Ben Gurion University
Ben Gurion University's Official Campaign of Lies and
Disinformation
All of this puts into perspective the weekend
column (December 31, 2010) in Maariv by Kalman Liebskind, one of the
best publicist journalists in Israel. The column is so important
that my translation of it follows here. Liebskind has revealed that
Ben Gurion University is intentionally lying and providing
disinformation to its supporters and prospective donors from all
around the world and in different languages.
http://thejewishpress.blogspot.com/2011/01/ben-gurion-universitys-official.html
Ben Gurion University's Official Campaign of
Lies and Disinformation
Posted by
Steven Plaut
Saturday, January 1, 2011
As you know, Ben Gurion University has long
been controlled by members of the radical Left, who have sought to
turn the campus, or at least the Social Sciences and Humanities
there, into a North Korean-style indoctrination camp in leftist
anti-Zionism. Originally this was the vision of BGU President
Avishai Braverman, who headed the university for years and is now a
Knesset member from the left-wing of the Israeli Labor Party. He was
followed by Rivka Carmi, the current BGU President, who is
determined to preserve the role of the University as an instrument
of leftist indoctrination. While repudiating the calls by
pseudo-academic anti-Semitic lecturer Neve Gordon for a worldwide
boycott against Israel, she has nevertheless repeatedly defended the
fact that BGU is filled with anti-Zionist faculty members, where in
at least one department (political science) there is not a single
non-leftist teaching. She also in the past endorsed Neve Gordon's
anti-democratic SLAPP harassment suit against me. While defending
the extremists at BGU in the name of "academic freedom," she was
also the main player who got Prof. Yeruham Leavitt fired because he
dared to voice a politically unfashionable opinion.
The University has paid a price for all this.
It has alienated many of its overseas donors and supporters. It has
lost tens of millions of dollars in support and possibly hundreds of
millions. The strategy of the University officials and of Rivka
Carmi in particular has been to stonewall, to insist that BGU is in
fact a pluralistic and balanced university, where it is only Neve
Gordon by himself who is the campus voice of lunatic anti-Zionist
bigotry. In reality, most of faculty members in the Social Sciences
and Humanities at BGU are somewhat more reserved Neve Gordons, or
people just marginally less seditious.
All of this puts into perspective the weekend
column (December 31, 2010) in Maariv by Kalman Liebskind, one of the
best publicist journalists in Israel. The column is so important
that my translation of it follows here. Liebskind has revealed that
Ben Gurion University is intentionally lying and providing
disinformation to its supporters and prospective donors from all
around the world and in different languages.
Here is his column (my translation):
A Lesson in
Politics
By Kalman Liebskind
Maariv 31/12/10
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.
The university
learned that it is possible to peddle clichés about academic freedom
from Beer Sheva to as-far-away-as Paris, but ultimately the facts
take charge. When large numbers of faculty members from the
extremist Left sign their names to petitions publicly denouncing
Israeli soldiers, it is hard to keep the facts hidden. And it is
precisely at that point, where all excuses are exhausted, that the
falsehoods begin.
Ben Gurion
University, like the other schools, operates a network of overseas
emissaries and representatives all over the world. These people are
responsible for developing connections with donors. And when the
donors start asking questions, these serve as the official front
line troops of the University.
One such
representative of Ben Gurion University is Elise Donat.
(see
http://web.bgu.ac.il/Eng/Units/associates/WorldwideAssociatesOffices/
and
http://www.plaxo.com/directory/profile/21475528008/97e932ec/Elise/Donat.
Her email is elised@bgu.ac.il
-- SP). She lives in Geneva and the BGU official web site lists her
as its representative to French-speaking parts of Europe. Following
the publication of the findings of "Im Tirtzu," members of the
Friends of Ben Gurion University in France demanded from the
officials of Ben Gurion University an explanation. The "Friends"
operate a fund that channels many millions to the university and
Donat was sent by the university to calm the Fund's donors down. The
donors told her that they had learned that in the BGU Politics
Department, 8 out of the 11 members of the faculty were
Post-Zionists or radical leftists. (Actually all 11 are – SP)
Donat did everything
she could to reassure them. Including lying. The letter she sent
them is a masterpiece of disinformation, an Israeli Bluff. "As you
well know," writes Donat in her letter - translated here from the
French, "The Radical Right has a very large representation in the
Israeli government and on the Council of Higher Education."
(Actually to my knowledge there is not a single Right-winger on the
Council –SP)
The Council on
Higher Education, for those who are not familiar with it, is a
professional academic body composed of 16 professors from academic
institutions, two representatives of the general public, and the
chairperson of the national students union. Politicians have no say
at all there and cannot enter the Council. But that did not prevent
Donat from selling her snake oil to the donors about how SHAS and
Israel Beiteinu (Lieberman's party) themselves, no less than they!!,
had grabbed control of the Council.
Donat then
challenges those donors who had complained that in the BGU
Department of Politics there are many anti-Israel faculty members.
That claim is utterly false, Donat writes them. There is only one
radical anti-Israel extremist there, Prof. Neve Gordon. Donat then
decides to take the argument further, well beyond the boundaries of
intentional misinformation. In the politics department, she writes,
"There are professors from the radical Right wing like Renee
Poznanski,* David Newman,* and Dani Filc". Now just in case there
are any out there who do not know who these three are, they are all
far-leftists who signed those petitions proclaiming, "We support and
appreciate our students who are refusing to serve as soldiers in the
conquered territories."
Actually, the
above-mentioned Filc is Chairman of the extremist Far-Leftist
Organization "Physicians for Human Rights" (which used to be run by
Neve Gordon himself and which in the past circulated anti-Semitic
caricatures of Jews– SP). Donat was convinced that she had managed
to convince the donors to BGU that the University is in fact the
bastion of "Im Tirtzu." She concludes her letter thus: "As can be
seen, in this department (Politics) there reigns pluralism of
opinion and diversity of views." One line before the end, this
representative of the University adds that Prof. David Newman,* the
same one who signed that petition mentioned above, is not only a
right-winger but someone "notorious for expressing extremist
right-wing opinions." (!!!!!)
Ben Gurion
University sent us the following response: "Donat is on a private
vacation in India until February 24 and so we cannot reach her to
clarify the matter."
* A personal note from SP: Both Newman and
Poznanski, named in the article, submitted false court affidavits on
behalf of Neve Gordon to the Nazareth court in their efforts to
assist him in his neo-fascist SLAPP suit against me. After the
Israeli Supreme Court issues its verdict, it is conceivable that one
or both of these could face perjury charges.
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