IsraCampus.Org.il

This letter is in response to your interview with the Jerusalem Post of August 21 under the inappropriate heading "McCarthy vs Voltaire in Beersheba". Inappropriate, because the brouhaha about the abuse of academic freedom in Israeli universities bears no resemblance whatsoever to McCarthyism which is defined in The American Heritage Dictionary as "The practice of publicizing accusations of political disloyalty or subversion with insufficient regard to evidence". …

In the circumstances, I am particularly disturbed by your statement that you did not intend to respond to Im Tirtzu's letter as you considered that it didn't deserve the dignity of a response. In all seriousness I ask you to reconsider this elitist misjudgment. Neither the public, nor the Knesset, nor the Council for Higher Education consider it undignified to respond to them.

A lightly edited version appeared in the Jerusalem Post Opinion section (25/8/2010) as well

-----Original Message-----
From: Maurice Ostroff
Date: Sun, 22 Aug 2010 15:03:55
To: <president@bgu.ac.il>; <nperlis@bgu.ac.il>
Subject: Mccarthy and Voltaire

Maurice Ostroff
5/501 Asher Barash, Herzliya, 46365 ISRAEL
Tel. +972 9 9595 261
Fax. +972 9 9509 667
http://www.2nd-thoughts.org/

An open letter to Professor Carmi

Dear Professor Carmi,

It is with great respect that I address this letter to you, in view of your achievements as a geneticist, your work among Israel's Bedouin population and your position as the first woman president of an Israeli university. And it is with great sadness that I view the public dispute between you and the Im Tirtzu group as I respect the sincerity and idealism of both sides.

In fact, the presentation of factual evidence by concerned citizens about the activities of academics who advocate sanctions against their own universities is the diametric opposite of McCarthyism. These concerns are expressed not only by Im Tirtzu but also by other organizations and large numbers of university faculty members, students and the public. While I am not in complete agreement with all of Im Tirtzu's actions, their efforts to bring truthful information about the disloyal behavior of some academics to the notice of donors and the general public, is to be highly commended. You must agree that publicizing truthful facts is an essential right if not a duty in a democratic society.

After all they are expressing much the same thoughts that you expressed in an op-ed to the LA Times when you wrote that you strongly believe a call for a worldwide boycott of Israel written by a Ben-Gurion University faculty member, Neve Gordon, that appeared in The Times oversteps the boundaries of academic freedom.

And more to the point when you went even further in a letter in Hebrew that you sent to BGU faculty in which you implied that Prof. Gordon's words may even amount to treason.

More importantly, your rejection of complaints about activities of an academic, that you yourself have described as bordering on treason, contradicts your statement during the Jerusalem Post interview that you consider it important that students be critical and express their opinions and that critical thought is a cornerstone of academic scholarship.

Very significantly, you said during the interview that there are people who do and say things that you abhor, but like Voltaire, you will defend to the death their right to say it. If this statement of yours is to have any meaning at all, then surely you should defend the rights of Im Tirtzu, Israel Academia Monitor, Isracampus and concerned members of your own board of governors like Michael Gross, to express their sincere deep concerns.

This letter will be publicized as will the reply I hope to receive from you.

Sincerely,
Maurice Ostroff