{"id":10027,"date":"2012-10-05T08:51:10","date_gmt":"2012-10-05T08:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gaza.haimbresheeth.com\/?p=10027"},"modified":"2012-10-07T20:58:57","modified_gmt":"2012-10-07T20:58:57","slug":"october-5-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/haimbresheeth.com\/gaza\/2012\/10\/05\/october-5-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"October 5, 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

EDITOR<\/strong>: The iconic case of the BGU Politics and Government\u00a0 department – Israeli academic freedom is all a fiction<\/span><\/p>\n

For the last few years, the Israeli right has been trying to get at some of the lecturers at Ben Gurion University, and especially, at Prof. Neve Gordon, one of the very few academics in Israel who have publicly supported the BDS actions against Israel, and has consistently supported the rights of the Palestinians under occupation. A number of other academics in the department are also liberals and and left-leaning, though none is either as adroit or as courageous as Prof. Gordon. Some of the American backers of the university, itself far from left-leaning, and headed by the Populist President Prof. Rivka Carmi, have demanded that the President of BGU removes forthwith the critical Prof. Gordon, in reaction to his public stance against the continued Israeli occupation. Prof Carmi was well prepared to do so, and has followed the legal procedures which would have brought this about, only to announce that, despite her wishes, this would not be possible, as there is no sufficient grounds for the removal of the said professor. Carmi was always careful to argue that she maintains academic freedom at BGU, but the various evidence below is pointing elsewhere. In the event, the right wing organisation Im Tirzu<\/em> has done her work for her, submitting a report on the troublesome department, which was discussed at the Knesset and by the HEC (Higher Education Council) which has first suggested changes in the department, and has now decided to close it – a decision never taken before against any other department in Israel’s history.<\/span><\/p>\n

Below are a number of articles from various perspectives. It is clear that this has become a test case for the Israeli academia. Very few if any Israeli academics have stood up and supported the department against this clearly politically-motivated step, proving again the deep complicity of most Israeli academics, their total and uncritical dependence on the state, and their inherent and uncritical support of its aggressive, immoral and illegal policies against Palestine and the Palestinians. That the department will be closed is now fait accompli<\/em>, given the lack of collegial support from the rest of the academic community. Thus the punitive measure will join the very many undemocratic and illiberal new legislation passed by the current Israeli regime of the extreme right against all critics of its continued suppression of the Palestinians. The Israeli academia fails its major examination…<\/span><\/p>\n

To sign the petition below, use the link:<\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.ipetitions.com\/petition\/academics-to-gideon-saar\/<\/p>\n

To: Mr. Gideon Sa\u2019ar, Israeli Minister of Education<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear Gideon Sa\u2019ar,<\/p>\n

We are writing as academics to express our grave concern about the moves, initiated by Israel\u2019s Council of Higher Education, to close down the Department of Politics and Government at Ben-Gurion University, by preventing it from registering students from the start of the next academic year.<\/p>\n

This attack on the Department quite transparently has nothing to do with the quality of its staff, or of their teaching or research. It has everything to do with the fact that some of them have publicly taken brave and locally unpopular political positions.
\nThe manoeuvres undertaken to try to bring this closure about already bring discredit on the governance of the Israeli higher education system. Should they be successful in closing the Department, it will be a permanent stain on the reputation of Israel\u2019s universities.<\/p>\n

As Professor Rivka Carmi, President of Ben-Gurion University, has written, the politically motivated closure of the Department \u201cwill constitute a devastating blow to academic independence in Israel\u201d.
\nWe call upon the Council of Higher Education to reject the recommendation of its Sub-Committee.<\/p>\n

Dr Robert Boyce, London School of Economics
\nProfessor Jonathan Rosenhead, London School of Economics<\/p>\n

Below I have tried to put together the main stages of the developments at BGU, for those who would like to follow it methodically. More will be added over the coming days.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

2012 APSA letter to Israeli Council of Higher Education<\/a>: Committee on Professional Ethics, Rights and Freedoms American Political Science Association<\/h3>\n

POB 4037
\nJabotinsky 43
\nJerusalem, Israel
\nDear Members of the Israeli Council on Higher Education, We write to you on behalf of more than 15,000 US and international members of the American Political Science Association, a scholarly association that represents professors and students of political science worldwide, including faculty and students in Israel. The
\nCommittee on Professional Ethics, Rights and Freedoms is concerned with any challenges to academic freedom experienced by political scientists acting in their professional capacity.
\nIt is with great concern that we enquire about recent reports on the Council\u2019s sub-committee overseeing evaluation and teaching quality\u2019s proposal to effectively close the Department of Politics and Government at Ben Gurion University of the Negev. Those reports, amplified by the open letter by BGU President Rivka Carmi to the higher education community, raise troubling questions about the decision of the Council\u2019s sub-committee and its commitment to academic freedom.
\nWe understand that the Council\u2019s sub-committee overseeing evaluation and teaching quality recommended on 5 September 2012 that the Department of Politics at Ben Gurion not be allowed to open student registration for the 2013-2014 academic year. We also understand that this followed a review, commissioned by the subcommittee, by an international evaluation committee that recommended a series of changes at the department \u2013 recommendations which the university implemented and for which members of the international review committee commended the university. Moreover, we are aware that many in the academic community are concerned that the recommendation to end enrollment is tied to disagreements with the political orientations or activities of individual faculty members at Ben Gurion University of the Negev. The apparent discrepancy between the implementation of recommendations of the review committee, and the subcommittee\u2019s
\nsevere decision to end enrollment thus raises grave concerns about the actual reasons for such a departmental closure.
\nAgainst this backdrop, we ask for further information and urge you, in the strongest possible terms, to protect academic freedom in Israeli higher education. We would not presume to know all the facts of the case. Our concern is that no action be taken which is either directly or inadvertently an assault on the ability of members of our profession to practice intellectual honesty or that would compromise the freedom of their inquiry and teaching. Academic freedom is the foundation of our scholarly endeavors and even the appearance of such an affront would have detrimental consequences for the pursuit of understanding and knowledge, and for the reputation of Israeli higher education.
\nYours truly,
\nYvette Alex-Assensoh
\nChair, Committee on Professional Ethics, Rights and Freedoms American Political Science Association<\/p>\n

EDITOR<\/strong>: Neve Gordon’s original article in LA Times:<\/span><\/p>\n

Boycott Israel<\/a>: LA Times<\/h3>\n
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An Israeli comes to the painful conclusion that it’s the only way to save his country.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

August 20, 2009<\/a>|Neve Gordon\u00a0|\u00a0Neve Gordon is the author of “Israel’s Occupation” and teaches politics at Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba, Israel.<\/div>\n
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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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

There are only two moral ways of achieving this goal.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Ideologically, the two-state solution is more realistic because fewer than 1% of Jews and only a minority of Palestinians support binationalism.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

EDITOR<\/strong>: Neve Gordon in the Guardian, arguing for a boycott of Israel, in August 2009:<\/span><\/p>\n

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Time to boycott Israel<\/a>: Guardian<\/h3>\n

For the sake of our children, I am convinced that an international boycott is the only way to save Israel from itself<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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