Friday, December 14, 2007
The Persecution of David Ohana by Ben Gurion University
AH, Ben Gurion University. The Bir Zeit of the Negev. The school in
which turning out leftist NewSpeak counts as "research" and "scholarship"
and where one can get tenure for mass producing anti-Israel hate
propaganda The university that has never initiated any disciplinary
actions against Neve Gordon, Oren Yiftachel, Lev Grinberg, or its legions
of campus fulltime anti-Israel propagandists, even when they are involved
in criminality.
But Ben Gurion University has long had it in for writer and Moroccan-born
historian David Ohana. Left of center, Ohana . who teaches in the Jewish
history department at Ben Gurion University . is just not Left enough for
many in the Ivory Kremlin (see his ideas at
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=533082 ).
Starting in 2005, Ohana was accused of sexual harassment by five women
(including secretaries and cleaning staff) at the university. They said
he had said graphic things to them about sex. One said he gave her a
kiss.
Except the facts were not so clear. A number of faculty members at BGU
came out in SUPPORT of Ohana, signing a petition demanding he NOT be
disciplined, many claiming he was being harassed by the women because one
of them had had a work conflict with Ohana about something unrelated to
sex, who had then recruited her friends to "get him."
(http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/911615.html
.)
BGU is so politically correct and intolerant of political incorrectness
that it is hard to believe that any of its professors would stick their
necks out to defend someone accused of harassing women unless they were
convinced he was truly innocent. Sexual harassment on most PC campuses is
a modern-day Inquisition, where the faculty member is guilty until he can
be proven innocent, and faculty members are well aware of the perils of
even being accused. (This is not to make light of ACTUAL sexual
harassment on campus, just pointing out that false accusations of such can
be used maliciously and vindictively to ruin careers.)
While most professors at BGU taking a stand on the matter BACKED Ohana, a
minority, led by Neve Gordon and some radical feminists, demanded Ohana's
head. Remember, this is the same university in which the only non-Lefist
member of the political science department was fired for refusing to stick
to the official anti-Israel political line there! Ohana in Haaretz
accused his campus accusers of "political persecution" (June 29, 2006).
Meanwhile, the BGU disciplinary committee chewed on the case for more than
6 months, unsure of what to make of all the evidence. Obviously, it was
hardly cut and dry against Ohana. Numerous faculty members testified in
Ohana's behalf.
Eventually the disciplinary committee (on October 10, 2007), which
consisted of three professors (two of them women), found Ohana INNOCENT!
They said that in some cases the accusations were simply false, the women
accusing Ohana deemed liars by the judges
(http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/911856.html ), while in others
they thought Ohana deserved the benefit of the doubt. That meant the
judges did not approve of some of his behavior but saw insufficient
evidence against him to convict him of harassment.
Naturally the political correctness stromtroopers at BGU and elsewhere hit
the ceiling. The very same people who spent months demanding that
Far-Leftist Haim "Divide-Jerusalem-Now" Ramon be cleared and returned to
his nice warm cabinet seat after HE was convicted in a real court of law
for sexual harassment were outraged that David Ohana was being allowed to
walk with his head still attached.
So a few days after he was cleared, Ohana was "convicted" by his campus
crusaders of "unbecoming conduct," meaning exercising his freedom of
speech in a manner that included some expressions of poor taste. Both the
President and Rector of BGU, people who long endorsed Neve Gordon's
attempt to use the Israeli court system to suppress freedom of speech,
backed the "conviction" of Ohana.
This qwwk, Haaretz (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/934067.html)
reports that the same BGU campus authorities that did nothing when Neve
Gordon was arrested for interfering with the IDF's anti-terror operations
have decided to dock Ohana of three months pay. This for being INNOCENT
of sexual harassment!! They also issued a strong reprimand of him that
will effectively prevent him forever from holding senior campus
administrative or leadership positions.
2.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/services/newspaper/printedition/wednesday/chi-usaid12dec12,0,5032787.story
Audit finds U.S. funded university linked to terrorism
By Jim Tankersley
Washington Bureau
December 12, 2007
WASHINGTON
U.S. government officials authorized giving nearly $1 million in foreign
aid to a Palestinian university with links to the terrorist group Hamas,
despite vetting the school eight times for ties to terrorism, according to
a government audit.
