The Trial of Israel’s Campus Critics

T he Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains one of the most visible political issues on campuses around the nation. A rising level of concern about the continuing Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory (now in its fifth decade),aswellastheprecariouspositionofIsrael’sbeleagueredPalestinianminority , have been countered by increasingly strident, even furious, attempts to silenceorstiflecriticismofIsraelipolicyonAmericancollegecampuses. TensionshavebeenheightenedespeciallyinthewakeofIsrael’sJanuary2009re-invasion of Gaza, the consequent mobilization of protest, and the growing campaign for boycott, divestment , and sanctions. As the tide of public opinion in the United States and around the worldcontinuestoturnagainstIsrael’spoliciesofoccupationandrepression,theresponseto criticisms of Israeli policy on campus are growing uglier. Off-campus organizations—many tied to the most assertive Israeli lobby in Washington—are playing a growing role in oncampusdebates .Campusactivities,asaresult,havebeenwireddirectlyintonationalpolitics, and have become more contentious and infinitely more bitter. And the situation is likely to continue to get worse as Israel’s image continues to deteriorate and as its defenders grow moreanxiousandresorttoevermoredesperatemeasurestoturnthingsaround. Itisanextraordinaryfactthatnofewerthanthirty-threedistinctorganizations—including AIPAC,theZionistOrganizationofAmerica,theAmericanJewishCongress,andtheJewish National Fund—are gathered together today as members or affiliates of the Israel on Campus Coalition. The coalition is an overwhelmingly powerful presence on American college campusesforwhichthereissimplynoequivalentonthePalestinianorArabside.Itsself-proclaimed mission is not merely to monitor our colleges and universities. That, after all, is the commitment of Campus Watch, which was started by pro-Israel activists in 2002. It is, rather(andinitsownwords),togenerate“apro-active,pro-Israelagendaoncampus.”There is,accordingly,disproportionateandunbalancedinterventiononcampusesacrossthecountry byacoalitionofwell-fundedorganizations,whohavenotimefor—andevenlessinterestin— the niceties of intellectual exchange and academic process. Insinuation, accusation, and defamationhavebecometheweaponsoffirstresorttorespondtoargumentandcriticismdirectedatIsraelipolicies .Asfarastheseoutsidepressuregroups(andtheircampusrepresentatives )areconcerned,theintellectualandacademicpricethatthescholarlycommunitypays asaresultofthiskindofinterventionamountstolittlemorethancollateraldamage. We have become increasingly concerned at the ways in which scholarly critics of Israeli policyhavebeencavalierlyandmaliciouslymisrepresented,mostlythroughadhominemattacksontheircharacters ,reputations,andcareers.Wearetroubledalsobythewaysinwhich S E P T E M B E R / O C T O B E R 2 0 0 9 W W W. T I K K U N . O R G T I K K U N 39 The Trial of Israel’s Campus Critics by David Theo Goldberg and Saree Makdisi David Theo Goldberg directs the system-wide University of California Humanities Research Institute (www.uchri.org) and is a professor of comparative literature and criminology, law, and society at UC Irvine. Saree Makdisi is a professor of English and comparative literature at UCLA. Politics_2.qxd:Politics 8/11/09 2:43 PM Page 39 academic programs—most notably Middle East Studies programs at major universities—are being attacked as bastions of irresponsible radicalism and anti-American activity. Our concern hasbeenheightenedespeciallyinviewoftheoutside pressure being brought to bear on university administrations, some of which seem to have yieldedtocoercion,evenwhiletryingto“balance” calls for responsibility with commitments to academic freedom. Some senior university administrators seem willing to take for granted the misrepresentations and fabrications by boisteroussupportersofIsrael ,andhavedonesomerely on the strident assertion of those making these claims. This is a curious position to take in the name of “balance,” a notion about which we will havemoretosayinamoment. These are not altogether new developments, of course, as the dire threat to a number of academic careers and institutional programs in recent years, particularly in Middle East studies, will attest. Scholars whose work is critical of Israeli policies have been denied jobs, denied tenure (or faced a threat to their prospects for tenure), and in general have had their lives made difficult—not because of academic criteria, but because of political interference from extra-academic forces. Outside political intervention by those who advocate unflinchingsupportforIsraelhaveplungedoneAmericanprogramorcampusafteranotherintocri sis . The University of California is only the latest in a string of such campuses, following incidents at Columbia University, Barnard College, Yale University, Wayne State University, andDePaulUniversity. Trumped-Up Furor at UCLA For several weeks this spring, considerable pressure was brought to bear on UCLA and especially on its Center for Near Eastern Studies. As the crisis came to a head, StanleyKurtz,inaNationalReviewOnlinearticle,predictedthatUCLA’sCenterwasonthe way to becoming today’s bête noir of the academy, just as Columbia’s Middle East Studies programhadbeenforIsrael’sstridentsupportersafewyearsago.Kurtzisoneofatrioofnonacademics (Martin Kramer and Daniel Pipes round out the group, and David Horowitz is a kind of associate) who repeatedly chide and harry academic scholars for their criticisms of Israelipolicy. It is crucial to note that Kurtz’s prediction was fueled by completely falsified accounts of an event the UCLA Center sponsored earlier this year, by ongoing attacks on faculty members...