<http://mesa.wns.ccit.arizona.edu/about/cafmenaletters.htm#051305> May 13, 2005 Dr. Angela Roger, President Association of University Teachers Egmont House 25-31 Tavistock Place London WC1H 9UT United Kingdom Fax: +44-020-7670-979
Dear Dr. Roger:
The Committee on Academic Freedom of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) is writing to express its profound disagreement with the recent decision of the Association of University Teachers (AUT) calling on its members to "refrain from participation in any form of academic and cultural cooperation, or joint projects" with Haifa University and Bar Ilan University, in Israel. We strongly urge the Association to withdraw or rescind this resolution to boycott these universities and blacklist their faculty at the very earliest opportunity.
The Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) comprises 2600 academics worldwide who teach and conduct research on the Middle East and North Africa, and is the preeminent professional association in the field. The association publishes the International Journal of Middle East Studies, and is committed to ensuring respect for the principles of academic freedom and freedom of expression in the region and in connection with the study of the Middle East and North Africa.
Our objection to this resolution derives from the deep commitment of this association and its membership to the principles of academic freedom and the free exchange of information and ideas. We are on record as opposing restrictions against individual scholars except in instances where those individuals have violated clearly established legal and ethical norms. We especially oppose penalizing entire segments of an academic community for any reason whatsoever. We find thoroughly objectionable the call of the AUT to refrain from any and all scholarly interaction with the entire professional staff of two universities because of the policies of the state in which they are situated.
This association has gone on record on a number of occasions to protest actions by the government of Israel that restrict in a systematic manner academic freedom and the right to education in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. We are also mindful that establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories constitutes a clear violation of international humanitarian law. For that reason, initiatives by scholars and academics urging the administration of Bar Ilan University to end its institutional complicity with such violations are appropriate, but these should not be initiatives that themselves constitute breaches with important principles of the right to receive and impart information and ideas, or that represent forms of collective punishment against individual academics who find themselves in that university.
In closing, we reiterate our determined opposition to the AUT decision to boycott Haifa University and Bar Ilan University and blacklist their faculty, and we look forward to a speedy and satisfactory resolution of the matter.
Thank you in advance for your attention to our views on this important matter.
Sincerely,
Ali Banuazizi President, Middle East Studies Association Professor, Boston College
cc: Michael Britnall, American Political Science Association Sally T. Hillsman, American Sociological Association Jonathan Knight, American Association of University Professors Maud Kozodoy, Committee for Concerned Scientists
On 5/21/07, Yoshie Furuhashi <critical.montages at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 5/21/07, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> > [Yoshie, better work on Noam - evidently he hasn't gotten the memo yet.]
> >
> > Washington Post - May 20, 2007
> >
> > Academics May Boycott Iran Over Scholar's Detainment
> > By Robin Wright
> > Washington Post Staff Writer
> >
> > Momentum is building behind an academic boycott of Iran to pressure
> > the government to free imprisoned American scholar Haleh Esfandiari,
> > who was jailed in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison on May 8 after more
> > than four months under house arrest.
> >
> > The Middle East Studies Association of North America, which has 2,700
> > members worldwide, has written to Iranian President Mahmoud
> > Ahmadinejad warning that the detention of scholars has triggered
> > "grave concern" and that Esfandiari's imprisonment has sent a
> > "chilling message to scholars throughout the world." Esfandiari is
> > director of Middle East programs at the Smithsonian's Woodrow Wilson
> > International Center for Scholars.
> >
> > "Harassment and detention of scholars is always cause for grave
> > concern, but in this case it should be noted that the scholar in
> > question is widely respected both for her knowledge and ability to
> > provide clear and dispassionate analysis," the letter added. It also
> > charged that Iran's action against the 67-year-old grandmother, who
> > was visiting Iran to help her ailing mother, 93, violates the
> > republic's constitution because she has been denied legal counsel.
> >
> > MIT professor Noam Chomsky also issued a statement yesterday calling
> > Esfandiari's detention "deplorable" and warned that the action by
> > Iran's intelligence ministry was "a gift" to American policymakers
> > trying to organize support for military action against Iran. "Now is
> > a time for diplomacy, negotiations, and relaxation of tensions, in
> > accordance with the will of the overwhelming majority of Americans
> > and Iranians, as recent polls reveal," Chomsky said. "The intolerable
> > treatment of this highly respected scholar and human rights activist
> > severely undermines the efforts of those who are seeking peace,
> > justice and freedom in the region and the world."
> >
> > In his popular blog, University of Michigan Middle East expert Juan
> > Cole said that he canceled plans to attend a conference this summer
> > in Iran because of Tehran's imprisonment of Esfandiari and called on
> > other academics to do the same. "Everyone should be outraged about
> > this story. Her arrest should be an issue for everyone who believes
> > in human rights, in academic freedom, and in women's rights," he
> > wrote. Cole also suggested that academics and others protest in front
> > of Iranian diplomatic missions.
>
> Aside from Juan Cole, though, is "the momentum for an academic
> boycott" of Iran really building, as the Washington Post claims? The
> Middle East Studies Association doesn't call for one, and I very much
> doubt that Noam Chomsky would join one if it did, given his position
> on the boycott of Israel.
>
> Indeed, if cases like this are to be grounds for academic boycotts,
> Middle East studies scholars can never visit any country in the Middle
> East, and it would have to boycott the USA itself. The MESA itself
> keeps a long list of "Committee on Academic Freedom Letters," and in
> the year 2007 alone it has already been sent letters of protest to
> Egypt (regarding "severe restrictions on student expression, including
> disciplinary hearings and suspensions, on several Egyptian university
> campuses"), Saudi Arabia ("arbitrary restrictions that the government,
> including the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Higher
> Education, has placed on a number of Saudi academics," including
> "preventing professors from teaching and meeting with students,
> banning publication and distribution of their work, denying them
> access to Saudi and regional media, and prohibiting them from
> traveling abroad for professional purposes"), De Paul University
> (regarding Norman G. Finkelstein), Harker School (in San Jose,
> regarding abrupt cancellation of lecture by Joel Beinin), Turkey
> (regarding "the detention and deportation from Turkey of Finnish
> independent scholar and freelance journalist Dr. Kristiina Koivunen";
> "the expulsion of Prof. Dr. Atilla Yayla from his faculty position at
> Gazi University"; "the criminal investigation of Dr. Taner Akçam, a
> visiting professor of History at the University of Minnesota, for
> stating that the 1915-1917 deportations and massacres of Armenians
> constituted a genocide"; ), Iran (regarding "the recent expulsion of
> Mr. Matin Meshkin from Tehran's Amir Kabir University of Technology"),
> and Dubai (regarding "the October arrest and questioning of an
> American scholar, Assistant Professor Syed Ali, and his subsequent
> expulsion from Dubai"). But you read nothing of the sort in the
> Washington Post or any of the US media.
> --
> Yoshie
>
-- Yoshie