Israeli Academic Freedom has been Liquidated by the Radical Left

By Ben Dror Yemini, Maariv, November 3, 2013

In a certain Israeli university department a seminar included the
presentation of “field research” on the subject of Israeli colonialism
under the occupation. The seminar was conducted by a professor who is
active in the BALAD (Arab fascist — SP) party and his two course
assistants were radical leftist activists. The “field research” for the
course was funded by radical leftist organizations.

In a different school a book was published containing articles about the
Israeli control of the occupied territories. Every single chapter, with no
exceptions, was written by radical leftists. In a different school of
social sciences, 10 out of the 11 members of the faculty are radical
leftists. In the past and following complaints from students, we exposed
the fact (in Maariv) that a “law clinic” is being operated by the
University of Haifa that is an extension and subsidiary of the (radical
Arab nationalist anti-Israel — SP) ADALAH organization. This is the same
department that in the pass cancelled the singing of the national anthem at
graduation ceremonies. All the above is just a very small sample. New
findings indicate that the problem is worsening.

What is interesting and fascinating is the automatic Pavlovian reaction of
all the spokespersons and officials – that it is all just academic freedom.
… Yes of course having a marketplace for competing ideas is essential. The
problem is that the competition of ideas is disappearing. In many a
department in the social sciences, there exists hegemony by anti-Zionist
and post-Zionist ideology.

In a certain academic journal recently an article written by a professor
who is a member of MERETZ was rejected because it carried some Zionist
content. In other journals, articles that do not toe the line and sing the
anti-Zionist tune are rejected by an editor who is part of the anti-Zionist
choir. The university heads, who are not part of this trend (oh no? —
SP), are living in denial. … The result is the liquidation of academic
freedom.

In Israeli academia, anyone who is not a member of the bolshevik horde has
difficulties finding positions and getting in, and his articles will not
get published, or he will simply be treated as an outcast. So the problem
here is not heterodox ideas and opinions, or even the university law clinic
that functions as an extension of a radical political organization. The
problem is quite simply that Israel is losing its academic freedom, which
is being replaced by academic bolshevism. Because there is not the
slightest chance in hell that any university will ever open a law clinic
that is under the control of some radical rightwing organization, and it is
good that this is so. But every case of “collaboration” is always in a
single direction, that with radical leftist organizations.

It is quite possible that the “Im Tirtzu” student group is, as the
university chiefs claim, interested in provocations. Fine, let the
university chiefs prove that their charges are false. Come show us cases
of collaboration between university units and NGOs that are NOT from the
radical left, similar to the collaboration between the University of Haifa
Law School and ADALAH. To demonstrate for us the pluralism that is
flowering. But the universities have nothing to say in their defense
besides charges of “provocations” and “McCarthyism.” There is something
very, very alarming going on in Israeli academia and it is nothing less
than the suppression of academic freedom.

[Bidvertisecode]

It was only last year that the bolshevik campaign succeeded in stifling
criticism of the Department of Politics at Ben Gurion University. And it
does not matter WHO is expressing the criticism. It is not only in
response to criticism from right-wing NGOs that the kneejerk reactions
proliferate. It was exactly the same reaction when the critics were a
panel of international experts. In fact it is the same reaction heard when
even professors from the sane moderate Left speak out. (What sane moderate
Left? — SP)…

The problem is that all these activities and “collaborations” with NGOs
always are in a single direction with a single ideology. The problem is
the absence from the university course syllabi of publications that do not
toe the ideological line of the leftist choir. The problem is that
students feel intimidated and stifled. This is not academic freedom but
rather its diametrical opposite.

(Yemini ends the column with a quote he heard from a man who recently
served as the head of an Israeli university and admitted to him that the
radical Left is exercising hegemony over Israeli academic institutions. Yemini says that they ALL know this is true.)