Ben Gurion University has intensified the witch hunt against Prof. Neve Gordon, who published an op-ed column in The Guardian and L.A. Times endorsing the Global BDS movement’s program against the Israeli Occupation. The column provoked a firestorm of controversy here in the U.S. and in Israel. The worst vitriol has come from the University’s president herself, Rivka Carmi. She has approvingly noted that many are calling Gordon a “traitor.” She has called for him to resign and leave Israel (Gordon is a decorated paratroop officer who was severely wounded during the first Lebanon war). She has alleged that Gordon seeks to destroy Israel. She has also called her University a “Zionist institution” that cannot have any truck with nation-threatening notions such as BDS.
But now, things have gotten worse. The school cannot fire Gordon because he has tenure. But they can exert enormous pressure on the department to can him as chairman. That’s what’s happening now. The University rector met with faculty supporting Gordon and told them:
…Gordon is not able to properly promote his department’s international programs while addressing the same people regarding a boycott, and the contradiction on this point poses a conflict of interests.
Since when is it a conflict of interest for a political scientist to publish an article on a major issue within his discipline? When the distaste of donors conflicts with the pursuit of knowledge, must the latter lose at BGU? If so, what kind of University is this?
In addition, the American support group for Ben Gurion has introduced particularly hateful rhetoric into the controversy. In Jewish Week, the American affiliate’s PR flack weighed in:
Gordon has been a “thorn in our side for many years” and that there has been a campaign by a number of people in the U.S. to have him fired from the university. Strongin said Gordon’s op-ed has reactivated the group…
She further calls Gordon’s column the “reprehensible remarks of one rogue faculty member.” When a faculty member called Strongin’s comments against Gordon “irresponsible” she had the temerity to reply:
How dare you call me irresponsible…My comments only reflect that of BGU’s administration, so don’t you dare stand on your high horse and accuse me of wrong doing.
In further communication, Doron Krakow, executive vice president of American Associates of Ben Gurion University (Strongin’s boss) lays down the law and fires up the big rhetorical guns against Gordon:
Gordon’s editorial is merely the latest example of his exploiting his position with the University to call attention to himself through the use of extreme, anti-Zionist and anti-Israel rhetoric not inconsistent with that which we hear from Israel’s worst enemies. Though this is hardly news, you and your colleagues nonetheless saw fit to elect him as department chair.
Personally, I find it extraordinarily offensive that the non-academic American affiliate of an Israeli university would lecture a faculty member about the mistake of appointing another faculty member as department chair. Since when did anyone arrogate to Doron Krakow the right to lobby for or against candidates for academic positions? Is Ben Gurion to appoint its leaders solely on the basis of which donors they will or won’t offend? Will it vet candidates for academic positions based on the controversial nature of their writings or publications? Where does this end?
Furthermore, since when does someone who is essentially a fundraiser get to make politically freighted judgments on faculty members comparing their views to those of “Israel’s worst enemies?”
The truth is that the academic discourse at Ben Gurion is among the most diverse among all Israeli universities. Debate about the Occupation among various disciplines on campus is vigorous and challenging. That is why a smart president would tell the world that this is a mark of what universities do best and would praise such diversity. Donors may not like certain points of view, but they can be made to understand that to be a great institution all ideas from the popular to the unpopular must be debated and studied.
If someone doesn’t calm Rivka Carmi and her associates down, her University will end up the laughingstock of Israeli institutions. Their thinking represent the tyranny of small minds. If they win, BGU will proudly bear the banner of a “Zionist” educational institution which wears its ideology on its sleeve; and where inquiry, academic freedom, and the pursuit of knowledge take a back seat to Zionist political correctness. The only faculty who will want to teach there and the only students who will want to study there are settlers and supporters of the Likud and Israel’s nationalist parties. What kind of University will that be?
If there are academics reading this I would like to start a campaign on Gordon’s behalf that might involve a letter published in the N.Y. Review of Books and any other activity that might enlist support here in the U.S. and in Israel. Carmi and the American branch of Ben Gurion are clearly bullies who care nothing about concepts like academic freedom. But if they know there are other distinguished academic figures who are watching what they are doing they will back down. But Gordon needs our help now.
And for anyone who doubts Neve Gordon’s commitment to his country (which he proved by the severe injury he suffered at Rosh Ha-Nikra in the first Lebanon war), please read Why I Live in Israel.
Richard, I don’t agree with your analogy. Certainly, in my opinion Gordon is in the right and deserves all the help and support we can give him. But when the Pope crushed Gallileo, he had the power of the church behind him. Netanyahu’s attempt to crush Gordon will ultimately fail, because Netanyahu is weak and Gordon has right on his side.
At least that’s what I hope.
Chances of a letter being published in London Review of Books are much greater than in NYRB…… just saying!
I’ve just written to my contact at LRB to ask if they’d be willing. Thanks for that suggestion.
