Academic freedom obstructed at the University of Haifa by from ALEF and ACADEMIA 7:56am Sat May 24 '03 This is not an isolated event. It is part of a daily reality in the campus that reflects and represents the overall demise of basic civic and human rights in Israel. The shooting of journalists and the assassination of human rights activists in the West Bank on the one hand, and the reign of terror and intimidation in the campus, on the other, are part and parcel of the same phenomena. print article The Dean, the President and the Historiography of 1948 Palestine. Haifa 2003 The Conference. Three weeks ago, my colleague in the University of Haifa, Dr. Asad Gahnim of the department of political science suggested convening a conference on the 1948 historiography. We agreed to present in the conference the recent developments in both the Israeli and Palestinian historiography on the 1948 war and Nakbah. He and Salman Natur were asked to introduce the recent critical trends in the Palestinian side (with particul ar stress on works which deconstruct the roll of the traditional leadership and the Arab regimes in the 1948 war). In the second half of the day we wanted Udi Adiv, Teddy Katz and myself to present an updated picture of the historiographical debates on the 1948 war within the scholarly community in Israel. I asked my own division, the International Relations division, to host the meeting. The head of the division, Dr. Michael Gross agreed. The Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences The conference was published in the usual sites as is common in the campus. Upon learning of the event, Professor Aryeh Ratner, the Dean of Social Sciences, phoned the head of the division and later me. He ordered us - by direct instructions from the Rector and the President of the university - to cancel the conference. He clarified that he will not allow a conference which included Udi Adiv. Adiv in the early 1970s was accused and found guilty for spying for the Syrians and sat in jail for that allegation. After his release, in the early 1980s, he finished a Ph. D. thesis in the University of London, under the supervision of Professor Sami Zubadia, one of the world leading scholars on the Middle East. His thesis was about the Zionist historiography and particularly on the 1948 historiography . He was then appointed as a lecturer in the Open University of Israel, a position he holds until today. I clarified all these details to Ratner. He told me this is of no interest and that the conference will not take place. He also explained he would send an official letter claiming that I have not filled correctly the forms needed for the convening of a conference. The same dichotomy between what would be officially written in the letters and the real reasons for the cancellation was explained to Dr. Gross (on the phone) I asked what would happen if I would "properly" refill the forms and was told that this would not change the decision, as its source was ideological and not administrative. He also told us that this was not his own policy, but that of the president of Haifa University, Professor Yehuda Hayut. In the university codex there is indeed reference for the procedures of conference convention. Like many other procedures it has never been implemented in the university ever since its foundation in the early 1970s. After consulting some people who were experts on the codex, it was suggested to me that if the conference is a departmental symposi um there is no need for such a procedure to take place. So the conference was re-defined as a departmental symposium. A room was ordered, a day was set, and invitations sent. The President of the University On May 22, at 14:00, the lectures and the audience came to hall 715 in the university. The doors were locked. In the corridor stood the chief of security forces in the university and ten of his henchmen, all armed with pistols and walki-talkies. I was pushed into a side room by the chief and his lieutenant and handed a personal letter from the president, Yehuda Hayut. This was done in front of my wife and my colleagues, who watched helplessly the macabre scene. The letter said that my actions were a severe breach of the university codex and hence the room was blocked and the event cancelled. The chief explained to me that I would not be allowed to conduct the event in any other part of the campus. Outside the corridor, my wife heard two other lieutenants of the chief informi ng the president in their communication network ,"we caught him". They also said to each other, "high time: they should do the same to all the leftist lectures in the university". The Historiography The participants and myself went to a cafeteria. The chief explained to me that if we talk sitting, but not