So before the president of Notre Dame University starts patting himself on the shoulder for having the courage to invite Barack Obama to deliver the commencement address and the strength to persevere through the ensuing controversy, he should think about what is wrong with is educational system that many of his graduating students could not tolerate sitting through a speakers to whom they are ideologically opposed. Have those students been prepared for differing views in the past four years? Have their ideals and knowledge been confronted with unpopular views? Where they even, for practice sake, been asked to debate an issue.

The place where new ideas, provocative hypothesis and dissent from status quo and social norms were once debated and set the course for the rest of society to follow, seems to shy away from controversy; somehow a dirty word that is equated with taboo or vulgar.

Not a new phenomenon by any means; many academics have continually faced retribution and prosecution in this country for presenting ideas and theses that challenge the political discourse and apparently threaten the authority of well established system. Many Palestinians, Native American, progressive, and anti-capitalist academics have been denied tenure, deported, fired, or otherwise censored and silenced. There were very few defenders of those who championed unpopular causes, but decay is a trend, and as it spreads, you will see more examples of the academy serving less and less admirable goal.

A perfect example of this was recently brought to my attention by someone close to me who is studying for her PhD at the University of California, Santa Barbara. I could try to explain it all to you, but she does just fine. Please take a look.

UCSB has become the latest front in the war against Academic Freedom. Professor William I. Robinson, a Sociology and Global Studies professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has been attacked by the Anti-Defamation League and two of his former students. In January of this year, he forwarded an email condemning the Israeli attacks on Gaza. The email contained an editorial by a Jewish journalist condemning Israel’s actions in Gaza as well as juxtaposed images of Nazi atrocities with congruent images of Israeli atrocities against Palestinians. The email was an optional read for students, intended to spark conversation by relating contemporary events to conceptual ideas discussed in class.

One week later, the ADL wrote him a letter charging him with anti-Semitism and sundry violations of the Faculty Code of Conduct (none of which were coherent claims). Another week passed, and the Academic Senate Charges Officer then notified him that two of the students in the class to which he circulated the email had filed complaints against him.

The complaints are that 1) critique of Israel is evidence of anti-Semitism and 2) the Israeli-Palestinian issue should not be discussed in a class on Globalization. This case has already escalated way too far. Throughout the process, the Charges Officer violated several elements of the charges procedure, shirked his responsibilities, and ultimately acted as a co-complainant by fabricating charges that were not raised by the students. The charges have reached the Committee on Committees, which is now in the process of convening an ad hoc Charges Committee to assess the complaints against Professor Robinson.

Based on patently absurd and malicious claims, the charges should have been dismissed out of hand from the beginning. Further consideration of the charges by the Academic Senate serves only to sanction politically-motivated attacks on academic freedom. The longer this case is pursued, the worse its chilling effect; it will spread fear among those who wish to present controversial and critical subjects. Even though the original complaint is regarding Israel/Palestine, the rights at stake extend beyond this specific topic. Academic freedom is a right that enables scholars to express diverse perspectives over contentious topics, free from the intimidation of political repression campaigns. If the case against Professor Robinson continues to go forward, it will lead down a slippery slope that may expose academics to repression tactics for addressing controversial issues such as stem cell research, evolution, feminism, LGBT rights, etc. It is incumbent upon members of the UCSB campus and the broader academy to roundly oppose this silencing campaign.

This is an obvious attack on Professor Robinson’s academic freedom, one that ominously recalls similar campaigns against other critics of Israel across the nation. This is part of a broader campaign to automatically vilify and attack any and all critiques of Israel’s policies and practices through unfounded use of the term “anti-Semitic.” A critique of the Israeli state, its policies, and the leaders responsible is not and should not be considered an affront to Jewish people as a collective, the Jewish religion, or Jewish heritage. In fact, conflating the state of Israel with the Jewish people essentializes the assorted political opinions of a diverse religious group by reducing them to the set of policies espoused by the prevailing regime.

We need your help! Please scroll below and follow the instructions to 1) email the UCSB Chancellor and responsible authorities on campus to express your outrage and register your protest, and 2) sign the petition.

Please visit our website for more information on the case, including continuing updates, at: http://sb4af.wordpress.com.

If you wish to contact the student campaign, please email: cdaf.ucsb@gmail.com.

