Israeli Academic Extremism
The Feldhay Snub Exposes
the Boycott Double Standard of Israel's Tenured Left
For a number of years
now, Israel's tenured Left has rallied in defense of the "right" to
boycott other Israelis and the right to boycott all of Israel.
Whenever a public figure would speak out against the Israeli tenured
traitors who call for world campaigns of divestment and economic
sanctions against Israel, the Far Left bellows that this is
"McCarthyism," that no one should be permitted to express disgust
with such traitors… It is to a large extent the creation of Israeli
tenured leftists.
… The Israeli Left
wants to boycott every Jew who lives in the West Bank, including and
especially Ariel University. It wants products made in the West Bank
and Golan to be boycotted, and calls on foreign anti-Semites to
promote such boycotts. Whenever any eyebrows are raised in Israel at
their behavior, the leftists again scream "McCarthyism" and insist
they are simply defending "academic freedom," and "freedom of
speech." When Israel's Knesset passed a law allowing victims of such
leftist boycotts to file civil suits for damages against the
Leftists organizing the boycotts, again the Left bellowed that this
was fascism and suppression of democracy…
In fact, there is
only one form of boycott which they see as anti-democratic,
treasonous, and fascist. That is when a leftist is boycotted. And
that is why over the past few weeks the tenured Left in Israel has
been soiling itself over the "boycott" of a leftist Tel Aviv
University by Bibi Netanyahu.
Now the truth is that
Prof. Rivka Feldhay was not really "boycotted" by anyone. She was
just pointedly not invited by Netanyahu to participate in a pow-wow
in Berlin with the German Prime Minister…Netanyahu does not consider
participation in any ceremony with the German PM to be an automatic
entitlement for anyone. But the Left considers Netanyahu's
unwillingness to include Feldhay in the ceremony to be a fascist
assault on academic freedom.
http://zioncon.blogspot.co.il/2012/12/suddenly-right-to-boycott-is-not-sacred.html
Suddenly the Right to Boycott is not
Sacred?
By Steven Plaut
December 15, 2012
For a number of years
now, Israel's tenured Left has rallied in defense of the "right" to
boycott other Israelis and the right to boycott all of Israel.
Whenever a public figure would speak out against the Israeli tenured
traitors who call for world campaigns of divestment and economic
sanctions against Israel, the Far Left bellows that this is
"McCarthyism," that no one should be permitted to express disgust
with such traitors. The "BDS" movement (BDS = boycott, divest,
sanctions, or more correctly - Bigots, Dingbats, and Scoundrels) is
a movement of economic warfare and aggression against Israeli Jews.
It is to a large extent the creation of Israeli tenured leftists.
Then there is the
other "defense of boycott" campaign. The Israeli Left wants to
boycott every Jew who lives in the West Bank, including and
especially Ariel University. It wants products made in the West Bank
and Golan to be boycotted, and calls on foreign anti-Semites to
promote such boycotts. Whenever any eyebrows are raised in Israel at
their behavior, the leftists again scream "McCarthyism" and insist
they are simply defending "academic freedom," and "freedom of
speech." When Israel's Knesset passed a law allowing victims of such
leftist boycotts to file civil suits for damages against the
Leftists organizing the boycotts, again the Left bellowed that this
was fascism and suppression of democracy. Boycotting those whose
political position one dislikes is a downright sacred entitlement
and the highest most lofty value of democracy, they insist.
In fact, there is
only one form of boycott which they see as anti-democratic,
treasonous, and fascist. That is when a leftist is boycotted.
And that is why over
the past few weeks the tenured Left in Israel has been soiling
itself over the "boycott" of a leftist Tel Aviv University by Bibi
Netanyahu.
Now the truth is that
Prof. Rivka Feldhay was not really "boycotted" by anyone. She was
just pointedly not invited by Netanyahu to participate in a pow-wow
in Berlin with the German Prime Minister.
Netanyahu made it clear that he disapproves of Feldhay's
political positions, particularly her participation in a petition 10
years back calling for insurrection and mutiny among Israeli
soldiers, calling for them to refuse to serve in the military until
the country adopts the political platform of the Communist Party and
the Ultra-Left.
Netanyahu does not
consider participation in any ceremony with the German PM to be an
automatic entitlement for anyone. But the Left considers Netanyahu's
unwillingness to include Feldhay in the ceremony to be a fascist
assault on academic freedom. The same president of Tel Aviv
University who censored members of his own Board of Governors and
prohibited them from expressing an opinion in the Board Assembly a
few years back, the same university president Joseph Klafter whose
administration prohibited a human rights student protest exhibit
directed against Chinese abuse lest it upset the Chinese Embassy,
denounced Netanyahu for refusing to include Feldhay in the ceremony.
HE also accused Netanyahu of subverting academic freedom!
Feldhay teaches
history at Tel Aviv University, where the bulk of faculty members in
that department are communists. (Some academic freedom, huh?) At Tel
Aviv University she also runs the Minerva Institute (see
http://isracampus.org.il/third%20level%20pages/TAU%20-%20organized%20vilification%20of%20Israel%20campaign%20at%20TAU.htm),
a leftwing advocacy institute that is partly funded by Germany
(which is why she was considered an apt person to be at the
ceremony). If my memory does not fail me, she was also one of the
organizers of the campus protests years back at Tel Aviv University
against opening any synagogue on the campus.
She has been a political crony of the spy Azmi Bishara, now
in hiding but wanted for treason and terrorism.
A leading member of
the Minerva institute was an initiator of a petition to deny
academic freedom to an army woman colonel who wanted to teach in the
law school (see
http://www.isracampus.org.il/third%20level%20pages/Editorial%20-%20Steve%20Plaut%20-%20Assault%20on%20Academic%20Freedom.htm).
Among Minerva's activities is organizing law students to defend Arab
terrorists in court.
Felday is the wife of leftist Professor Mordecai Kremitzer, who
teaches law at TAU and is also a central figure in the leftist think
tank IDI (see
http://isracampus.org.il/IDI%20Watch.htm).
You can get a good idea of Kremnitzer's notions of democracy
and civilization from this:
http://www.isracampus.org.il/third%20level%20pages/Editorial%20-%20Joel%20Amitai%20-%20Mordechai%20Kremnitzer.htm
TAU President Klafter
may be contacted at
President, Professor
Joseph Klafter
Email
klafter@post.tau.ac.il
Tel
Aviv University
P.O. Box
39040
Tel Aviv 69978
ISRAEL
Tel: 972-3-6408254
Fax: 972-3-6406466
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