Ben Gurion University
Ben 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
From: David Newman <newman@bgu.ac.il>
To: Alon Harel, Ben-Naftali Orna, Daniel Bar-Tal,
SocSci-IL@listserver.cc.huji.ac.il
Subject: Re: [Social Science- IL]: Danger of McCarthyism in Israel
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
Sent: Thursday, April 23, 2009 10:52 AM
To: 'Daniel Bar-Tal';
SocSci-IL@listserver.cc.huji.ac.il
Subject: Re: [Social Science- IL]: Danger of McCarthyism in Israel
Danger of
McCarthyism in Israel
I would like to
raise an issue that that has become salient and frequent in our
academic Israeli sphere, reflecting wider trend in our society. I
would like to point out to two symptoms of this trend.
1. The growing
monitoring activities of NGOs that follow of what they call
"anti-Israeli" publications and other academic events by the
Israelis.
2. The
participation in our social sciences' network of individuals who use
unaccepted language to delegitimize academia staff and activities
that they oppose politically.
I believe that
these two examples should not be tolerated in our society as they
signal McCarthyism and other ugly trends that should not appear in
democratic societies.
In order to
stimulate a debate that may lead to concrete reactions I would like
to propose the following steps:
1. The social
science network should not publish messages that use derogative
language with the purpose to delegitimize individuals and groups
that act within the framework of the law and academic norms.
2. We should
condemn the use of such language as well as monitoring activities of
the academia in Israel or elsewhere.
3. We should bring
to light acts that aim at monitoring and limiting free and opened
academic activities in the Israeli and the international mass media.
4. We should
demand that formal academic bodies such as Senates of the
Universities, Vera and the Academy of Science condemn these types of
activities.
If we will not act
to stop these and other similar activities, but play the role of
passive bystanders, they may hurt eventually each of us, destroy the
Israeli Academia, and hurt the society.
Daniel Bar-Tal
Tel Aviv University
Daniel Bar-Tal
Branco Weiss Professor of Research in Child Development and
Education
School of Education
Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
Tel 972-3-6408473
Fax 972-3-6409477
Email daniel@post.tau.ac.il
www.tau.ac.il/education/homepg/bar-tal
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