Dershowitz takes on Academia

TAU professors denounce Dershowitz for speech against left
Academics hit back after U.S. commentator slams university staff for backing boycotts against Israel.

By Or Kashti, HAARETZ

Senior faculty members at Tel Aviv University have come out against remarks by Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz on Saturday in which he condemned Israeli university faculty who criticize Israel and have even supported an academic boycott of the country.

Dershowitz made the remarks, in which he also criticized academics who use their academic freedom and their Jewishness to chastise the Israeli government, at a ceremony awarding him an honorary doctorate at the university.

(Read the complete text of Dershowitz’s speech here)

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In a letter to the university’s president, Joseph Klafter, a group of faculty members demanded that Tel Aviv University disassociate itself from Dershowitz’s comments and “unequivocally defend the freedom of expression of all the members of the academic community.”

They wrote: “The fact that Dershowitz mentioned the names of [university] lecturers and accused them of hurting students and harming the resilience of the State of Israel already borders on incitement.”

The letter was initiated in the history department and within hours attracted the support of 80 faculty members.

Dershowitz, one of the most prominent pro-Israel advocates in the United States, spoke at the university on Saturday evening on behalf of this year’s recipients of honorary degrees. But he stressed that the views he expressed were his own. Dershowitz said academic freedom not only meant freedom to criticize the establishment but also the right to defend the government, work with it and be a patriot.

He said students also have academic freedom and the right not to accept lecturers’ classroom propaganda. Dershowitz’s speech was met by enthusiastic applause.

In their protest letter, the faculty said that Dershowitz “has no evidence that anyone on the faculty has forced his views on students.”

Tel Aviv University issued its own statement last night. “Prof. Dershowitz enjoyed the right to freedom of speech and to express his views. Klafter emphasizes that the university will continue to unequivocally defend freedom of expression of all the members of the academic community.”

Dershowitz mentioned three faculty members – Rachel Giora of the linguistics department, Anat Matar of the philosophy department and Shlomo Sand of the history department.

Outgoing university rector Dan Levitan recently threatened to bring disciplinary charges against Matar after she took part in a conference in London – while classes were in recess at the university – dealing with the general and academic boycott of Israel. But no action has been taken.

Regarding Levitan’s threatened action against Matar, the university said in its statement that “by virtue of his position, the university rector is entitled to approve or not approve vacation time for a member of the faculty during the academic year.”

Dershowitz issued a separate statement to Haaretz. “Let the public judge whether the petition correctly characterizes my talk and whether it borders on ‘incitement’ or is itself an example of the kind of free speech many on the hard left would like to stifle,” he wrote.

May 12, 2010 | 5 Comments »

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5 Comments / 5 Comments

  1. he denounced self-appointed left-wing moralists who routinely condemn the nation, its existence, and even the idea of the Jewish people, and said that having academic tenure entails a certain degree of intellectual maturity and professional responsibility.

    What he describes is Treason on the part of our noble academics and we know what the penalty for treason in time of war is?

    We desperately need our own version of the famous Issac Parker!!

    When Judge Isaac Parker first arrived in Fort Smith, Arkansas, the town had thirty saloons and one bank. Inheriting a corrupt court and a lawless territory roughly the size of Great Britain, he immediately put the residents on notice by publicly hanging six convicted felons at one time. For the next two decades, his stern and implacable justice brought law and order to the West . . . and made him plenty of enemies.

    As the sole law on the untamed frontier, Parker tried civil and criminal cases throughout the Western District of Arkansas and the Indian Nations. Only God and the president had the power to challenge Parker. His severe judgments scandalized Washington and the Eastern press, and took an onerous toll on his private life, but the ‘Hanging Judge of the Border’ never flinched from his duty. Over the years, he and his marshals, dubbed ‘Parker’s Men,’ ran up against some of the most colorful and dangerous outlaws the West had to offer, including the notorious Dalton Gang; Belle Star, the Bandit Queen; the murderous Cherokee Bill; and Ned Christie, a vengeful Indian who carried on a private war against the U.S. government for seven years.

  2. I would love to see Netanyahu announce that Israeli military/law enforcement will no longer protect seditious jihadist Tel Aviv University against any Palestinian or Swiss aggression. When the leftist academics complain that their lives are being endangered, they should be asked why would they believe that?

    What leads them to think that the Swiss would hurt anyone?

    The outrageous aspect of the pseudo intellectuals who side with terrorists against democracies is that these cynically learned imbeciles know that the democracies they slander will protect them from the terrorists they exalt.

  3. The U.S. has its Lionel Jeffrieses, Ward Churchills, and Bill Ayerses; this last has been “honored” by having a letter published in the current (5/17/10) New Yorker. Israel too has its coterie of academics who exploit the natural adolescent tendencies toward rebellion, self-righteousness, and uninformed zealous enthusiasm to promote viewpoints that have no basis in fact but make their speakers look “provocative” and “courageous.” I read the full text of Dershowitz’s speech and it was excellent; contrary to what Haaretz wrote, he did not say Israeli academics shouldn’t criticize their government; rather, he denounced self-appointed left-wing moralists who routinely condemn the nation, its existence, and even the idea of the Jewish people, and said that having academic tenure entails a certain degree of intellectual maturity and professional responsibility.

  4. …unequivocally defend the freedom of expression of all the members of the academic community…

    They’re publicity-seeking hypocrites. If they feel a need to criticise, why not do it quietly instead of calling up the press to show them just how moral and upstanding they are…

    “Washing their dirty linen in public” is all it is…

    Dershowitz “…[Dershowitz] has no evidence that anyone on the faculty has forced his views on students…”

    Sure.

    People that stupid shouldn’t be teaching kids anything.