have been political.

By Talila Nesher
Haaretz 01:12 29.11.11
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/education-body-to-vote-on-report-on-slanted-bgu-faculty-1.398372

The Council for Higher Education is set to vote Tuesday to ratify the external report it commissioned on the political science faculties at Israel's universities, including Ben-Gurion University of the Negev's Politics and Government Department, which came under heavy criticism. The document lists a series of shortcomings at Ben-Gurion University and even advises, as a last resort, closing down the department entirely if the problems are not resolved.

The report also refers to the fact that students at the Ben-Gurion University department are exposed to the personal political opinions of their professors, noting: "Lecturers must ensure that their personal opinions are presented as such, so that the students can judge things from a critical perspective and be exposed to a wide range of perspectives and alternatives."


Further to claims by members of the teaching staff at Ben-Gurion's Politics and Government Department that the committee's work was motivated by political considerations, committee member Prof. Galia Golan, from the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, has told Haaretz that the shortcomings exposed at the Negev institution may indeed have been politically biased.

"I felt that some of the committee members, with specific political opinions, were trying to find fault with the place," Golan said. "I don't know if these were instructions from above, but I felt that things were not being conducted fairly."

According to Golan, the same supposed shortcomings that were revealed at Ben-Gurion University weren't even mentioned in the reports on the other institutions, "because they weren't perceived as problematic."

Golan said that "with regard to Ben-Gurion University, [committee] members tended to ignore the positive things and underplay their significance.

"My efforts to convince the committee otherwise came to naught," she added. "The attitude toward the university was unlike the attitude elsewhere."

Golan, who refused to sign the section of the report dealing with the Ben-Gurion University department, also recently sent a letter to the Council for Higher Education warning of the document's lack of fairness and urging that the matter be considered before the conclusions are adopted.

"Distinct political opinions influenced the judgment of some of the [committee] members," Golan told Haaretz. "The chairman of the committee actually tried to be as neutral as possible; but in the end, people were guided by a political approach."

According to Prof. David Newman, the dean of Ben-Gurion's Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and one of the founders of its Politics and Government Department, "The department has become a target for attack by all those who wish to suppress any pluralist dialogue and trample every piece of academic freedom. One brief glance at this activity is enough to grasp the inherent danger it poses for the existence of Israeli democracy."

A statement from the Council for Higher Education said: "We totally reject the claim of political considerations ... The evaluation committee is made up of experienced individuals of academic renown in Israel and abroad. The assessment of the Political Science Department at Ben-Gurion University was conducted in the same manner in which the other institutions were assessed.

"The committee, which carried out an independent assessment, was of the opinion that the Ben-Gurion University department is acutely lacking senior staff at the core of the field, and that this requires immediate rectification."

Zionism Derangement Syndrome

Elliot Jager
jewishideasdaily.com
25 August '10

A smoldering resentment, bordering on political paranoia, is palpable in sectors of Israel's Left these days. Everywhere, it seems, powerful enemies are conspiring to undermine the centers of cultural influence that leftists have long regarded as their own property, and as beyond criticism. Their response bears a resemblance to the left-wing American affliction that the columnist Charles Krauthammer memorably labeled "Bush Derangement Syndrome."

One recent challenge to Left hegemony is a proposed law now winding its way through the Knesset's legislative process. The bill, prompted in part by an independent report on certain Israeli pressure groups, including Peace Now and B'Tselem, would require political-advocacy organizations to reveal how much money they receive from foreign powers. On the face of it, this seems unexceptionable enough: in the U.S., the Foreign Agents Registration Act has long stipulated that persons paid to act in a political capacity by a foreign principal must declare their relationship; the proposed Israeli law, by contrast, would merely require the reporting of donations from foreign states and state-funded foundations.

Another challenge comes from a new grass-roots student effort called Im Tirtzu. The organization, which insists its political platform is centrist, has declared its intention of urging Diaspora Jewish donors to reconsider their support of Israeli universities whose humanities and social-science departments are bastions of anti-Zionist teachings and whose tenured faculty work to propel the boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign against the Jewish state. The group will also urge students to avoid academic departments that silence or intimidate those voicing Zionist convictions.

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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.

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