Defending
Salaita: Anti-Israel Profs Unite!
by Cinnamon Stillwell
American Thinker
September 21, 2014
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While Steven G. Salaita's inflammatory,
anti-Israel, anti-Semitic Twitter
posts and atrocious
academic record
may have cost
him a tenured professorship at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), they did
nothing to lessen his support from the field of Middle East studies.
The former Virginia Tech University English professor – whose published
work focuses on the Arab-Israeli conflict – was offered a position in
UIUC's American Indian Studies Program that was later rescinded by
Chancellor Phyllis Wise. Salaita's academic apologists immediately sprang
into action, with antagonism
to Israel's recent military action against Hamas only adding to the
frenzy.
A number of petitions, open letters, and statements calling to
reinstate or show solidarity with Salaita made the rounds, all displaying
similar characteristics.
Among them was a statement
issued by the executive committee for the Center for South Asian and
Middle Eastern Studies (CSAMES) at UIUC. After declaring that "there
is nothing anti-Semitic in Dr. Salaita's comments on Twitter"
because his targets were merely (emphasis added) "the illegal and
unethical assault on Gaza, and those who support it," the
statement goes on to assert, without evidence, that "ardent
supporters of Israel have engaged in malicious and unethical actions in
order to suppress criticism of Israel." The scholars urge the
university to "resist political pressures to silence voices of
legitimate outrage" or, in other words, to oppose the dastardly
"Israel lobby" fighting for a scholarly, unbiased education.
Then there was a "Letter
from scholars to Chancellor Wise" signed by a number of notoriously
anti-Israel Middle East studies academics.* Tellingly, the letter
describes the "content of Salaita's Tweets" as being
"consistent with the sentiments of leading experts on the
Israel-Palestine conflict" before dismissing public opinion by
adding condescendingly:
It seems that popular knowledge about the Israel-Palestine conflict in
the US public space has overwhelmed what is well known by academic
experts. This cannot be allowed to happen in a serious university.
It concludes by dredging up the oft-repeated
fantasy of post-9/11 academic persecution: "Illinois [sic] decision
is taking us back to the post-9/11 hysteria, which victimized so many
people, and sacrificed academic freedom." The legions of
Israel-bashing tenured academics across the country prove the opposite.
The U.S. Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of
Israel (USACBI), hardly an impartial source, issued a statement
vociferously defending Salaita, who, not coincidentally and along with a
number of Middle East studies academics, is a member of its
"organizing committee." The statement claims that this, along
with Salaita's Arab-American heritage, help explain the
"politically-motivated firing," ignoring the fact that
rescinding a job offer and firing an employee are two different things.
In addition, USACBI
produced a petition
"organized by scholars of conscience and USACBI's Organizing
Collective" by which "signatories ... refused to speak or
lecture at UIUC until Dr. Steven Salaita is reinstated in his
position."** No word on how long these professors of agitprop will forgo
UIUC speaking engagements now that Salaita's fate is sealed.
The Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) sent a letter
to Chancellor Wise on behalf of its "Committee on Academic
Freedom" and signed by MESA president Nathan Brown that employed
measured language to advance an unsupported claim:
The revocation of an academic appointment because of the appointee's
political views or because of the venue in which those views are
expressed constitutes not only an assault on constitutionally protected
free speech rights but an infringement of the principles of academic
freedom as well.
MESA failed to grasp that Salaita did not lose his free speech rights,
that there is no constitutionally guaranteed right to a tenure track
position, and, most importantly, that free speech is not immune from
consequences. Only in the insulated, rarified world of academia would one
believe that a public figure whose salary is financed in part by
taxpayers has no obligation to uphold a professional and at least
somewhat collegial image.
Individuals chimed in, including Hatem
Bazian – a senior lecturer in the department of Near Eastern studies
and director of the Islamophobia Research & Documentation Project at
the University of California, Berkeley – who asserted that the
"margin of what you can say and you can't say is very narrow, and it
is the easiest way to torpedo somebody's career." This from one who
called for an "intifada
in this country" and later equated Israeli policy with slavery –
both at rallies in San Francisco – and who retains full-time employment
at a public university.
Characteristically,
University of Michigan history professor Juan
Cole invoked anti-Semitic conspiracy theories to explain Salaita's
woes:
I strongly suspect that Zionist organizations pressured the university
to fire Professor Salaita. ... This behavior is undemocratic and
cult-like, and it is unacceptable in a Liberal society. We also see
Jewish nationalists on the bench, in public office, and in high
administrative positions who misuse their public position to engage in a
sectarian vendetta so as to protect Israel from criticism or to punish
its critics.
Meanwhile, University of California, Irvine history professor Mark
LeVine blamed Salaita's "dehiring" on the "wrath of
pro-Israel conservatives in the United States" and warned that it
would have "a devastating effect on scholars working in highly
politicized fields such as Middle Eastern studies and climate science, where
critical and untampered public debate is most crucial." This claim
is risible, since his own field of Middle East studies is among the least welcoming of
"critical and untampered debate" thanks to the dominance of
professors like LeVine and Salaita.
In a welcome departure, University of California, Los Angeles history
department chair David
N. Myers condemned Salaita's offensive rhetoric and immature
behavior, as well as the apologetics of his academic supporters:
It is stunning to behold the near-total silence of Salaita's
supporters about the content of his speech. ... What is objectionable
here is not criticism of Israel's policies toward Palestinians. ... It is
the sophomoric, intemperate and, dare I say, hateful quality of Salaita's
speech. Even if one shares Salaita's passionate commitment to the
Palestinian cause and believes fervently in his right to free speech, it
is imperative to call out his irresponsible words.
Would that more Middle East studies scholars shared Myers's principled
approach to the Salaita affair. Instead, we are left with academics who
would seemingly defend anyone who demonizes Israel and its supporters.
Rather than acknowledge the grave responsibility of educating the next
generation, they blame others and romanticize themselves as victims of
persecution. Mired in self-importance and moral relativism, and incapable
of introspection, these are the ranks from which future Salaitas will
emerge. One can only hope they meet the same fate.
*Middle East studies signatories to the "Letter
from scholars to Chancellor Wise" include As'ad Abukhalil,
California State University, Stanislaus; Hamid Dabashi and Joseph Massad,
Columbia University; and Samera Esmeir, University of California,
Berkeley.
**Among the many Middle East studies signatories to the U.S. Campaign
for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI) petition
are Rabab Abdulhadi, San Francisco State University; Paola Bacchetta,
University of California, Berkeley; and Rashid Khalidi, Columbia
University.
Cinnamon Stillwell is the West Coast representative for Campus Watch, a project
of the Middle East Forum.
She can be reached at stillwell@meforum.org.
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