Thank you for your time,
Committee to Defend Academic Freedom at UC Santa Barbara

*******

Send an Email:

It should be addressed to UCSB Chancellor Henry Yang and cc’d to the faculty and administrators involved in the case. Please copy and paste the following addresses:

To: henry.yang@chancellor.ucsb.edu

CC: mgscharl@math.ucsb.edu, gene.lucas@evc.ucsb.edu, moliver@ltsc.ucsb.edu,
mazer@lifesci.ucsb.edu, joel@geog.ucsb.edu, joel.michaelsen@senate.ucsb.edu,
sarah@isber.ucsb.edu, butler@chem.ucsb.edu, scott@theaterdance.ucsb.edu,
hcallus@music.ucsb.edu, gaulin@anth.ucsb.edu, spieker@gss.ucsb.edu,
stemmer@mrl.ucsb.edu, caselle@lifesci.ucsb.edu, goulias@geog.ucsb.edu,
amar@lawso.ucsb.edu, Stephanie.smagala@senate.ucsb.edu, ettenberg@psych.ucsb.edu,
hualee@ece.ucsb.edu, mithun@linguistics.ucsb.edu, zok@engineering.ucsb.edu,
helen.henry@ucr.edu, cdaf.ucsb@gmail.com

To Whom It May Concern,
I am a dismayed [undergraduate/graduate/alumna/faculty member] at [your university] writing you to express support for Sociology and Global Studies Professor William I. Robinson. As you may know, Professor Robinson and academic freedom have come under recent attack on the UCSB campus. Toward the end of February 2009, Professor Robinson received notice from the Academic Senate’s Charges Committee that two of his students had filed charges against him. The students alleged that an email forward he’d circulated to his class, criticizing Israel’s then-ongoing siege on Gaza, comprised anti-Semitism. These charges are patently absurd and should be dismissed out of hand before further damage is done to the university’s purpose and reputation.

I demand the immediate dismissal of all of the charges against Professor Robinson as frivolous, unfounded, and malicious. Any further consideration of these baseless attacks is unacceptable. I join other students an
d faculty in pledging that we will not accept any resolution of this matter that is unfavorable to Professor Robinson and academic freedom.

I also insist that the attack on Professor Robinson’s academic freedom, one that ominously recalls similar campaigns against other critical academics across the nation, be publicly condemned. This condemnation is essential to preserve full and fair discussion within the most important of the U.S.’s civic institutions. Any genuine consideration of these absurd attacks will have a severe chilling effect on the production and dissemination of scholarly research in all disciplines. Further, the attacks must be condemned to protect faculty and students from wasting valuable time and energy defending themselves against frivolous allegations and political repression.

In fact, a critique of the Israeli state, its policies, and the leaders responsible is not and should not be considered an affront to Jewish people as a collective, the Jewish religion, or Jewish heritage. Conflating the state of Israel with the Jewish people essentializes the assorted political opinions of a diverse religious group by reducing them to the set of policies espoused by the prevailing regime. The charge of anti-Semitism is made in bad faith; its real purpose is to automatically vilify and stifle any honest critiques of the state of Israel’s policies and practices.

[Insert personal message]

Sincerely,
[your name and contact information]

In the shadow of last year’s protracted, over-exposed, and very public (and successful) tenure bid by his Columbia University colleague, Anthropology Professor Nadia Abu El-Hajj, Modern Arab Politics Professor Joseph Massad manages to quietly escape such a frenzy-filled reception:

THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
April 8, 2009
Controversial Tenure Case at Columbia U. May Be Over

It isn’t official, but word around Columbia University is that the controversial Palestinian scholar Joseph A. Massad will be awarded tenure.

Sudipta Kaviraj, chairman of the department of Middle East and Asian languages and cultures, said in a telephone interview this afternoon that the proceedings involving Mr. Massad’s tenure case have not formally concluded. “When it is finished, the university writes to the department and writes to the individual concerned,” he said. “That hasn’t happened yet.”

But another professor in the department who did not want to be named said word on the grapevine within the department is that Mr. Massad will be awarded tenure. The professor said that the provost allows the department chairman to alert a tenure candidate about the outcome of the decision prior to the final letters that are sent. That is apparently what has happened.

Mr. Massad is on leave this academic year and did not respond to an e-mail message asking for comment.

Mr. Massad’s tenure case has been a highly unusual one. He was first granted a one-year extension on his tenure bid in the spring of 2007. A year later, the university’s provost recommended that Mr. Massad be denied tenure after an ad hoc committee that considered his tenure bid split 3 to 2 in his favor.

But after senior professors in Mr. Massad’s department complained to the provost, he apparently decided to reconsider the case and give the professor the unusual opportunity of a second chance at tenure. That second review has been occurring over the current academic year.

