Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University - In the
Anti-Semitic pro-terror "Counterpunch" magazine, Anat Matar (Dept
of Philosophy) calls for a world boycott against Israeli
universities, especially her own
"When the flag of
academic freedom is raised, the oppressor and not the oppressed is
usually the one who flies it. What is that academic freedom that so
interests the academic community in Israel? ... Members of the
Israeli academia staunchly guard their right to research what the
regime expects them to research and appoint former army officers to
university positions. Tel Aviv University alone prides itself over
the fact that the Defense Ministry is funding 55 of its research
projects and that DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency in the U.S. Defense Department, is funding nine more. All the
universities offer special study programs for the defense
establishment."
http://www.counterpunch.org/matar09032009.html
Israeli Academics Must
Pay a Price to End Occupation
Israel May Boycott Gaza Schools and No Cry is Heard
By ANAT
MATAR
3/9/2009
Several
days ago Dr. Neve Gordon of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
published an opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times and
CounterPunch. In that article he explained why, after years
of activity in the peace camp here, he has decided to pin his hopes
on applying external pressure on Israel - including sanctions,
divestment and an economic, cultural and academic boycott.
He
believes, and so do I, that only when the Israeli society's
well-heeled strata pay a real price for the continuous occupation
will they finally take genuine steps to put an end to it.
Gordon
looks at the Israeli society and sees an apartheid state. While the
Palestinians' living conditions deteriorate, many Israelis are
benefiting from the occupation. In between the two sides, Israeli
society is sinking into complete denial - drawn into extreme hatred
and violence.
The
academic community has an important role to play in this process.
Yet, instead of sounding the alarm, it wakes up only when someone
dares approach the international community and desperately call for
help.
The
worn-out slogan that everybody raises in this context is "academic
freedom," but it is time to somewhat crack this myth.
The appeal
to academic freedom was born during the Enlightenment, when ruling
powers tried to suppress independent minded thinkers. Already then,
more than 200 years ago, Imannuel Kant differentiated between
academics whose expertise (law, theology, and medicine) served the
establishment and those who had neither power nor proximity to
power. As for the first, he said, there was no sense in talking
about "freedom" or "independent thought" as any use of such
terminology is cynical.
Since
then, cynicism has spread to other faculties as well. At best
academic freedom was perceived as the right not to
ask troubling questions. At worst was the right to harass whomever
asked too much.
When the
flag of academic freedom is raised, the oppressor and not the
oppressed is usually the one who flies it. What is that academic
freedom that so interests the academic community in Israel? When,
for example, has it shown concern for the state of academic freedom
in the occupied territories?
This
school year in Gaza will open in shattered classrooms as there are
no building materials there for rehabilitating the ruins; without
notebooks, books and writing utensils that cannot be brought into
Gaza because of the goods embargo (yes, Israel may boycott schools
there and no cry is heard).
Hundreds
of students in West Bank universities are under arrest or detention
in Israeli jails, usually because they belong to student
organizations that the ruling power does not like.
The
separation fence and the barriers prevent students and lecturers
from reaching classes, libraries and tests. Attending conferences
abroad is almost unthinkable and the entry of experts who bear
foreign passports is permitted only sparingly.
On the
other hand, members of the Israeli academia staunchly guard their
right to research what the regime expects them to research and
appoint former army officers to university positions. Tel Aviv
University alone prides itself over the fact that the Defense
Ministry is funding 55 of its research projects and that DARPA, the
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in the U.S. Defense
Department, is funding nine more. All the universities offer special
study programs for the defense establishment.
Are those programs met with any
protest? In contrast with the accepted impression, only few
lecturers speak up decisively against the occupation, its effect and
the increasingly bestial nature of the State of Israel.
The vast majority retains its freedom
to be indifferent, up to the moment that someone begs the
international community for rescue. Then the voices rise from right
and left, the indifference disappears, and violence replaces it:
Boycott Israeli universities? This strikes at the holy of holies,
academic freedom!
Anat Matar is
a lecturer in Tel Aviv University's Department of Philosophy.
This column originally appeared in Ha'aretz.
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