Not another post about Negri this time! Recent events at Columbia University demonstrate that it’s very hard for college teachers to discuss the Palestian Intifada outside the approved American/Israeli paradigm and survive with their careers intact. Or without having a charge of anti-semitism laid at them.
It’s perhaps no surprise that our old friend Larry Summers, President of Harvard (whose remarks on gender and science stirred up some lively comment on these pages recently) has also been in on the act, declaring that statements that criticise Israeli government policy to be “actions that are anti-semitic in their effect, if not their intent”.
Judith Butler’s riposte is worth reading. Butler is of course Jewish, but an opponent of the policy of the current Israeli government.
If academia takes on a political role for itself, it will be treated like a political player. “Academic freedom” is a nice concept, but in practice it only seems to be invoked to defend the “right” to present left-wing propaganda in the guise of study.
An issue relevant to the current topic is the proposed boycott of Israeli academics by UK academics. Where does this fit in the narrative of “academic freedom”?
If academia takes on a political role for itself, it will be treated like a political player. “Academic freedom” is a nice concept, but in practice it only seems to be invoked to defend the “right” to present left-wing propaganda in the guise of study.
An issue relevant to the current topic is the proposed boycott of Israeli academics by UK academics. Where does this fit in the narrative of “academic freedom”?
I don’t support the boycott for a number of reasons, including the principle of academic freedom.
And EP – isn’t effectively forbidding anyone from teaching objectively about the Middle East a political imposition on freedom of thought and speech rather than academia taking a “political role”?
I don’t support the boycott for a number of reasons, including the principle of academic freedom.
And EP – isn’t effectively forbidding anyone from teaching objectively about the Middle East a political imposition on freedom of thought and speech rather than academia taking a “political role”?
I think the EPs of this world would be quite shocked at the narrow range of opinion allowed on US campuses. Whether it’s left wing or right wing PC, there’s little genuine discussion and debate. I did my Masters in San Francisco and was quite surprised at the difference from an Australian undergrad education. It mirrors the very narrow spectrum of views presented in the US media – it’s just sometimes a differently narrow spectrum. No doubt why blogs are so big in the States.
Be careful what you wish for, EP. Next time you criticise Swedish government policy, you might be accused of anti-Nordicism!
The problem is that many universities aren’t teaching objectively about the Middle East. They’re forcing students to imbibe and regurgitate Palestinian propaganda.
I think the EPs of this world would be quite shocked at the narrow range of opinion allowed on US campuses. Whether it’s left wing or right wing PC, there’s little genuine discussion and debate. I did my Masters in San Francisco and was quite surprised at the difference from an Australian undergrad education. It mirrors the very narrow spectrum of views presented in the US media – it’s just sometimes a differently narrow spectrum. No doubt why blogs are so big in the States.
Be careful what you wish for, EP. Next time you criticise Swedish government policy, you might be accused of anti-Nordicism!
The problem is that many universities aren’t teaching objectively about the Middle East. They’re forcing students to imbibe and regurgitate Palestinian propaganda.
I think academia has passed its prime as an environment for wide-ranging discussion and diverse opinion. This function is now better served by the Internet.
I think academia has passed its prime as an environment for wide-ranging discussion and diverse opinion. This function is now better served by the Internet.
What is ‘teaching objectively about the Middle East’?
What is ‘Palestinian propaganda’?
EP’s posts on other topics now make sense.
The destruction of reason in the defense of the indefensible – systematic ethnic cleansing by a contemptible state apparatus in pursuit of lebensraum – has leached into and subverted rationality and morality in other spheres.
He evidently has no idea of the significance of the McCarthyite attack on the Columbia academics.
EP should spend a year in Rafah or Jenin to taste Israeli hospitality. If he comes back alive, he might then have some substantive basis on which to offer an opinion.
What is ‘teaching objectively about the Middle East’?
What is ‘Palestinian propaganda’?
EP’s posts on other topics now make sense.
The destruction of reason in the defense of the indefensible – systematic ethnic cleansing by a contemptible state apparatus in pursuit of lebensraum – has leached into and subverted rationality and morality in other spheres.
He evidently has no idea of the significance of the McCarthyite attack on the Columbia academics.
EP should spend a year in Rafah or Jenin to taste Israeli hospitality. If he comes back alive, he might then have some substantive basis on which to offer an opinion.
Why ‘contemptible’, farthington? Until recently Israel was the only democracy in the Middle East (with Iraq now adventuring down that path, perhaps we should amend that to ‘mature’ democracy). It has an independent high court which has been courageous and principled enought to make illegal the use of torture by the IDF and the security services, a free press, and it unhesitatingly plays host to dissenting opinions, including those that advocate surrender to its implacable enemy of the last 50 years. Sounds quite commendable to me.