standing, he would not regard it as a conference. We followed the orders and conducted what to my mind was one of the best critical symposiums on the 1948 historiography. The University Spokesperson: The local newspaper in Haifa, Kol Bo, under the headline "Silencing the Voices" reported the event. The university spokesperson responded: the conference was not up to academic standards of Haifa university (indeed it was not). Two reports In the internal network of the university there were only two references to the event: One by Dr. Yuval Yunai from the Department of Sociology he wrote: It's also a shame that on the same day that we made this -- may I say -- pioneering step, the university management banned another event from taking place. The dept. of international relations wanted to discuss the historiography of 1948, but my friend and colleague, the Dean of the my faculty, decided to use a doubtful prerogative and to ban the participation of Dr. Udi Adiv, a sociologist who wrote on the 1948 war, because of the sins he committed many years ago and for which he paid abundantly in many years of incarceration. Many people didn't like the composition of that event and its apparent challenge to the decision about Teddy Katz' MA thesis (Katz himself was supposed to talk too). Such objection is legitimate, but preventing the event by an instruction from above is against the academic spirit and freedom, even if Deans have this authority (which is also legally questionable). In any case, it's against the necessity to compromise and to heal the wounds of conflicts and hostilities. While the circle of violence runs amok around us, can't we, here, in our campus with its unique composition, show the citizens of Israel another way of living together, not side by side, but really together? Yuval (speaking on his behalf and not necessarily reflecting the feelings of all Forum Smol members). Professor Micha Leshem from the Department of Psychology wrote: Can anyone explain why on earth the University found fit to ban a seminar of Faculty and students and invited speakers? I understand the doors of the meeting room were locked, and security personnel on hand in great numbers to accompany the participants away. Such an action is inexcusable in a University, and surely requires a bold and convincing explanation from our University authorities. I fear that the good name of our university will again be questioned by our colleagues and the media - might it not have been wiser to let the meeting take place and its organizers take responsibility for its consequences, if any? How parochial can the University of Haifa be? I suppose the next step will be for the Seminar to take place in one of our less prejudicial and more Academically orientated sister institutions. Either way we are left with mud on our faces. Micah Conclusions: 1. This is not an isolated event. It is part of a daily reality in the campus that reflects and represents the overall demise of basic civic and human rights in Israel. The shooting of journalists and the assassination of human rights activists in the West Bank on the one hand, and the reign of terror and intimidation in the campus, on the other, are part and parcel of the same phenomena. 2. This episode illustrates forcefully why the boycott of Israeli academia abroad is justified, not just as part of the overall pressure on the Jewish state to end its brutal occupation, but also as a warning to the scholarly community in Israel that its protracted moral cowardice has a price tag on it. As long as this academia goes on exercising a reign of intimidation and tyranny in its own campuses, and is silent about the destruction of academic life in the occupied territories , it can not be part of the enlightened and progressive world, to which it wants eagerly to belong. 3. My colleagues who still find it difficult to support or show solidarity, for some reasons, fail to learn the historical lessons of the past. Today it is me, tomorrow it is them. Many of them come from families who experienc ed the same incremental process of silencing in Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Spain and the military regimes of Latin America. They still live in self-denial, believing it will never happen to them. As in the past, I ask you to express your indignation and protest and react in any way you deem appropriate, not for my sake, but for the sake of all those who are victimized by the present trends and ideologies in the state of Israel: the Palestinians under occupation, the minority within the country, and the few dissenting voices inside the Jewish society. Such a voice, in the end of the day, will be a valuable contribution to peace and reconciliation in the Middle East. Ilan Pappe add your comments Source file

