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The Israeli Left, as ever mean-spirited and vulgar, has now sunk to a new low of depravity and libel. It involves the appointment of the Prime Minister's Science Adviser by Netanyahu. The man appointed is Professor Israel Hanokuglo (since our Leftist friends are making fun of his last name, let me point out that it is Turkish and means Son of Hanoch). In particular, the Left is spreading the malicious and patently false story that Hanokuglo advocates some sort of Nazi-like theory of genetics holding that Arabs are somehow genetically inferior.

What did Hanokuglo actually say to earn this vitriol? He argued that a rare genetic blood disease found in Syria has also been found among many Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and this can serve as just one more piece of evidence to support the already well-documented demographic fact that many Palestinians are descended from Syrians who emigrated into "Palestine" due to the job opportunities, rising standard of living, and health facilities created in "Palestine" by the Zionist movement starting in the late 19th century.

To represent this as "racism" or "racialism" is the height of absurdity. Similar genetic research has been used to show that in some rural English regions the population is descendent from Flemish migrants. In fact, the disease in question is also common among Jews who emigrated from Syria.

The Left has launched a libel campaign against Hanokuglo. In the message below is a letter being circulated by one Abraham Oz, a Theater lecturer at the University of Haifa and a far-leftist. The message speaks for itself, and will -- in all probability -- form the basis of a libel suit against Abraham Oz by Dr. Hanokuglo.

In addition, the far-left columnist for the daily Haaretz, Chana Kim, whose column typically reads: "Netanyahu BAAAADDD; Peres GOOOODDDD!!", and who recently claimed that the Americans for a Safe Israel is a Kahanist group, also attacks Hanokuglo's academic credentials. Her column (Dec. 3, 1996) is actually a broadside against the credentials of all non-leftist professors. She argues Dore Gold is a quack because "some of his colleagues do not agree with him." Kim, it should be noted, has never had a word of criticism to say against such tenured fellow travelers as Asa Kasher, Shlomo Avineri, or Moshe Zimmerman.

I leave you to draw your own conclusions from the following message:

------- Forwarded Message Follows -------

From: avitaloz@research.haifa.ac.il (Avraham Oz)

Subject: Academic Matters

Dear friends,

The following has to do with matters which get the academic community in Israel worried as to the future of academic freedom in the country under the government of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, fears which many of us believe should be shared by our academic colleagues abroad.

On Friday evening, 29 November, it was disclosed on the first channel of the Israeli TV that Prime Minister Netanyahu has secretly appointed Dr. Israel Chanukugloo as his adviser for Science and Academic matters. The appointment was then confirmed, rather defensively, by Netanyahu's spokesman. Dr. Chanukugloo, who, after having failed to get tenured by two major scientific institutions in Israel, is teaching at a controversial "College of Judea and Sammaria", an apartheid-like college operating in the occupied territories, practically admitting Jewish students exclusively (most of them settlers in the occupied territories), had made the headlines in recent years on two counts:

Politically, he is the leader of an ultra-right wing organization of scientists, doctors and members of the academy, called "professors for national strength," which led an extremely radical Jewish nationalist campaign, strongly opposing the Oslo agreements, which brought them to organize and partake in fierce street demonstrations and road blocks, one of the most notorious of which having been the one in Jerusalem where the picture of former Prime Minister Rabin in Nazi uniform was raised by some of the demonstrators, believed to have been a landmark in the campaign of hate leading to his assassination a short while later. A couple of months ago, Dr. Chanukugloo appealed to the Supreme Court of Justice to declare the Oslo agreements (to which even Netanyahu's government reluctantly declared its commitment) illegal for endangering the State of Israel's security.

Scientifically, Dr. Chanukugloo published, and interviewed about, his genetic theories arguing for hereditary deficiencies "typical" of Arabs (particulary Syrians) contaminating the Middle East. It was he himself who publically made the connection between his dubious "scientific" theories and their alleged ideological consequences. Needless to say, the utmost majority of the scientific community in Israel describes Dr. Chanukuguloo's theories as scientifically unsound, remindful (as often argued) of the infamous Nuerrenberg racial declarations of the 1930's.

In a lengthy interview, two weeks ago, Prime Minister Netanyahu attacked the allegedly narrow-minded approach of the academic community in Israel, claiming openly that he deemed right-wing intellectual thought in the world as the leading, fresh and genuinely revolutionary thought today. In the course of that interview, in which Netanyahu cherished openly figures such as Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan as his cultural (and political) heroes, he declared his intention to create funds for promotion of "alternative thinking" in the academy. As it is now disclosed, it was around that time that Netanyahu has made his secret appointment of Dr. Chanukuguloo as his adviser, which has already started to raise a wave of protests from the academic community, as well as from other quarters of the Israeli public.

To this, one may add a declaration made a week ago by Moshe Peled, radical right-wing undersecretary for education in Netanyahu's government, that it was the new policy of the Ministry of Education that students stipends and scholarship will be stipulated by service in the army or national service. This excludes all Arab students in Israel, who are not called for military service, from benefitting of such scholarships. Enclosed is a petition sent to the ministry following Mr. Peled's declaration (which, after immediate public protest, was qualified, though not utterly denied, by the Minister of Eduction himself).

P E T I T I O N
We hereby call upon the Government and the Minister of Education to retract their intention to pose military or national service as a prerequisite for eligibility for scholarships granted by the Ministry of Education and to remove the proposal to do so from their agenda.

We oppose any conditioning of civil rights in the completion of military service and urge the Government and the institutes of higher learning to encourage Arab students and other underprivileged groups by increasing the number of scholarships granted to them.

We strongly condemn the racist remarks made by Deputy Education Minister Moshe Peled aimed at the Arab students, who are citizens of the State of Israel. (End of petition)

All this speaks for itself, and we call upon our colleagues abroad to make known their opinion regarding the above in any way seen fit and open to them.

For those who would like to address pm Netanyahu, here is his email: Benyamin Natanyahu

Dr. Avraham Oz - Head, Department of Theatre
University of Haifa - Mt. Carmel, 31905 Haifa
Tel. +972-4-8240715, Fax: +972-4-8240128
email: avitaloz@research.haifa.ac.il