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Ben Gurion UniversityBen Gurion University – LA Jews threaten to boycott Ben Gurion University to save it from Neve GordonAccording to Israel's Haaretz, Aug. 23 2009, a large group of Los Angeles Jews are launching a campaign to boycott Ben Gurion University for as long as Gordon works there: … Gordon served as a "human shield" for wanted terrorists and murderers being hidden by Yassir Arafat. He has spent much of time in recent years promoting and supporting Neo-Nazi Norman Finkelstein, who was fired by DePaul University for his own lack of serious academic work. At DePaul University, anti-Israel hate propaganda does not count as scholarship, but at Ben Gurion University it does! He is a leftist Neo-Fascist who opposes freedom of speech for those with whom he disagrees and has attempted to use the Israeli court system to suppress democracy and freedom of speech through SLAPP harassment. He has repeatedly called for Israel to be eliminated altogether. Gordon's campaign for the annihilation of Israel is being carried out while Gordon sits in a cushy academic job paid for by the Israeli taxpayer. To tell the heads of Ben Gurion University what you think of all this, write to
Rivka Carmi, President
Prof. Jimmy Weinblatt, Rector
It is Time to Boycott Ben Gurion University to Save it!http://thejewishpress.blogspot.com/2009/08/i-is-time-to-boycott-ben-gurion.html
Steven Plaut Just when it seems that there is no expression of academic treason that Israel has not seen and that Ben Gurion University has not defended as "pursuing peace and justice," along comes Neve Gordon, the head of Ben Gurion University's politics department, and issues a call in the Los Angeles Times for a world boycott of Israel. He says it is in order to save Israel. And a growing movement among Jews who do NOT hate themselves is organizing to boycott Ben Gurion University in response. You know, to save it from itself! Here is the Haaretz report: According to Israel's Haaretz, Aug. 23 2009, a large group of Los Angeles Jews are launching a campaign to boycott Ben Gurion University for as long as Gordon works there:
Members of the Los Angeles Jewish
community have threatened to withhold donations to an Israeli
university in protest of an op-ed published by a prominent Israeli
academic in the Los Angeles Times on Friday, in which he called to
boycott Israel economically, culturally and politically. In the wake
of the publication of the article, Israel's Consul-General in Los
Angeles, Yaakov (Yaki) Dayan sent a letter to the president of
Ben-Gurion University, Prof. Rivka Carmi, in which he said that such
statements may be detrimental to the university. Gordon is one of Israel's most openly anti-Smeitic and anti-Israel academic extremists. He surpasses Ilan Pappe in some ways. Much of his "academic" career has consisted of turning out anti-Israel hate propaganda and passing it off as scholarly research. He is so extreme that his articles are covered by Holocaust Deniers, by the main Iranian newspaper, and by Neo-Nazi web sites all over the world. Ben Gurion University's President, Rivka Carmi, has repeatedly supported Gordon and defended his behavior, endorsing not only his right to say treasonous things but also has endorsed the contents of what he says. Carmi celebrates Gordon as a "serious scholar of human rights." Sure he is. Gordon served as a "human shield" for wanted terrorists and murderers being hidden by Yassir Arafat. He has spent much of time in recent years promoting and supporting Neo-Nazi Norman Finkelstein, who was fired by DePaul University for his own lack of serious academic work. At DePaul University, anti-Israel hate propaganda does not count as scholarship, but at Ben Gurion University it does! He is a leftist Neo-Fascist who opposes freedom of speech for those with whom he disagrees and has attempted to use the Israeli court system to suppress democracy and freedom of speech through SLAPP harassment. He has repeatedly called for Israel to be eliminated altogether. Gordon's campaign for the annihilation of Israel is being carried out while Gordon sits in a cushy academic job paid for by the Israeli taxpayer. To tell the heads of Ben Gurion University what you think of all this, write to
Rivka Carmi, President
Prof. Jimmy Weinblatt, Rector Other officers listed here: http://cmsprod.bgu.ac.il/Eng/Units/management/ University "Friends of" Offices outside Israel are listed here: http://web.bgu.ac.il/Eng/Units/associates/WorldwideAssociatesOffices Here is Gordon's "Let's Destroy Israel" piece in full: Boycott Israel: An Israeli comes to the painful conclusion that it's the only way to save his country.