Rupa, agree with you, the LRB is my journal along with the Nation.
I think the New York Review would publish a letter like this, though, Ben Gurion U.’s tactics are so nakedly Stalinist that they fly too much in the face of the cosmopolitan, liberal, “open society” orientation that the NYRB professes to uphold. Who knows, you might even a have great lion of free speech and academic freedom like Wieseltier sign it (remember, he held his nose and signed the academic letter in protest against the censorship of Tony Judt at the Polish consulate), I doubt it, though—and yes, sarcasm was intended.
Like the Galileo analogy, maybe a little over the top (agree with Schulman that Netanyahu’s Israel ain’t the late medieval Catholic church, serious powah, baby), but it still resonates.
RE: “…Rivka Carmi…has approvingly noted that many are calling Gordon a “traitor.” She has called for him to resign and leave Israel…”
MY COMMENT: I do not believe Jacobo Timerman would be at all surprised that such tactics are being used by Israelis (even academics) to suppress free speech. Following Israel’s savage 1982 attack on Lebanon and Sharon’s Sabra and Shatila massacres, Timerman wrote “The Longest War” in which he dared to be mildly critical of both Israel’s military campaign and its treatment of the Palestinians. As a consequence of his criticism, Israel essentially deemed him to be a self-hating Jew and made it clear that he was persona non grata. He left for Madrid and eventually returned to Buenos Aires.
Generally, I do not like the idea of cultural boycotts. Unfortunately, in this case, the efforts of Israeli academics such as Ms Carmi and her ilk to suppress free speech would seem to make a cultural boycott of Israel the appropriate course of action.
MOLLY IVINS’ TRIBUTE TO JACOBO TIMERMAN – http://www.creators.com/opinion/molly-ivins/molly-ivins-november-14-1999-11-14.html
Jacobo Timerman was a great man & I wrote a review of The Longest War for Genesis II, Boston’s alternative Jewish paper, when the book came out.
RE: “Jacobo Timerman was a great man…”
MY COMMENT: Yes, I would call him a ‘prince of a man’ or perhaps even a saint.
RE: “I do not believe Jacobo Timerman would be at all surprised…”
SHOULD HAVE READ: I am confident that Jacobo Timerman would not have been at all surprised (were he still with us)…”
P.S. I must have been having a bad brain day! (lol)
***REVISED POST***
RE: “…Rivka Carmi…has approvingly noted that many are calling Gordon a “traitor.” She has called for him to resign and leave Israel…”
MY COMMENT: I am confident that Jacobo Timerman would not have been at all surprised (were he still with us) that such tactics are being used by Israelis (even academics) to suppress free speech. Following Israel’s savage 1982 attack on Lebanon and Sharon’s Sabra and Shatila massacres, Timerman wrote “The Longest War” in which he dared to be mildly critical of both Israel’s military campaign and its treatment of the Palestinians. As a consequence of his criticism, Israel essentially deemed him to be a self-hating Jew and made it clear that he was persona non grata. He left for Madrid and eventually returned to Buenos Aires.
Generally, I do not like the idea of cultural boycotts. Unfortunately, in this case, the efforts of Israeli academics such as Ms Carmi and her ilk to suppress free speech would seem to make a cultural boycott of Israel the appropriate course of action.
MOLLY IVINS’ TRIBUTE TO JACOBO TIMERMAN – http://www.creators.com/opinion/molly-ivins/molly-ivins-november-14-1999-11-14.html
When the state in question is a place like Israel, “traitor” is the only possible choice for a man of conscience. The fact that Gordon is a traitor to Israel and its racist, genocidal mentality is precisely the reason we find him both courageous and praiseworthy.
RE: “I am confident that Jacobo Timerman would not have been at all surprised (were he still with us)…”
MY COMMENT: It is still not quite correct, but I give up. This seems to be yet another bad brain day. The old, gray “mare”…um….er….never was worth a damn.
RE: “Ben Gurion University has intensified the witch hunt against Prof. Neve Gordon…”
FROM ‘JEWISH VOICE FOR PEACE’:
***Defend academic freedom.
Ben Gurion University Professor Neve Gordon is under attack for having published an op-ed in the LA Times endorsing boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS). Tell Ben Gurion University and the Israeli Minister of Education to defend academic freedom and defend the right to talk about all nonviolent means to end the occupation–including BDS.
***TO SEND E-MAIL – http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/301/t/9047/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1368
In Berkeley, his academic freedom would have been denied- just like John Yoo. John Yoo published something politically unacceptable, and has been subject to unrelenting harrassment at the school and at his home.
Gordon should be so lucky.
Free speech for me but not for thee. Academic freedom for me and not for thee
You don’t know what you’re talking about. John Yoo is under no academic threat whatsoever. His advocacy for torture is heinous. But no one at UC Berkeley wants to fire him. Get real.