{"id":47367,"date":"2014-09-15T12:00:33","date_gmt":"2014-09-15T11:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=47367"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:30:36","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:30:36","slug":"academics-and-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2014\/09\/academics-and-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"Academics and Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why Remaining Silent about the Perils of Zionism is Not an Option<\/em><\/p>\n

In academia, most scholars shun speaking and writing about the state of Israel\u2019s siege and wars in Palestine. Our silence suggests support for the Israeli government\u2019s violation of international law, specifically the Fourth Geneva Convention\u2019s articles 27-34 and 47-78 stipulating that occupying powers have a general obligation to \u201censure\u2026 the provision of food and medical care to the population under occupation,\u201d and prohibits \u201ccollective punishment\u201d of the occupied population and the \u201cconfiscation of private property\u201d by the occupier. Our subdued reaction to Israel\u2019s occupation of Palestine generally reflects the fear that pro-Israel supporters will damage our careers if we were to speak and write about the facts of the situation.<\/p>\n

Pro-Israel supporters use malicious and debased techniques to threaten us into silence such as threatening university administrators with withdrawal of pro-Israel donors\u2019 funding. The threat to withdraw donor funding is so feared by university administrators that the University of Illinois\u2019s Chancellor Phyllis Wise recently rescinded a job offer made to a professor for speaking out against Israeli atrocities in Gaza on social media. Despite the threat of unemployment and retaliation a critical mass of scholars continue to do our job \u2013 questioning the answers generally accepted as fact. We dissect the false Israeli occupation narratives that major media outlets disseminate. We expose how Israel is not, as it says, merely exercising its right to self-defense; it is using the IDF and extrajudicial measures to ethnically cleanse Gaza and the West Bank for annexation.<\/p>\n

Academics such as Norman Finkelstein, Juan Cole, Joseph Massad, Nadia Abu El Haj, Erwin Chemerinsky, David Guth and, most recently Steven Salaita, University of Illinois and countless others follow the path of Hannh Arendt, Albert Einstein, and present day Israeli colleagues like Neve Gordon and Ilan Papp\u00e9 by refusing to remain silent about Israel\u2019s war crimes and crimes against humanity. However, a majority of academics refuse to see or acknowledge how their \u201cneutrality,\u201d deference to authority and \u201cfollowing the path of least resistance\u201d helps fuel Israeli injustices against Palestinians. These colleagues need to find the courage to speak their minds even when they are being pressured to hold their tongue about Israeli injustices for as Archbishop Desmond Tutu explains, \u201cIf you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality\u201d or silence.<\/p>\n

Pro-Israel supporters consider critical examination of the facts outside the bounds of the professoriate and \u201ccivility,\u201d but academics know it is squarely within our purview. Our professional mission necessitates being suspicious of official (Israeli) interpretations of the occupation and the occupied reactions to it. As fact seekers we unnerve people because we go beyond the commonly accepted or officially defined version of human events. Our explanations of the facts expose why and how Israel seeks to depopulate Palestine of Palestinians through force, starvation, and neglect.<\/p>\n

Challenging Israel\u2019s occupation narrative in one\u2019s research or in the case of Professor Salaita, tweets, upsets the applecart so much that some higher education officials seek to abolish academic freedom so professors are not free to criticize and critique official interpretations of events. The tenuousness of scholarly autonomy is always a concern for academics but this uncertainty has never stopped us from interrogating highly controversial problems and events. Critical and untempered public debate is a central pillar of the professoriate that must continue if we seriously want to advance human knowledge and well-being.<\/p>\n

In recognition of the professoriates important critiquing mission, more and more scholars are casting aside fear of pro-Israeli supporters\u2019 attempts to pressure them to support the Israel\u2019s narrative of the occupation or remain silent about it. Informed scholars know this position is unacceptable and inconsistent with Judaism.<\/p>\n

Zionism is not Judaism. Zionism is political ideology that deems the forceful removal of Palestinians from their homes and land to create a secular \u201cJewish state\u201d acceptable. Judaism does not permit Jews to oppress other people in order to steal their land. Zionism is a political movement grounded in exclusivity and materialism. Unlike Judaism, which is inclusive and compassionate to people, Zionism lacks a moral and ethical center given it propagates the belief Palestine belongs to Jews not Palestinians.<\/p>\n

Since Zionism runs counter to Judaism Albert Einstein, who anticipated the negative consequences of a Zionist nation, argued vigorously against establishing a Jewish homeland via the forceful removal of Palestinian from their homes and land. Rather than creating a narrowly constructed and exclusive \u201cJewish state,\u201d Einstein believed it more prudent to create a broad-based religious and ethnically inclusive secular state. However, his Palestine vision was cast aside for an exclusionary \u201cJewish state\u201d with borders, an army and power to ensure Jewish supremacy.<\/p>\n

In spite of pressure from administrators and trustees on behalf of pro-Israel donors to cease academics\u2019 critiques of the Israeli occupation, apartheid, racism and sexism the course of academic criticism is growing. Academics no longer fear knee jerk screams of anti-Semitism when we are simply questioning the Israeli government\u2019s intolerable occupation of Palestine and its apartheid system. As academics our job is not contingent on satisfying pro-Israel donors\u2019 interest but rather on our effectiveness of not simply accepting information at face-value in a non-critical or non-evaluative way. The essence of being an academic is not in answering questions but questioning answers. This is why pro-Israeli supporters and timid trustees and administrators do not want scholars critique and criticize the occupation. But scholars are increasingly realizing that remaining silent forsakes their professional responsibilities, making them complicit in Israel\u2019s crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n

_________________________<\/p>\n

Johnny E. Williams<\/em>\u00a0is an\u00a0Associate Professor in the\u00a0Department of Sociology at\u00a0Trinity College. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 counterpunch.org<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Join the<\/em><\/strong> BDS-BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT, SANCTIONS <\/em><\/strong>campaign<\/em><\/strong><\/span> to protest the Israeli barbaric siege of Gaza, illegal occupation of the Palestine nation\u2019s territory, the apartheid wall, its inhuman and degrading treatment of the Palestinian people, and the more than 7,000 Palestinian men, women, elderly and children arbitrarily locked up in Israeli prisons.<\/p>\n

DON’T BUY<\/strong> PRODUCTS WHOSE<\/strong> BARCODE<\/strong> STARTS WITH<\/strong> 729<\/strong>, which indicates that it is produced in Israel.\u00a0\u00a0 DO YOUR PART! MAKE A DIFFERENCE!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

7 2 9: BOYCOTT FOR JUSTICE!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why Remaining Silent about the Perils of Zionism is Not an Option<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-palestine-israel-gaza-genocide"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47367\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}