Program of the banned seminar by reporter 9:22am Sat May 24 '03 print comment םיימואלניב םיסחיל הקלחמה :יתקלחמ רנימסל םכנימזהל תדבכתמ שדוחמ ןויע 1948 לש היפרגוירוטסיהב :תופתתשהב הפיח 'ינוא ,הנידמה עדמל גוחה ,םנאג דעסא ר"ד לגמ ץוביק ,ץכ ידת רמ .הפיח ,בידא דוהא ר"ד 2003 יאמל 22 -ה ,ישימח םויב םייקתי רנימסה ןיינבה ,715 םלוא ,16:00 – 14:00 תועשה ןיב הפיח תטיסרבינוא ,ישארה add your comments

To Ilan by Miri 10:22am Sat May 24 '03 print comment Hifa University has a tradition of shutting up dissenting voices. The fact that there is a large number of Arab students makes the policies of the University even more repressive than the usual. Is there something to be done? Any way of organizing the conference in an open space in the campus, for instance? (We did it abroad once, and it was a great success). add your comments

1 possible avenue> by keep the hope alive 10:51am Sat May 24 '03 print comment strike. for one day just strike. you guys, the Arabic people and the leftists college student, are the work force by large. You survive by doing the menial work for a living. You are the garbage collectors- the baristas and the cashiers. You are the wheel that keeps the bicycle rolling along to an abyss. Stop. Refuse to participate another split second until all of your desires are achieved! The future is in Your Hands. Keep them clean of corruption and detruction and shake eachothers hands whenever you can. add your comments

appalling interference in freedom of research by ACADEMIA: Alon Harel 11:53am Sat May 24 '03 print comment There is no question that this decision on the part of the U. Haifa if what was described is true is the most shapmeful decision taken in last 20 years in any university in Israel. It is an appalling interference in freedom of research in Israel. I have forward this to my colleagues at Haifa U. I cannot conceive the possibility that a dean will interfere and ban conferences organized by professors in one of his/her department. It is perhaps necessary to impose pressure on the University of Haifa to become part of the academic community in Israel. add your comments

exposed by len 2:54pm Sat May 24 '03 print comment Israel's right wing thought police are becoming more oppressive and blatant about eforcing their (highly selective) view of history. But they can't see how this damages Israel's reputation in the world at large. Do they really think they can impose a view of history which displays such a diregard for the facts, or that any debate about it is verboten? The more they do this, they more they expose themselves as no better than any tinpot dictator led country. Chile, South Africa, Israel....all the same. add your comments

the victor tends to write his version of hisstory with the blood of the defeated by anti.. selective histories 12:53am Sun May 25 '03 print comment It is the country's democratic right to pick & choose which segments of history it would like to omit and which ones it would prefer to include. add your comments

he heh by mal (tio 2:54am Sun May 25 '03 print comment A democratic right (to distort and lie) ?? What drugs are you on? add your comments

Haifa's History Conference - Protocols by Elders of Palestine 1:34pm Sun May 25 '03 print comment http://www.masada2000.org/pappe-pop.html Congratulations to the University of Haifa for taking the first steps against the Cult of Treason led by Ilan Pappe. add your comments

Bravo to Haifa U! by Jail Traitors 2:40pm Sun May 25 '03 print comment It long last Haifa University has taken the first steps to convert itself from a Mickey Mouse university dominated by mediocre Far Leftists with laughable academic records, a campus of pseudo-academic quacks pretending to be researchers, and the official campus of historic fabricators of the Tantora "massacre" - to become a serious academic institution. When Pappe has been fired for fraud and fabrication, we will know Haifa University has made it into the majors!! add your comments

Mr Mouse by Donald 8:17pm Sun May 25 '03 print comment Well, isn't it terrible when thoughtful people who have done the research come up with a conclusion which doesn't fit your prejudices. Best close down such dangerous places, for the truth mustn't be told to Israel's population, in case they see through their corrupt and mendacious leaders. add your comments

Walt Disney Sharon by anne 8:20pm Sun May 25 '03 print comment The only Mickey Mouse thing around is the Israeli government propaganda. This is why Israel's point of view is unversally mocked now, especially when we see how it deals with those of its own citizens who dare speak out with a different point of view. Apartheid South Africa would have been proud of you. add your comments

