Israeli Academic Extremism
University Officials furious with Education Minister
Saar's Academic Freedom Ethics Code
Israeli university officials are wetting
themselves in a tantrum. It seems the Israeli Minister of Education
Gideon Saar wants them to adopt an "ethics code." In it, he wants it
to say that faculty members and students will not be victims of
discrimination because of their political beliefs. And by that he
means that he wants to make sure that non-leftist faculty and
students are no longer victimized. ... Saar also wants to include
calls by faculty members for boycotts of Israel and endorsements of
attacks against Israel as examples of "unethical behavior."
…
The University heads are proposing instead that
each university adopt its OWN ethical code written internally. You
know, codes they have never quite gotten around to formulating over
past decades. But this is absurd. The officials at Israeli
universities, including at Ben Gurion University, Haifa University
and Tel Aviv University, have all come out in the past year in
OPPOSITION to the rights of critics of tenured Leftists to criticize
them. They demand that such "McCarthyism" be silenced. … And any
"ethical code" the campus heads would adopt would be based first and
foremost on defending the rights of radical leftist faculty to
collaborate with the enemies of Israel, to call for its destruction,
to call for world boycotts against Israel, and to endorse Hamas
demands.
http://thejewishpress.blogspot.com/2010/11/israeli-universities-outraged-at.html
Israeli Universities Outraged at Demands
that they Behave Ethically
Posted by
Steven Plaut
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Israeli university officials are wetting
themselves in a tantrum. It seems the Israeli Minister of Education
Gideon Saar wants them to adopt an "ethics code." In it, he wants it
to say that faculty members and students will not be victims of
discrimination because of their political beliefs. And by that he
means that he wants to make sure that non-leftist faculty and
students are no longer victimized. No one seriously thinks that
leftist faculty at Israeli universities suffer any disadvantages. In
fact they RUN the institutions. Saar also wants to include calls by
faculty members for boycotts of Israel and endorsements of attacks
against Israel as examples of "unethical behavior."
But that has university honchos up in arms. How
dare Saar attempt to interfere with their longstanding practices of
discriminating against non-leftists while hiring and promoting far
leftist anti-Israel extremists having no serious academic records?
The tenured Left is screaming that an ethics code will "destroy
Israeli academia." See
this. How dare anyone suggest professors behave ethically!! Saar
also wants diversity in university departments, by which he clearly
means that non-leftist opinion should be heard and not suppressed.
The University heads are proposing instead that
each university adopt its OWN ethical code written internally. You
know, codes they have never quite gotten around to formulating over
past decades. But this is absurd. The officials at Israeli
universities, including at Ben Gurion University, Haifa University
and Tel Aviv University, have all come out in the past year in
OPPOSITION to the rights of critics of tenured Leftists to criticize
them. They demand that such "McCarthyism" be silenced. They have
repeatedly failed to defend the academic freedom of non-leftists on
campus. The firing of the professor at Ben Gurion University who
dared to express a heterodox opinion about children being raised by
gay couples is only one example. They have failed to protect freedom
of speech within campuses. They themselves have led smear campaigns
against the Im Tirtzu student movement. They have totally failed to
maintain serious academic standards of excellence. Israeli
universities are crawling with extremists who built entire careers
upon churning out anti-Israel hate propaganda. And any "ethical
code" the campus heads would adopt would be based first and foremost
on defending the rights of radical leftist faculty to collaborate
with the enemies of Israel, to call for its destruction, to call for
world boycotts against Israel, and to endorse Hamas demands.
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