Monday, November 13, 2006
In-Classroom anti-Israel Political Indoctrination at Ben Gurion University
In-Classroom One-Sided Political Indoctrination at Ben Gurion University
At Ben Gurion University, the Department of Politics and Government offers
a course entitled "Critical Aspects of the Occupation," taught by Neve
Gordon. The syllabus (Hebrew only) can be viewed on the departmental web
site: http://w3.bgu.ac.il/politics/new_pages/index.htm
The course is a perfect illustration of one-sided in-classroom anti-Israel
political indoctrination. Taught be one of Israel's worst anti-Israel
extremists, the course is little more than a semesterlong exercise in North
Korean-style re-education of students who may not be sufficiently
anti-Israel upon registration. To understand the title of the course, you
need to bear in mind that in leftist NewSpeak "critical" means
Marxist. Critical analyses of literature are mind-numbing tracts that
explain literary works as exercises in class struggle. Critical legal
studies are where criminality is celebrated as a moral revolt against the
ruling class. You get the picture.
The reading list for the Gordon propaganda course consists almost entirely
of anti-Israel or pro-Marxist diatribes. There are of course Gordon's own
screeds about how Israel is a terrorist state and engages in
torture. There is Gordon's buddy Lisa Hajjar, from the University of
California at Santa Barbara, a sociologist claiming to understand legal
institutions who has made a career out of bashing Israel (see
http://www.frontpagemag.com/articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=18236 ).
There are also long-winded fatuities written by the late Marxist
"philosopher" Michel Foucault. There are oodles of Arab writers who do not
think Israel has the right to protect itself. There are ultra-haters of
Israel like Sara Roy or Azmi Bishara (the Arab Knesset Member who has been
running to Syria to call for Israel's annihilation). There is far-leftist
Israeli lawyer (Avigdor Feldman), alongside several articles and reports by
the anti-Israel NGO "Betselem" (see report on the group in NGO-Monitor at
http://ngo-monitor.org/archives/infofile.htm ). Israel-hating film-maker
Joan Mandell offers her expert scholarly opinions to Gordon's students in
the course, as does Haaretz extremist columnist Akiva Eldar. There is
political wisdom from the anti-Israel architectural display of two
anti-Zionist architects
(http://www.versobooks.com/books/nopqrs/s-titles/segal_weizman_occupation.shtml
). And on and on it goes.
The closest thing the reading list for the course ever gets to letting
students hear the point of view of a Zionist writer is with a 25-year old
piece by Menachem Milson, and some chapters from a book by Labor Party
historian Shabtai Shevet.
There is not a single article there about Palestinian terrorism or about
Israel's rights to defend itself. You will never learn that Israel's
"occupation" of "Palestinian lands" was caused by Arab aggression and
violence and not the other way around. You will never hear that the main
cause of escalated Palestinian terrorism in the past decade or so was not
occupation at all but rather the REMOVAL of occupation.
Concerned about the merciless brainwashing of hapless students at Ben
Gurion University? Why not drop a note to the President of BGU, Prof.
Rivka Carmi, at Ben Gurion University, P.O. Box 653, Beer-Sheva 84105
Israel (e-mail: rcarmi@bgumail.bgu.ac.il.) and tell her what you think.
