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Ben Gurion UniversityBen Gurion University – David Newman (Dept of Political Science) continues, on the Social Science Network, his crusade to squash Freedom of Speech and Democracy; calls University Heads and Rectors to support the Far-Leftist Treason in the name of Freedom of Speech
Date: Fri, 24 Apr
2009 08:31:33 +0300 Actually you have to be in a small minority not to be a target of attack in Campus watch, Academia Watch or other similar sites not worth mentioning here. Many of the people targeted dont [sic] even write about Israel, and those who do can range anywhere from the moderate right to the far left and, as you rightly say, it is all written in an illiterate polemical style which is quite comic. BUT, it is important to distinguish between the views expressed about Israeli society and politics and the attempt to label them as "traitors" or "fascists" . Interestingly, a lot of the response to the piece in the Jerusalem Post has, in turn accused me of trying to silence the right wing critics - but nowhere is such a thing mentioned in the article - they have as much right for their right wing critique as the left in Israel does for its own version. That is truly what freedom of speech is about , unless it provokes violence or racism or hatred. My article comes out against the way they are trying to intervene in people's promotion, have people fired and even intervene in the process through which foreign donors try to influence university hiring policy, because of people's political and social views. This is truly macarthyism [sic] One response, from the SPME even tried to hint at the fact that I had written my piece because they had not funded a speaking tour of the USA when i was involved in the counter boycott debate in the UK. They had to retract this malicious and false statement only when I asked a lawyer to check its validity. Of course, this was immediatey [sic] taken up by the web sites and has not yet been removed - but that is the sort of lack of integriuty [sic] and honesty that we have come to expect from them. But until now this growth of organisations attacking mainstream Israeli academia has never been challenged, so that the neutral (if there is such a thing) observer, who is subject to the bombardment of his / her inbox by Campus watch, aacademia [sic] watch, NGo Monitor and others, is convinced that this is a reflection of reality and it is time for the record to be set straight. I have little doubt that the present government will be duly influenced by this continued bombardment. While not every false and radical accusation has to be answered, there are times when a public response is necesary [sic] - remaining silent is not necessarily a good tactic - because for many outsiders it is perecived [sic] as acquiesence [sic]. In the world of blogs and instant dissemination of information, there sometimes has to be response - at least to the reasoned critique, not to all of the crazies (for whom anyone to the left of Genghis Khan is a traitor ). It is also time that University Presidents and Rectors made their voices heard. They have remained silent for too long, always fearing to annoy their donors - especially in North America. While we cannot be naive about the perilous state of finance of our universities, there are times when the power of the pocket book must be combatteed [sic] with a principled argument and statement. The failure of the heads of our Universities to make their position on academic freedom and right of speech absolutely clear, is not to their credit. David newman
From:
socsci-il-bounces@listserver.cc.huji.ac.il On Behalf Of Daniel
Bar-Tal Danger of McCarthyism in Israel I would like to |