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In recent weeks, a series of malicious media attacks against the donors to Ben Gurion University have been published by representatives of Ben Gurion University itself. Evidently these officials believe that smearing their own donors is a great way to up the level of their generosity! Some of the most venomous attacks have come from David Newman, the Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences at BGU. Newman accuses the donors to his own university of plotting to suppress academic freedom at BGU. He calls them McCarthyists and other foul names. And he also smears every organization and person that dares to criticize the many far-leftist anti-Israel extremists among the faculty at BGU. Every conceivable form of treason should be protected as academic freedom and freedom of speech, insist Newman and his ilk. But anyone who dares to speak out AGAINST such tenured treason is a "McCarthyist," someone who must be suppressed and silenced.

Among those critics of tenured extremists, who have NO right to freedom of speech and NO right to criticize, are the DONORS, insist Newman and his friends.

For the first time, a major Israeli newspaper has published a defense of those donors to Israeli universities who refuse to finance "academic" treason, and an attack on those who smear such activist donors.

The following is a translation of that article:
(Isracampus Translation)

http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART2/233/795.html

The Right to Refuse To Donate

By Ben Dror Yemini (Deputy Editor of Maariv)
Maariv, April 19, 2011
Translation by Steven Plaut

"Academic freedom" is by and large a delusion. In the USA there are many professorial chairs financed by donors. Some of them from Saudi Arabia. Whenever the Saudis are involved, the researchers and the research being carried out both toe the line. Prof. John Esposito of Georgetown University, for example, is funded by the Saudi Billionaire Alwaleed bin Talal (see http://cmcu.georgetown.edu/). His seemingly "academic" opinions are mainly political. It is true that some Jews also make contributions, but in their case the story is different. They are politically liberals, and so it even sometimes happens that Jewish millionaires end up financing outright anti-Zionists.

But when it comes to donations to Israeli universities, the donors are lovers of Israel. These are not people who will donate to schools and departments in America known for their venomous anti-Israel propagandizing. So why on earth should they contribute, directly or indirectly, to similar departments and schools operating in Israel!!?? Why? There is no reason at all!

Over the past few weeks while on a visit to the USA I heard over and over and over again the same message. One woman donor told me that she cannot simply stop making contributions. But she has decided to change tactics altogether – to contribute directly to students and for specific deserving research projects. She is unwilling to support universities that are themselves unwilling to act against the plague of anti-Zionism spouting up within them.

Another donor, who also serves as the head of the "Friends of Ben Gurion University" office, told me that he simply cannot take it any more. He is simply leaving. He is resigning from his position and ending all donations to Ben Gurion University. He also told me of an additional donor who has withheld all contributions to BGU, and he emphasized to me that numerous other donors are doing the same. Yitz Dekel, who used to serve as the director of the offices of the "Friends of Ben Gurion University" on the West Coast of the US, told me that he sent an enraged letter to Rivka Carmi, president of BGU, which included a demand that all contributions to BGU be halted. Donors and contributors have no interest in financing anti-Israel propaganda, even if it hides behind the veil of "academic freedom."

The SUPPRESSION of Expression

Do the donors have a right to dictate a political line? Of course not. But the problem is exactly the reverse. The issue has nothing at all to do with freedom of speech. The real issue is far more difficult – it is censorship and suppression of freedom of speech. When entire university departments morph into platforms for political propaganda, where so many people – including faculty members and students – are intimidated and browbeaten into keeping their mouths shut, the real problem is not freedom of expression but suppression of freedom of expression.

The university officials simply chant the uniform tired mantra, that it is all an exercise of academic freedom and so we just do not intervene. But this is an empty and meaningless pronouncement. Because there is indeed a need for freedom of expression. However in entire departments there is an atmosphere of persecution and suppression, where anti-Zionism is the hegemonic ideology, all the while pretending to be "critical" and "academic." We could go on and on with such empty slogans.

Most of Israeli academia does indeed maintain open and free dialogue without the outrageous anti-Zionist propagandizing. But there are some university departments where this is simply not so. And this cancer is spreading. The university heads know perfectly well that there is a serious problem. They know that what is taking place is thought control and Bolshevik-style suppression of thinking. They know that some faculty members feel entitled to anything and everything. And the heads of the universities are simply A-F-R-A-I-D!! The Bolsheviks are winning. Academic freedom is being demolished in the name of defending academic freedom.

Under these circumstances, the results should not be surprising. The donors are fed up. If some faculty members at Israeli universities lead the calls for a boycott against Israel, the consequence of this will truly be a boycott! But it will be a boycott by donors against the very same academic institutions in which this small group of extremist academics calling for boycotts against Israel are themselves employed! Those faculty members demand an end to financial support in order to achieve political influence? Well, here you have it, their comeuppance – they are getting what they asked for!