Mr. Massad’s career at Columbia, which began in 1999, has been rocky. Much of his troubles date from controversy over a 2005 documentary film, Columbia Unbecoming, produced by an off-campus group called the David Project Center for Jewish Leadership. The film accused Mr. Massad of rebuffing pro-Israeli students and made him a target of pro-Israel groups.

Mr. Massad has denied that any of the incidents depicted in the film took place, but a faculty committee appointed by Columbia to investigate the accusations found that he had acted inappropriately in a couple of incidents. —Robin Wilson

[Tarboush Tip: Minotaur]

Yet another reason for academic boycott.

[Tarboush Tip: al-falasteenyia]

You can also download the magazine in Arabic and Hebrew.

Here are his words.

Blocking a Gazan’s Path to San Diego, by Fidaa Abed.

As a young Palestinian from Gaza , I had been eagerly anticipating the opportunity to study at the University of California San Diego on a Fulbright scholarship. The chance to escape Gaza ‘s confines and immerse myself in an American education was deeply thrilling. With Israel controlling Gaza ‘s border exits, air space and sea access – notwithstanding its “pullout” of 2005 – I imagined the long, open roads of the United States and its people’s unchallenged freedom of movement.

I love my people and my homeland, but a young person needs opportunities. These are far more abundant in the United States than in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Last week, I landed in Washington , D.C. , brimming with optimism. Upon arrival, I was whisked into a separate room. An American official informed me that he had just received information about me that he could not reveal. However, it required him to put me on the next plane home. I was shocked. And I was taken aback at the cruelty of snatching away my educational dreams at the last possible moment.

My mistreatment was particularly unexpected because in late May, when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice learned that I and six other Fulbright students were being stripped of our Fulbright scholarships, she leapt to our assistance. One by one, Israel let other Palestinians Fulbright scholars out of Gaza , and they made their way to American universities. Then I was mysteriously singled out for last-minute denial based on “secret evidence.” Two others had their visas canceled on account of secret evidence before they could even leave Gaza .

William J. Fulbright was the only U.S. senator to vote against funding for Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s Un-American Activities Committee. It is ironic, then, that my remarkable educational opportunity is being stripped from me on the basis of the sort of secret – and fabricated – evidence that Fulbright opposed in the hands of McCarthy. Unopposed, McCarthy destroyed lives. I do hope the United States will side with the openness of Fulbright and not the fear-mongering of McCarthy.

Israel routinely locks up Palestinians based on secret charges. All sorts of outrageous claims can be leveled based on information that Israeli officials garner coercively. Could the secret evidence against me have been extracted through the torture of some young Palestinian? Was I even the one denounced, or someone with a similar name? Was my “crime” sharing a classroom or a lunchtime conversation with someone Israel believes poses a danger? I have no way of knowing, and thus no way of defending myself.

My education is my gateway to the future. The master’s degree I would have earned at UC San Diego in computer science certainly cannot be attained in Gaza . And I am not alone. Hundreds of Palestinian students with dreams of improving their lives are stagnating intellectually in Gaza . The doors to our open-air prison have largely been slammed shut.

Israel tightened economic restrictions in 2006 following the election victory of Hamas. Hoping to weaken Hamas , Israel has gradually tightened restrictions on freedom of goods and people from the Gaza Strip to the outside world, maintaining a near total blockade on some 1.5 million Palestinian civilians for more than a year.

Thankfully, I have received support from people around the world. Journalists have wanted to hear my story. The American officials who saw me in Amman and Jerusalem upon my return were friendly and seemed embarrassed by my predicament.

Despite my treatment, I know that most Americans are kind people who mean well. What happened to me runs contrary to the good will exhibited by the American people. Israeli policies that relegate Palestinians in Gaza to prison-like conditions and Palestinians in the West Bank to an apartheid-like existence do not advance the cause of peace. The United States should use its tremendous sway with Israel to advance the cause of freedom and equal rights for Palestinians and Israelis alike.

We Palestinians have been stripped of our land for 60 years. But with educational opportunity we have persevered and made what we could of our lives. Limiting our educational prospects only perpetuates our status as a subordinate people. Nothing is served by confining our best and our brightest to Gaza . A better future for everyone lies in unlocking the gates to Gaza and allowing us to learn and gain exposure to the broader world – with all of the challenges, controversies and diverse perspectives it offers.

Abed, receipient of a Fulbright scholarship, lives in the Gaza Strip.

Tarboush Tip: Fayyad

Three of the seven Fulbright grantees from Gaza have had their visas canceled finally by the US: one, after flying to Washington only to be told by border security that his visa was no longer valid.