And do not Hamas and co. have an ethnic cleansing agenda of their own – the destruction of the Jewish state and the imposition of an Islamic theocracy along Talibanic lines in Gaza, the West Bank, and the tiny sliver of eastern Mediterranean seaboard currently known as Israel?
As for Jenin, there’s no juice left in that lemon, for all the ISM’s squeezing.
Why ‘contemptible’, farthington? Until recently Israel was the only democracy in the Middle East (with Iraq now adventuring down that path, perhaps we should amend that to ‘mature’ democracy). It has an independent high court which has been courageous and principled enought to make illegal the use of torture by the IDF and the security services, a free press, and it unhesitatingly plays host to dissenting opinions, including those that advocate surrender to its implacable enemy of the last 50 years. Sounds quite commendable to me.
And do not Hamas and co. have an ethnic cleansing agenda of their own – the destruction of the Jewish state and the imposition of an Islamic theocracy along Talibanic lines in Gaza, the West Bank, and the tiny sliver of eastern Mediterranean seaboard currently known as Israel?
As for Jenin, there’s no juice left in that lemon, for all the ISM’s squeezing.
Rob’s robotic reply throws up a variant of the prattling catechisms that is the Israeli lobby’s daily bread.
The Israeli ethnocracy has its liberal elements, but these are but fartings in the wind as the ethnic cleansing continues apace towards the lebensraum.
The current enclosure of Arab East Jerusalem with the Wall and the extension of the engorged settlement of Maale Adumin is just the latest moment of the inexorable push.
And just last week, according to that journal of the most exemplary impartiality, the Jerusalem Post, a shipment of Apache Longbows, the most sophisticated helicopters in Christendom (sic) arrived in Israel, courtesy of a sizeable grant from the US military.
‘Teaching objectively about the Middle East’ would involve confrontation with the self-contained axis of evil that is the Rogue State Israel.
‘Palestinian propaganda’ essentially concerns the demand for Palestinians to be treated as other than sub-human chattel who happen to have inherited some valuable real estate.
As the Israeli lobby attempts to defend the indefensible, to make black white, those who would prefer to point out that black is black have to be kept out of the media (a brilliant job in the Australian editorial pages), and now, silenced in the academy.
The problem with Columbia’s Department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures is the pursuit of objectivity in the Middle East.
Students (including Jewish students) have responded to the ‘documentary’ Columbia Unbecoming by testifying to its inaccuracy.
What is interesting about the posts of EP and Rob is that they reflect how much reactionary foreign policy in Australia, and its support in the Australian media, is meshed with the interests of the Israeli lobby.
Rob’s robotic reply throws up a variant of the prattling catechisms that is the Israeli lobby’s daily bread.
The Israeli ethnocracy has its liberal elements, but these are but fartings in the wind as the ethnic cleansing continues apace towards the lebensraum.
The current enclosure of Arab East Jerusalem with the Wall and the extension of the engorged settlement of Maale Adumin is just the latest moment of the inexorable push.
And just last week, according to that journal of the most exemplary impartiality, the Jerusalem Post, a shipment of Apache Longbows, the most sophisticated helicopters in Christendom (sic) arrived in Israel, courtesy of a sizeable grant from the US military.
‘Teaching objectively about the Middle East’ would involve confrontation with the self-contained axis of evil that is the Rogue State Israel.
‘Palestinian propaganda’ essentially concerns the demand for Palestinians to be treated as other than sub-human chattel who happen to have inherited some valuable real estate.
As the Israeli lobby attempts to defend the indefensible, to make black white, those who would prefer to point out that black is black have to be kept out of the media (a brilliant job in the Australian editorial pages), and now, silenced in the academy.
The problem with Columbia’s Department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures is the pursuit of objectivity in the Middle East.
Students (including Jewish students) have responded to the ‘documentary’ Columbia Unbecoming by testifying to its inaccuracy.
What is interesting about the posts of EP and Rob is that they reflect how much reactionary foreign policy in Australia, and its support in the Australian media, is meshed with the interests of the Israeli lobby.
Well, there’s nothing much I can say in response to that. The usual farrago of conspiracy theories, Zionism=nazism (as in the lebensraum and sub-human references), the power of the international Zionist lobby (as per Margo), its tentacular hold over Australia’s foreign policy, the silencing pro-Palestinian voices in the media, which in fact give the Palestinians a generally uncritical run for their money.
And so on. And I’m robotic?
And nothing at all to say about Hamas, its suicide bombers and its avowed objective of eradicating the Jewish state.
Well, there’s nothing much I can say in response to that. The usual farrago of conspiracy theories, Zionism=nazism (as in the lebensraum and sub-human references), the power of the international Zionist lobby (as per Margo), its tentacular hold over Australia’s foreign policy, the silencing pro-Palestinian voices in the media, which in fact give the Palestinians a generally uncritical run for their money.
And so on. And I’m robotic?
And nothing at all to say about Hamas, its suicide bombers and its avowed objective of eradicating the Jewish state.