[Marxism] Israeli professor faces punishment for telling the truth

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Chronicle of Higher Education, April 23, 2004
Israeli Education Official Calls for Professor to Be Punished for
'Genocide' Accusation

By HAIM WATZMAN

Israel's minister of education, Limor Livnat, has announced that she
will not participate in events at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
until the institution disciplines a member of its faculty who wrote that
Israel is conducting a "symbolic genocide" of the Palestinian people.

Lev Grinberg, a sociologist who is a senior lecturer in the
behavioral-sciences department, wrote last month in La Libre Belgique, a
Belgian daily newspaper, that "the murder of Sheik Ahmed Yassin is part
of a major move carried out by the government of Israel, which can be
described as symbolic genocide."

Sheik Yassin, the founder of the militant Islamic movement Hamas, was
killed on March 22 in a missile strike by Israeli forces. Mr. Grinberg
concluded his article by calling on European countries to impose an
economic embargo on Israel.

The article outraged most Israelis, even those critical of Israeli
actions in the occupied territories.

In the wake of the article's publication, Ms. Livnat called on
Ben-Gurion University to discipline Mr. Grinberg. When the university
declined to do so, Ms. Livnat wrote to the institution's president,
Avishay Braverman, turning down his invitation to participate in the
annual meeting of the Board of Governors.

"How can we demand that academic institutions around the world take
action against anti-Semitic rhetoric," Ms. Livnat wrote, "if an Israeli
university is unprepared to take steps against a man who encourages and
inflames hatred of Israel in the world?"

A spokesman for the university, Amir Rosenblit, said it would not
respond directly to the minister. He did say that "we have received the
letter of the minister of education, Limor Livnat, and she will always
be a welcome and respected guest at the university."

Mr. Grinberg could not be reached for comment about Ms. Livnat's demand.

Some Israeli academics condemned the education minister's action and
said that it was a threat to academic freedom. Others defended her
willingness to take a firm stand against extremism.

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