The War on Campus by Daniel Pipes New York Post September 17, 2002 http://www.danielpipes.org/article/465
Last week, two prominent Middle Easterners traveled to two North American campuses to deliver speeches mainly about the Arab-Israeli conflict. Both met protests. One succeeded in giving the speech; the other did not. Therein hangs a tale.
On Monday, former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu went to Concordia University in Montreal to explain why "there is no alternative to winning this war [on terrorism] without delay." But he never spoke at Concordia - indeed, he never made it onto the campus - because a thousand anti-Israel demonstrators staged a mini-riot with the intent of preventing him from speaking; "Benjamin Netanyahu is coming to Montreal. Let's make it clear he's not welcome," read their signs.
The anti-Israel forces physically assaulted the would-be audience. A female professor of religion at Concordia recounted how some of them "aimed their punches at my breasts."
----- Original Message ----- From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> To: lbo-talk <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2002 10:23 AM Subject: ratting on profs
> [The "monitors'" web site is <http://www.campus-watch.org/. Hamid
> Dabashi is supposed to be on my radio show this evening to talk about
> Iran.]
>
> Chronicle of Higher Education - web daily - September 19, 2002
>
> Web Site Lists Professors Accused of Anti-Israel Bias and Asks
> Students to Report on Them
> By SCOTT SMALLWOOD
>
> In an attempt to combat what it sees as anti-Israel bias in academe,
> the Middle East Forum has created a new Web site that lists faculty
> members it is monitoring and allows students to report on their
> professors.
>
> Others, including the Muslim Public Affairs Council, suggest that the
> project is "basically a hate Web site" and that posting "dossiers" on
> faculty members amounts to a blacklist. And some professors who are
> listed on the site are denouncing it as hateful and inappropriate.
>
> The Middle East Forum, a Philadelphia-based think tank, announced the
> new site, called Campus Watch, on Wednesday.
>
> Organizers of Campus Watch said they plan to monitor and gather
> information "on professors who fan the flames of disinformation,
> incitement, and ignorance." The site targets professors who "actively
> dissociate themselves from the United States." For instance, it
> criticizes Rashid Khalidi, a professor of Near East languages and
> civilization at the University of Chicago, for dedicating his study
> of the Palestine Liberation Organization to "those who gave their
> lives during the summer of 1982 ... in defense of the cause of
> Palestine and the independence of Lebanon."
>
> Martin Kramer, the editor of Middle East Quarterly, the think tank's
> journal, said combining scattered material in one location will be
> useful, but he hopes the site grows over time. "The list [of
> professors] is actually too short," he said. "It should be much
> longer. More people would be on the list than off the list."
>
> Mr. Kramer also said the dossiers aren't creating any blacklist. "All
> the material there is in the public domain," he said. "I don't see
> how putting together information is wrong."
>
> Eight professors are now listed on the site. The dossiers include
> short biographies and reprints of a variety of materials -- articles
> about the professors, as well as letters to editors and essays
> written by the professors themselves.
>
> Some of the professors who appear on the site derided it as
> fear-mongering. Mr. Khalidi said the effort "could have a chilling
> effect if people allow themselves to be intimidated." Campus Watch is
> part of a "well-financed campaign of black propaganda," he said.
>
> Another of the listed professors, Hamid Dabashi, chairman of the
> department of Middle East and Asian languages and cultures at
> Columbia University, said the project seeks to create fear that
> students will be spying on professors. That won't affect him, he
> said, but it could be a "horrible development" for junior faculty
> members. "In the tenure culture, it could be damaging to the healthy
> relationship that has to govern the classroom," he said.
>
> Juan R.I. Cole, a professor of history at the University of Michigan
> at Ann Arbor, is also listed on the site. In an e-mail message, he
> complained that the Campus Watch site had violated copyright law by
> reprinting some of his writings that he had posted on his own Web
> site. "This sort of arrogant theft of other people's property is
> typical of the intellectual hooligans who run the Middle East Forum,"
> he wrote.
>