The audit concluded that the vetting process, initiated by the U.S. Agency
for International Development and conducted by the U.S. Embassy in Tel
Aviv, found no "derogatory information" on the Islamic University in Gaza
between 2002 and 2006 -- even after Hamas claimed a parliamentary majority
in Palestinian elections in 2006. Several times, university officials
certified that they provided no material support for terrorism.
A companion audit found that USAID's operations in Gaza and the West Bank
have largely implemented policies to keep future aid out of terrorist
hands.
Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) asked USAID's inspector general to conduct the
audits after a Washington Times report detailed some of the aid payments
to Islamic University earlier this year. He said in an interview Tuesday
that the failure to detect terrorist ties at the school suggested "either
incompetence or a complete breakdown of the vetting system as run by the
State Department."
The U.S. designated Hamas a terrorist organization in 1997. Hamas' prime
minister sits on the Islamic University's board of trustees. In January,
Palestinian security forces seized assault rifles and rocket-propelled
grenades during a raid of the university.
U.S. law prohibits transactions with terrorists or their supporters. A
USAID audit last month, also requested by Kirk, concluded the government
has inadequate controls in place to stop foreign aid from flowing to
terrorists -- and that USAID had funded terrorist-linked groups on at
least two occasions.
One of the follow-up audits concludes that USAID "did not always follow
applicable federal laws" when approving aid to the University. That
includes several occasions where grant recipients did not receive a notice
detailing their responsibility to avoid using aid dollars to support
terrorism.
Most of those occasions came between 2003 and 2005, before USAID
implemented new anti-terrorist funding policies, the audit concluded.
In an appendix to the audit, USAID officials disputed any implication that
they violated laws. The number of times the university was vetted -- and
the lack of any red flags -- along with the university's anti-terrorism
certifications "indicate compliance with the law," West Bank and Gaza
Mission Director Howard Sumka wrote.
3. Muslim helps Jews attacked on New York subway
CNN International ^ | December 12, 2007 | Nkechi Nneji
Posted on 12/12/2007 7:41:19 PM PST by lonestar67
A Muslim man jumped to the aid of three Jewish subway riders after they
were attacked by a group of young people who objected to one of the Jews
saying "Happy Hanukkah," a spokeswoman for the three said Wednesday.
The New York Police Department's Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating
Friday's incident on the Q train.
Friday's altercation on the Q train began when somebody yelled out "Merry
Christmas," to which rider Walter Adler responded, "Happy Hanukkah," said
Toba Hellerstein.
"Almost immediately, you see the look in this guy's face like I've called
his mother something," Adler told CNN affiliate WABC.
Two women who were with a group of 10 rowdy people then began to verbally
assault Adler's companions with anti-Semitic language, Hellerstein said.
One member of the group allegedly yelled, "Oh, Hanukkah. That's the day
that the Jews killed Jesus," she said.
When Adler tried to intercede, a male member of the group punched him, she
said.
Another passenger, Hassan Askari -- a Muslim student from Bangladesh --
came to Adler's aid, and the group began physically and verbally
assaulting him, Hellerstein said.
4. Ehud NeBARAKnezzar:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/124565
Barak Agreed To Hand Temple Mount & Yesha to Arabs in 2000 Talks
(IsraelNN.com) According to a document brought out of mothballs seven
years after it was signed, Defense Minister Ehud Barak - then Prime
Minister of Israel - agreed to transfer the Temple Mount in Jerusalem,
Judaism's holiest site, to Arab sovereignty.
5.
http://www.cfr.org/publication/15020/israels_nie_reaction.html?breadcrumb=%2F
Steinberg: Alarm Subsiding in Israel on Intelligence Estimate on Iran
Interviewee:
Gerald M. Steinberg, Director, Political Studies Department, Bar-Ilan
University, Israel
Interviewer:
Bernard Gwertzman, Consulting Editor
December 10, 2007
6. On Treasonous Israeli academics:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1196847323863&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
7. Commie roots of terror:
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=1DC862A4-B416-4C67-B0A1-A49FDC3C2164
8. News from my Alma Mater:
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=1BC783BC-7855-45A1-AD02-80E327686BD1
9. Outing the "Independent" Institute for research on the Mideast:
http://www.rachelgolem.com/irmep.htm
