[Marxism] Fwd: Scholars condemn attack on academic freedom at UC-Santa Barbara

["Cesar \"El Che\" Rodriguez" <elche48@xxxxxxxxx>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Committee to Defend Academic Freedom at UCSB <CDAF.UCSB@xxxxxxxxx 
> >
> Date: April 28, 2009 12:46:28 PM PDT
> To: Committee to Defend Academic Freedom at UCSB <cdaf.ucsb@xxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Scholars condemn attack on academic freedom at UC-Santa  
> Barbara
> Reply-To: CDAF-UCSB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> Scholars condemn attack on academic freedom at UC-Santa Barbara
>
> Noam Chomsky and international scholars demand dismissal of “anti- 
> Semitism” charges against sociology professor
>
> Date: April 28, 2009
> Contact: Jeb Sprague, (805) 886-0429, jhsprague@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> SANTA BARBARA -- Internationally renowned author and linguistics  
> professor Noam Chomsky has added his voice to a campaign by dozens  
> of scholars worldwide to demand that the University of California at  
> Santa Barbara cease its investigation of “anti-Semitism” charges  
> made by the Anti-Defamation League against sociology professor  
> William I. Robinson.
>
> Robinson introduced materials critical of Israeli state policies in  
> a course on globalization in January. They included a photo essay  
> that he forwarded to students from the Internet and that had been  
> circulating in the public realm. The photos compared images of  
> Israeli abuse against Palestinians during the recent military  
> invasion of Gaza with Nazi abuses during the holocaust. Two students  
> took offense at the images and withdrew from the course, prompting  
> the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to demand that the university  
> investigate Robinson for “anti-Semitism.”
>
> Chomsky said that the charges form part of an ongoing campaign of  
> harassment and intimidation by the ADL against all scholarly  
> criticism of the Israeli state.
>
> “There’s been a rash of it around the country,” Chomsky said. “It’s  
> usually confined to harassment, but there are a number of cases  
> where it’s led to denial of tenure or termination of faculty  
> members. I see it myself all the time.”
>
> Chomsky said the case against Robinson is a “complete violation” of  
> academic freedom.
>
> “It’s nobody’s business -- especially when we’re talking about  
> organizations outside of the university administration -- to try to  
> dictate the content of his course,” Chomsky said. “The course  
> structure is up to the professor.”
>
> Charges of “anti-Semitism” are part of the ADL’s long-standing  
> strategy to equate any criticism of Israel with anti-Jewish bias,  
> Chomsky added.
>
> “They try to label any criticism as anti-Semitic, but they never  
> respond to the criticism itself, because they can’t,” Chomsky said.  
> “Decades ago, the ADL was an authentic and serious organization that  
> defended civic rights, but in the last 40 years it’s become a  
> Stalinist-style organization dedicated to supporting anything Israel  
> does and to destroying all opposition to Israeli policies.”
>
> The charges against Robinson -- which the Academic Senate is now  
> formally investigating -- spurred an angry backlash on campus.  
> Students formed a Committee to Defend Academic Freedom and created  
> an online blog to coordinate efforts to cease the investigation.
>
> The committee initiated a letter writing campaign on April 20 to  
> demand that university Chancellor Henry Yang intervene to halt  
> proceedings against Robinson. The campaign has so far generated more  
> than 200 letters, among them dozens of outraged responses from  
> scholars in the U.S. and elsewhere.
>
> Wayne State University sociologist David Fasenfest, himself the  
> child of a holocaust survivor, said the accusations appear aimed at  
> blocking Robinson from engaging students in legitimate debate of the  
> Israeli-Palestinian situation.
>
> “We have seen this sort of tactic used time and again, in this  
> country and others, to silence and recast legitimate discussion,”  
> Fasenfest said.
>
> David Peetz, a global and international studies professor at  
> Griffith University in Australia, said there’s no reasonable basis  
> for labeling criticism of the Israeli government as anti-Semitism.
>
> “I am astonished that a university would even consider laying  
> charges of anti-Semitism against one of its faculty on the basis of  
> his or her having criticized, or disseminated criticism of, the  
> Israeli government,” Peetz said. “Do I take it that, if a staff  
> member made similar criticisms of an African leader, he or she would  
> be charged by the university with being racist?”
>
> Professor emeritus Alan Nasser of Evergreen State College in  
> Washington, said it’s a “textbook case” of violations of academic  
> freedom.
>
> “This kind of thing has happened repeatedly: critical comments  
> regarding Israel have been met with well-funded campaigns to  
> denounce the alleged ‘anti-Semite’ and indeed to sever his/her  
> employment at his/her institution,” Nasser said.
>
> Mario Barrera, an ethnic studies professor at UC-Berkeley, said the  
> charges should have been dismissed “out of hand.”
>
> “In my forty years of teaching on five UC campuses, I have never  
> seen a case based on such flimsy evidence and clearly faulty  
> reasoning proceed to a formal hearing,” Barrera said.
>
> UCLA professor Sondra Hale -- acting co-chair the Islamic Studies  
> Program and chair of the faculty advisory committee for UCLA’s  
> Center for Near Eastern Studies -- warned that UCSB’s actions  
> constitute a form of harassment against all academics.
>
> “Such blatant lack of protection of faculty by its primary governing  
> body (the Academic Senate) can be highly damaging to USCB and to the  
> UC system as a whole,” Hale said.
>
> In fact, the California Scholars for Academic Freedom, which  
> includes more than 100 academics at 20 California institutions, said  
> the group is “deeply disturbed” about the charges against Robinson.
>
> A similar letter was sent by the entire staff of the UK-based  
> scholarly journal Race and Class.
>
> “We are shocked that these charges have been pursued against  
> professor Robinson,” the staff wrote. “It is patently absurd to  
> allege that his circulating of material comparing the Nazis and  
> Israel’s human rights abuses of Palestinians is evidence of anti- 
> Semitism.”
>
> All letters can be viewed in their entirety on the Committee to  
> Defend Academic Freedom blog site at www.sb4af.wordpress.com.
>
>
>
> --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google  
> Groups "Committee to Defend Academic Freedom at UCSB" group.
> To post to this group, send email to CDAF-UCSB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to 
> CDAF-UCSB+unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> For more options, visit this group at 
> http://groups.google.com/group/CDAF-UCSB?hl=en
> -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
>

________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40archives.econ.utah.edu