Monday, March 28, 2011
Feminist Soap Opera at Tel Aviv University’s “Women’s Studies” Department
by Steven Plaut
Just when you thought things could not get sillier at Tel Aviv
University, along comes the newest TAU Soap Opera revolving around the
Women's Studies Department there.
The very fact that there exists a "Women's Studies" Department at Tel
Aviv University may tell you most of what you need to know about the
background to all this. While one can argue over whether there could
hypothetically be an interesting avenue of scholarly inquiry involving
gender issues, this is obviously never (or almost never) what is done
in such "Women's Studies" departments. Instead, "Women's Studies"
consists of full-time advocacy and propagandizing. In Israel, all
"Women's Studies" departments are far leftist and anti-Israel. It is
not the only department in which advocacy is the raison d'etre.
The "Women's Studies" department at Tel Aviv University is suddenly in
the headlines. And the events there make the best soap opera3s you
have seen on daytime TV look quite tame. Its Queen Bee is one Orly
Lubin, a radical anti-Israel leftist whose political pedigree is
exposed here: http://www.isracampus.org.il/third%20level%20pages/Editorial%20-%20Lee%20Kaplan%20-%20TAU%20-%20Orly%20Lubin.htm
She is almost as hostile to "American colonialism" as she is to
Zionism.
Well, Sister Orly got her petticoat in a twist when she was attacked
for inviting an alleged rapist to an "academic conference" that she
and her Women's Studies princesses were about to host. The alleged
rapist in question is Yitzhak Laor, an ultra-leftist Haaretz columnist
who used to teach at Tel Aviv University. Some of his students from
TAU claimed he raped and molested them. The conference was organized
in memory of a radical Israel-hating moonbette at Tel Aviv University
named Inbal Perelson. Perelson had been active in the pro-terrorist
group "Alternative Information Center" when she was not teaching
"literature" at TAU. While hiking with some other AIC terrorists in
the Judean desert, the group was washed away by a cleansing flash
flood sent by the Great Zionist of the Sky.
Sister Orly's conference, which was to take place today (March 28),
was to include Benny Zipper, another ultra columnist from Haaretz.
But Zipper's inclusion set off some feminist fang flashings. Some
women objected to Zipper being included in the program, because Zipper
is not only a Haaretz columnist colleague of alleged rapist Laor, but
because Zipper has also attacked in his blog the women who have
accused Laor of rape and molestation. In particular, Ashkar (that is
really her name) Elron-Cohen, an Israeli artist, who filed a police
complaint against Laor for rape, had a conniption and directed it
against Sister Orly.
Zipper had smeared Elron-Cohen in his blog. How dare you invite
Zipper to your feminist festival?, screamed Elron-Cohen. Sister Orly
refused to drop Zipper, on grounds that this would be "censorship."
Of course, preventing any anti-feminist or pro-Israel article or book
from appearing on the course syllabi in "Women's Studies" would
clearly NOT be considered censorship!!
Not to be deterred, Elron-Cohen then turned to the mother of Perelson
herself, the woman the entire conference was supposed to be
commemorating, and Mom also asked Lubin to drop Zipper. At a loss
about how to keep the nativettes happy, Sister Lubin then simply
called off the entire conference. Orly and her allies then denounced
Elron-Cohen for engaging in "verbal violence" against them and the
conference. Meanwhile, Elron-Cohen had already organized a petition
of feminists and fellow travelers to demand that Zipper not be
included in the conference. Sister Orly had a prissy fit when she saw
this, and sent her own personal letter to every name on the petition
announcing to them that she was hereby resigning from Tel Aviv
University!!
Now as tearful as we would be to see such a fine scholar resign from
Tel Aviv University, the officials at TAU claim they never got any
such letter of resignation from her. Sister Orly says she is
"resigning" because she is upset that the "discipline" of "Women's
Studies" is being bad-mouthed. Lubin's announcement of her
resignation, like similar announcements regularly made back when by
Abdul Nasser, evidently were designed to drum up feminist support for
herself. Three feminist groups that had signed the petition against
Zipper backed off and begged Sister Orly to stay.
I have no doubt that Sister Orly will hold on to her perqs and cushy
job at TAU and will NOT really go ahead with her resignation.
But I would be happy to be proven wrong!!
2. In recent months there has been a series of attempts to introduce
bills in the Knesset that defend Israel against its far-leftist
traitors. Or what the Left calls Fascism laws. The most important
was the financial disclosure bill, which would require disclosure of
funding of leftist anti-Israel NGOs. It was scuttled by the left wing
of the Likud led by Netanyahu. But some others have passed. The
Knesset has now passed a law that would strip funding from any group
commemorating Israel's existence as a Nakba or Catastrophe. It is
passing a law that would strip Israeli citizenship from those engaged
in anti-Israel espionage. It may pass a bill requiring an oath of
loyalty from Arabs applying for Israeli citizenship. As you can see,
these are all terribly "fascist" ideas.
Well, now one more such "fascist" law has been proposed. See this:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4048650,00.html :
"Right-wing MKs launched a new attack against leftist organizations
Monday with a bill limiting their right to petition the High Court of
Justice.
"MKs Danny Danon and Yariv Levin from the Likud Party explain that the
bill, which is aimed at preventing court rulings from exacting
influence in the name of organizations that have no direct connection
to the matters at hand, government policy, or the Knesset."
3. Students strike back against the evil empire: Kenneth Marcus has
written an excellent essay about the civil rights case at UC Berkeley
and UC Santa Cruz:
http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2011/03/fighting_back_against_campus_a.html