Outting Academic Traitors by Steinberg 9:55pm Sun May 25 '03 print comment Israel's Academic Eccentrics Not So Harmless Jerusalem Post, October 3, 2002 Gerald M. Steinberg This week, a small group of Israeli academics circulated an "urgent warning" that "the Israeli government may be contemplating crimes against humanity." This hysterical missive, published in Britain's Guardian newspaper and in the (Saudi) Arab News, was based on a jumble of statements by IDF Chief of General Staff Moshe Ya'alon, distorted and out of context, and from two minor politicians. In any serious academic setting, this and a long list of similar epistles signed by many of the same authors would never receive a passing grade. Beyond the substantive failings in the use of sources, the turgid style and prose are reminiscent of Soviet propaganda from Pravda's style-sheet. Converting legitimate responses to brutal Palestinian terrorism into "escalating racist demagoguery," they scream with definitive ambiguity that this "may indicate the scope of the crimes that are possibly being contemplated." In conclusion, they call on "the International Community" (whoever or whatever this may be) "to pay close attention to events... to make it absolutely clear that crimes against humanity will not be tolerated..." In contrast, there is a reverberating silence on the real war crimes committed by the Palestinians in the past two years. Israelis generally give little credence to the ramblings of the extremist fringe, which they attribute to deep-seated psychological factors, an obsessive need for attention, and the desire to "fit in" with fringe colleagues abroad. Aside from an occasional guest appearance in the media, these people have absolutely no access to decision-makers in the government (particularly in the past two years), and their political opinions are either ignored or ridiculed. While many have frustrated political ambitions and would rather be directing governments instead of teaching unappreciative undergraduates, none are electable. HOWEVER, it is a mistake to dismiss these activities as the musings of harmless eccentrics or refugees from Chelm. Indeed, members of this group have been very successful at boosting their visibility by exploiting the appeal of Jewish self-denigration to anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist groups (now a major industry) in Europe and on US campuses. Although they constitute only a tiny fraction of Israeli academics, they promote themselves and their extremist ideas with great enthusiasm. Skillfully exploiting access to the media and to funding, they invented the short-lived "post-Zionist" and "anti-Zionist" sects and the "new history" fad. Ilan Pappe from Haifa University is one of the usual signatories, and also a notorious "revisionist historian," providing "expertise" for BBC anti-Israeli documentaries. Anti-Israel Israelis sell well and are well rewarded for their contributions. As a result, little attention is paid to their multiple failures in predicting or explaining events in Israel (particularly salient in the cases of those who claim academic expertise in Israeli sociology and politics). To cite the most recent examples in a long list, a few months ago, members of this group promoted the concept that large numbers of Israelis would soon refuse to appear for reserve duty in the IDF. Based on op-ed articles such as one written by Prof. Baruch Kimmerling of the Hebrew University and published in the International Herald Tribune, journalists and diplomats circulated this story widely. A few weeks later, only a handful of reservists actually rejected their call-up orders; instead, the IDF was flooded with far more volunteers than could be accepted. Similarly, members of this group vigorously promoted the Palestinian propaganda machine's tales of a "massacre" in Jenin. Now, with no sense of embarrassment or integrity, they have moved to a new propaganda campaign. Their "warnings" have absolutely no credibility with individuals who have even a minimal understanding of Israeli reality, but this does not stop the public-relations machine. However, and most disturbingly, in the Arab world and among many Palestinians, such fringe groups are distorted into accurate reflections of Israel. For Arafat and his cohorts, the image of a deeply divided Israeli society, full of self-doubt, without direction or the ability to defend itself against terrorism and brutality, was very appealing. Magnifying the impact of this group completely out of proportion (in part, reflecting the disproportionate number of meetings involving the fringe Left), Palestinians mistakenly assumed that Israel would quickly collapse under the weight of terror. In terms of the ethical principles that these extremist Israeli academics claim to follow, their statements should at least include a consumer warning that these views reflect only a tiny fraction of Israelis. Tenured faculty members in this group (who use their power to promote partners with the same ideology) have the right to free speech. These anti-Israeli and anti-Zionist academics cannot be dismissed for signing petitions, no matter how ludicrous. (Meanwhile, their universities continue to raise money from well-meaning but apparently uninformed Jewish contributors in the Diaspora in the name of Jewish survival and Zionism.) The time has come for the silent majority of sane Israeli academics to raise their voices against the injustice and immorality of terrorism and hatred, and in support of the Jewish right to self-defense. We are not obligated to agree with or accept every policy that the elected government of Israel pursues, and have the duty to protest mistakes in a responsible manner. However, my non-fanatical and non-eccentric Israeli colleagues have the obligation to ensure that eccentrics and anti-Zionist extremists are not allowed to speak for the rest of us. add your comments

exactly by mike 10:33pm Sun May 25 '03 print comment That's exactly the point. The JP just shows how deluded people in Israel are. It is a comic. add your comments

university response by alef 4:26am Fri Jun 6 '03 msalon@mscc.huji.ac.il print comment The university has published a response to Pappe accusations. It would be very desirable if you add in your cite the university response which denies most of the accusations made by Pappe add your comments