The saga of the journey to Jordan strikes me as a remarkably hallmark Palestinian travel experience.

If Israel finally had information in the end to send over to the US authorities to cause them to cancel the three visas, it strikes me as publicly admitting that the seven were originally denied based on no information whatsoever. (Whether that information is accurate or not… i mean, clearly, the kid just out of high school is a terrorist planning to use his education to bomb and kill.)

I’d like to see the security information forwarded by Israel. Who wants to place a bet that it says “Palestinian, male, born in Gaza= DENIED.”

Gisha, an Israeli organization aimed at protecting Palestinian freedom of movement, says the problems the Palestinian students faced are not out of the ordinary.

“In addition to the particular students who did not receive visas for technical reasons or unexplained security reasons, there are hundreds of students in the Gaza Strip who were accepted by universities abroad and have valid visas,” said Gisha executive director Sari Bashi. But, she added, “Israel issues a comprehensive ban on students from Gaza going abroad, as part of its policy of collective punishment toward Gaza residents, thereby impinging on the right to education of hundreds of talented young people who want to study, develop and create a better future in our region.”

They notified them of the decision by email.

Imagine studying to learn a second language, getting a college degree in a war zone, studying for and succeeding in expensive exams to prove your proficiency in that language, spending time and money applying to study in the US for a PhD or Masters program, and succeeding.

And then one day, before you can go, you get an email tell you sorry, the program has been canceled because the US government is afraid that Israel is making the money we were going to invest in you go to waste. They just won’t give you a visa, even though we give them millions of dollars in a year to continue occupying what remains of your country. Reapply next year if you want.

I mean, they couldn’t even bother to call!

Please Note: While the Fulbright grants are administered by the Institute for International Education, this decision has been made by the State Department. And, IT CAN STILL BE REVERSED. If you would like to write a letter or call, it should be directed at one CONDOLEEZA RICE.

Tarboush tip: Fadi and Tiffany

(Note: It must be stated that this was in fact a considerably insightful observation.)

I nearly responded by inviting MHMD, who is in Ramallah and who clearly cannot just up and arrive in Michigan, to submit his recent paper and then use the acceptance to get a visa to come with us.

I nearly made myself into a huge ass.

HAD I invited MHMD to the conference, he would then have had to explain that well actually, in order to get a visa he’d have to go to Jerusalem or to Amman. Going to Jerusalem is practically impossible; he’d have to get a permit that would take forever to get and probably not be issued anyway. Plus there’s the fact that his ID is Gazawi, which means that instead of giving him a permit or even just denying him the permit, they could deport him to Gaza and completely destroy his school, life, etc etc. Alternatively, if he goes to Amman, upon reentry at the border, he’d be herded onto the van for people with Gaza id and sent straight to Gaza, no questions and no exceptions.

I’m glad I didn’t make myself into an ass by inviting him to the conference. Only under the strange and inhumane nature of an apartheid regime can such a thing as inviting someone to a conference become an assinine thing to do.

**MHMD corrected me that he does indeed have another passport. What this means is that he can in fact travel overseas quite easily. However, Israel deems its own IDs to have precedence over any other passport anyone might carry- US, Canadian, British, anything. If they can find your Palestinian ID number, you fall under Palestinian travel restrictions. What THIS means, is that were MHMD to leave, he almost certainly could never come back. He would in fact be herded onto the van and sent to Gaza, or not allowed back in at all.

And if he were any number of other people, the above would apply, and there’d be no traveling for you, Joe.

So I need to stop accidentally inviting folks to conferences until Palestine is free, already!

CONTACT: http://judiciary.house.gov/Contact.aspx

It has been requested recently that letters urging Dr. Al-Arian’s release be sent to Judge Gerald Lee of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, to Attorney General Michael Mukasey and to congressional leaders.

Supporters are also being asked to write letters directly to Dr. Al-Arian.

Please write:

Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
(202) 307-6777 Fax
askdoj@usdoj.gov

Glenn A. Fine, Inspector General
Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington, DC 20530-0001

House Judiciary Chair:
The Honorable John Conyers, Jr
2426 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5126
(202) 225-0072 Fax
john.conyers@mail.house.gov

Senate Judiciary Chair:
Senator Patrick Leahy
433 Russell Senate Office Building
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-4242
senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov

To contribute to Dr. Al-Arian’s legal defense, please send checks to:
National Liberty Fund
P.O. Box 1211
24525 E. Welches Road
Welches, OR 97067