By Neve Gordon Israeli newspapers this summer are filled with angry articles about the push for an international boycott of Israel. Films have been withdrawn from Israeli film festivals, Leonard Cohen is under fire around the world for his decision to perform in Tel Aviv, and Oxfam has severed ties with a celebrity spokesperson, a British actress who also endorses cosmetics produced in the occupied territories. Clearly, the campaign to use the kind of tactics that helped put an end to the practice of apartheid in South Africa is gaining many followers around the world. Not surprisingly, many Israelis -- even peaceniks -- aren't signing on. A global boycott can't help but contain echoes of anti-Semitism. It also brings up questions of a double standard (why not boycott China for its egregious violations of human rights?) and the seemingly contradictory position of approving a boycott of one's own nation. It is indeed not a simple matter for me as an Israeli citizen to call on foreign governments, regional authorities, international social movements, faith-based organizations, unions and citizens to suspend cooperation with Israel. But today, as I watch my two boys playing in the yard, I am convinced that it is the only way that Israel can be saved from itself. I say this because Israel has reached a historic crossroads, and times of crisis call for dramatic measures. I say this as a Jew who has chosen to raise his children in Israel, who has been a member of the Israeli peace camp for almost 30 years and who is deeply anxious about the country's future. The most accurate way to describe Israel today is as an apartheid state. For more than 42 years, Israel has controlled the land between the Jordan Valley and the Mediterranean Sea. Within this region about 6 million Jews and close to 5 million Palestinians reside. Out of this population, 3.5 million Palestinians and almost half a million Jews live in the areas Israel occupied in 1967, and yet while these two groups live in the same area, they are subjected to totally different legal systems. The Palestinians are stateless and lack many of the most basic human rights. By sharp contrast, all Jews -- whether they live in the occupied territories or in Israel -- are citizens of the state of Israel. The question that keeps me up at night, both as a parent and as a citizen, is how to ensure that my two children as well as the children of my Palestinian neighbors do not grow up in an apartheid regime. There are only two moral ways of achieving this goal. The first is the one-state solution: offering citizenship to all Palestinians and thus establishing a bi-national democracy within the entire area controlled by Israel. Given the demographics, this would amount to the demise of Israel as a Jewish state; for most Israeli Jews, it is anathema. The second means of ending our apartheid is through the two-state solution, which entails Israel's withdrawal to the pre-1967 borders (with possible one-for-one land swaps), the division of Jerusalem, and a recognition of the Palestinian right of return with the stipulation that only a limited number of the 4.5 million Palestinian refugees would be allowed to return to Israel, while the rest can return to the new Palestinian state. Geographically, the one-state solution appears much more feasible because Jews and Palestinians are already totally enmeshed; indeed, "on the ground," the one-state solution (in an apartheid manifestation) is a reality. Ideologically, the two-state solution is more realistic because fewer than 1% of Jews and only a minority of Palestinians support binationalism. For now, despite the concrete difficulties, it makes more sense to alter the geographic realities than the ideological ones. If at some future date the two peoples decide to share a state, they can do so, but currently this is not something they want. So if the two-state solution is the way to stop the apartheid state, then how does one achieve this goal? I am convinced that outside pressure is the only answer. Over the last three decades, Jewish settlers in the occupied territories have dramatically increased their numbers. The myth of the united Jerusalem has led to the creation of an apartheid city where Palestinians aren't citizens and lack basic services. The Israeli peace camp has gradually dwindled so that today it is almost nonexistent, and Israeli politics are moving more and more to the extreme right. It is therefore clear to me that the only way to counter the apartheid trend in Israel is through massive international pressure. The words and condemnations from the Obama administration and the European Union have yielded no results, not even a settlement freeze, let alone a decision to withdraw from the occupied territories. I consequently have decided to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement that was launched by Palestinian activists in July 2005 and has since garnered widespread support around the globe. The objective is to ensure that Israel respects its obligations under international law and that Palestinians are granted the right to self-determination. In Bilbao, Spain, in 2008, a coalition of organizations from all over the world formulated the 10-point Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign meant to pressure Israel in a "gradual, sustainable manner that is sensitive to context and capacity." For example, the effort begins with sanctions on and divestment from Israeli firms operating in the occupied territories, followed by actions against those that help sustain and reinforce the occupation in a visible manner. Along similar lines, artists who come to Israel in order to draw attention to the occupation are welcome, while those who just want to perform are not. Nothing else has worked. Putting massive international pressure on Israel is the only way to guarantee that the next generation of Israelis and Palestinians -- my two boys included -- does not grow up in an apartheid regime.
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