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<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Dear all, </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>This was published on May 12th in IMC-Israel, but we had
to get confirmation of its authenticity from Ilan Pappe... </FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>He replied that he did write the letter.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Below the letter, I put some links to background
articles.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Best,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Bryan</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT
face=Arial>------------------------------------------------------------------------</FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Originally published at: <A
href="http://www.indymedia.org.il/imc/israel/webcast/27298.html">http://www.indymedia.org.il/imc/israel/webcast/27298.html</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Dear Friends, </FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>I have received today an invitation to stand for a trial
in my university, the university of Haifa. The prosecution, represented by Haifa
Dean's of humanities demands my expulsion from the university due to the
positions I have taken on the Katz affair. It calls upon the court 'to judge Dr.
Pappe on the offences he has committed and to use to the full the court's legal
authority to expel him from the university". These offences are in a nutshell my
past critique of the university's conduct in the Katz affair, the MA student who
discovered the Tantura massacre in 1948 and was disqualified for that. The
reason the university waited so long is that now the time is ripe in Israel for
any act of silencing academic freedom. My intent to teach a course on the Nakbah
next year and my support for boycott on Israel has led the university to the
conclusion that I can only be stopped by expulsion. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Judging by past procedures this is not a request, but
already a verdict, given the position of the person in question in the
university and the way things had been done in the past. The ostensible
procedure of a 'fair trial' does not exist and hence I do not even intend to
participate in a McCarthyist charade. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV><FONT face=Arial>
<DIV><BR>I do not appeal to you for my own sake. I ask you at this stage before
a final decision has been taken to voice your opinion in whatever form you can
and to whatever stage you have access to, not in order to prevent my expulsion
(in many ways in the present atmosphere in Israel it will come now, and if not
now later on, as the Israeli academia has deiced almost unanimously to support
the government and to help silence any criticism). I ask those who are willing
to do so, to take this case as part of your overall appreciation of, and
attitude to, the preset situation in Israel. This should shed light also on the
debate whether or not to boycott Israeli academia. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>This is not, I stress, and an appeal for personal help - my situation is
far better than that of my colleagues in the occupied territories living under
the daily harassment and brutal abuses of the Israeli army. It is an opening
gambit and many of colleagues, especially my Palestinian Israeli colleagues, can
be next. A testimony to the tragic circumstances of my own university is that I
know there is no use in distributing this letter on its internal web-site, as
all of my colleagues in the past when it came to the crucial moment - for
understandable reasons - felt they could do very little to help me, without
risking their own position in the university. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I know many of you have access to world media and can help to expose the
already dismal picture and false pretense of Israel of being the 'only democracy
in the Middle East'. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Yours <BR>Ilan Pappe</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Background:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2><A
href="http://indymedia.org.il/article/10285">http://indymedia.org.il/article/10285</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2><A
href="http://www.indymedia.org.il/imc/israel/webcast/10284.html">http://www.indymedia.org.il/imc/israel/webcast/10284.html</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
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