Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Ben Gurion University Rector joins that Anti-Democratic Feeding Frenzy
http://thejewishpress.blogspot.com/2010/09/ben-gurion-university-rector-joins-that.html
Ben Gurion University Rector joins that Anti-Democratic Feeding Frenzy
Ben Gurion University continues to lead the jihad in Israel against freedom of speech for non-leftists. The latest recruit to the campaign to silence critics of Israel's radical Left is Zvi Hacohen, the new Rector at Ben Gurion University. Hacohen, a professor in chemistry and "desert research," is cited at length in Haaretz Sept 15, 2010 as denouncing people, including and especially the students from the Zionist Im Tirtzu movement, who dare to criticize leftist sedition.
Hecohen calls all such critics "McCarthyists." Leftists denouncing Israel as a Nazi apartheid entity in need of obliteration are simply exercising legitimately their academic freedom and freedom of speech, but anyone who denounces those same people for what they say and do is guilty of "McCarthyism" and so must be suppressed.
Hacohen denounces students and others (I assume he means Isracampus) for recording the public lectures of radical anti-Israel faculty members and then making them public or citing the seditious pronouncements made publicly by the faculty member. He insists that it is McCarthyism to protest the anti-Israel indoctrination that is the main (if not the sole) activity of the Department of Politics at Ben Gurion University, and he denounces Im Tirtzu for calling upon donors to place their contributions to the university into escrow until the university makes needed reforms.
He adds, "Some faculty members have even gotten death threats." The "some faculty" he refers to consists of Neve Gordon, and the "death threat" in question was an anonymous note that Gordon claims he got and that he may have invented or fabricated himself. I earlier posted reasons why Gordon's claims about the note are suspect, including the fact that Gordon had an earlier track record of brazen lying to the police about getting threats.
So let us back up a bit here. Prof. Zvi Hacohen, Rector of Ben Gurion University, is not disturbed at all that entire departments at his university operate as open anti-Israel indoctrination camps, where Zionist academics are prohibited from teaching. He is not disturbed that faculty members at Ben Gurion University are leading the world campaign to destroy Israel, to boycott Israel, to "divest" from Israel, to place sanctions against Israel. He is not disturbed at all about BGU faculty members who are openly anti-Semitic and who collaborate with Holocaust Deniers. He is not concerned that Neve Gordon exploits his position at BGU to publish anti-Israel articles in the Iranian government newspaper and for Aljazeera and Al-Ahram, and that Gordon's articles appear on Neo-Nazi and Holocaust Denial web sites. Hacohen is NOT concerned about the reports of leftist faculty members at BGU harassing and penalizing students who dare to dissent from their anti-Israel ideology. He is NOT concerned that academic standards in many parts of BGU have simply been trashed and that anti-Israel radicals are being hired and promoted there on the basis of "academic records" consisting of nothing more than anti-Israel hate propaganda. He is not concerned about lawbreaking by faculty members. He is not concerned that Ben Gurion University is increasingly regarded as an academic joke and as the "Bir Zeit of the Negev." He is not concerned that Neve Gordon filed an anti-democratic SLAPP suit to harass and silence another faculty member who dared to criticize Gordon's opinions and public political behavior. He is not concerned about the BGU faculty who openly endorse terrorist violence, who openly call for Israel's annihilation. He has no interest in the campaigns by his own faculty members to silence freedom of speech and to stifle Israeli democracy. He is not disturbed by leftist and Arab students marching about campus giving Heil Hitler salutes.
So about what is he concerned? He is concerned that some Zionist students at BGU express their opinions. He demands that they be silenced. He bullies and insults the students at his own university, calling them "McCarthyists." He demands that criticism of treason be silenced in the name of protecting academic freedom.
The academic freedom of which he dreams is the sort to be found in North Korea.
Ben Gurion University Rector joins that Anti-Democratic Feeding Frenzy
Ben Gurion University continues to lead the jihad in Israel against freedom of speech for non-leftists. The latest recruit to the campaign to silence critics of Israel's radical Left is Zvi Hacohen, the new Rector at Ben Gurion University. Hacohen, a professor in chemistry and "desert research," is cited at length in Haaretz Sept 15, 2010 as denouncing people, including and especially the students from the Zionist Im Tirtzu movement, who dare to criticize leftist sedition.
Hecohen calls all such critics "McCarthyists." Leftists denouncing Israel as a Nazi apartheid entity in need of obliteration are simply exercising legitimately their academic freedom and freedom of speech, but anyone who denounces those same people for what they say and do is guilty of "McCarthyism" and so must be suppressed.
Hacohen denounces students and others (I assume he means Isracampus) for recording the public lectures of radical anti-Israel faculty members and then making them public or citing the seditious pronouncements made publicly by the faculty member. He insists that it is McCarthyism to protest the anti-Israel indoctrination that is the main (if not the sole) activity of the Department of Politics at Ben Gurion University, and he denounces Im Tirtzu for calling upon donors to place their contributions to the university into escrow until the university makes needed reforms.
He adds, "Some faculty members have even gotten death threats." The "some faculty" he refers to consists of Neve Gordon, and the "death threat" in question was an anonymous note that Gordon claims he got and that he may have invented or fabricated himself. I earlier posted reasons why Gordon's claims about the note are suspect, including the fact that Gordon had an earlier track record of brazen lying to the police about getting threats.
So let us back up a bit here. Prof. Zvi Hacohen, Rector of Ben Gurion University, is not disturbed at all that entire departments at his university operate as open anti-Israel indoctrination camps, where Zionist academics are prohibited from teaching. He is not disturbed that faculty members at Ben Gurion University are leading the world campaign to destroy Israel, to boycott Israel, to "divest" from Israel, to place sanctions against Israel. He is not disturbed at all about BGU faculty members who are openly anti-Semitic and who collaborate with Holocaust Deniers. He is not concerned that Neve Gordon exploits his position at BGU to publish anti-Israel articles in the Iranian government newspaper and for Aljazeera and Al-Ahram, and that Gordon's articles appear on Neo-Nazi and Holocaust Denial web sites. Hacohen is NOT concerned about the reports of leftist faculty members at BGU harassing and penalizing students who dare to dissent from their anti-Israel ideology. He is NOT concerned that academic standards in many parts of BGU have simply been trashed and that anti-Israel radicals are being hired and promoted there on the basis of "academic records" consisting of nothing more than anti-Israel hate propaganda. He is not concerned about lawbreaking by faculty members. He is not concerned that Ben Gurion University is increasingly regarded as an academic joke and as the "Bir Zeit of the Negev." He is not concerned that Neve Gordon filed an anti-democratic SLAPP suit to harass and silence another faculty member who dared to criticize Gordon's opinions and public political behavior. He is not concerned about the BGU faculty who openly endorse terrorist violence, who openly call for Israel's annihilation. He has no interest in the campaigns by his own faculty members to silence freedom of speech and to stifle Israeli democracy. He is not disturbed by leftist and Arab students marching about campus giving Heil Hitler salutes.
So about what is he concerned? He is concerned that some Zionist students at BGU express their opinions. He demands that they be silenced. He bullies and insults the students at his own university, calling them "McCarthyists." He demands that criticism of treason be silenced in the name of protecting academic freedom.
The academic freedom of which he dreams is the sort to be found in North Korea.
# posted by Steven Plaut : 1:55 AM
