[R-G] Scholars condemn attack on academic freedom at UC-Santa Barbara

[Anthony Fenton]

http://sb4af.wordpress.com/2009/04/28/scholars-condemn-attack-on-academic-freedom-at-uc-santa-barbara/#more-383

Scholars condemn attack on academic freedom at UC-Santa Barbara

Noam Chomsky and international scholars demand dismissal of “anti- 
Semitism” charges against sociology professor

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Contact: Jeb Sprague at (805) 886-0492, or write him at jebsprague at gmail.com 
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SANTA BARBARA — Internationally renowned author and linguistics  
professor Noam Chomsky has added his voice to a campaign by dozens of  
scholars worldwide to demand that the University of California at  
Santa Barbara cease its investigation of “anti-Semitism” charges made  
by the Anti-Defamation League against sociology professor William I.  
Robinson.

Noam Chomsky and international scholars demand dismissal of “anti- 
Semitism” charges against sociology professor

Noam Chomsky and international scholars demand dismissal of “anti- 
Semitism” charges against sociology professor

Robinson introduced materials critical of Israeli state policies in a  
course on globalization in January. They included a photo essay that  
he forwarded to students from the Internet and that had been  
circulating in the public realm. The photos compared images of Israeli  
abuse against Palestinians during the recent military invasion of Gaza  
with Nazi abuses during the holocaust. Two students took offense at  
the images and withdrew from the course, prompting the Anti-Defamation  
League (ADL) to demand that the university investigate Robinson for  
“anti-Semitism.”

Chomsky said that the charges form part of an ongoing campaign of  
harassment and intimidation by the ADL against all scholarly criticism  
of the Israeli state.

“There’s been a rash of it around the country,” Chomsky said. “It’s  
usually confined to harassment, but there are a number of cases where  
it’s led to denial of tenure or termination of faculty members. I see  
it myself all the time.”

Chomsky said the case against Robinson is a “complete violation” of  
academic freedom.

“It’s nobody’s business — especially when we’re talking about  
organizations outside of the university administration — to try to  
dictate the content of his course,” Chomsky said. “The course  
structure is up to the professor.”

Charges of “anti-Semitism” are part of the ADL’s long-standing  
strategy to equate any criticism of Israel with anti-Jewish bias,  
Chomsky added.

“They try to label any criticism as anti-Semitic, but they never  
respond to the criticism itself, because they can’t,” Chomsky said.  
“Decades ago, the ADL was an authentic and serious organization that  
defended civic rights, but in the last 40 years it’s become a  
Stalinist-style organization dedicated to supporting anything Israel  
does and to destroying all opposition to Israeli policies.”

The charges against Robinson — which the Academic Senate is now  
formally investigating — spurred an angry backlash on campus. Students  
formed a Committee to Defend Academic Freedom and created an online  
blog to coordinate efforts to cease the investigation.

The committee initiated a letter writing campaign on April 20 to  
demand that university Chancellor Henry Yang intervene to halt  
proceedings against Robinson. The campaign has so far generated more  
than 200 letters, among them dozens of outraged responses from  
scholars in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Wayne State University sociologist David Fasenfest, himself the child  
of a holocaust survivor, said the accusations appear aimed at blocking  
Robinson from engaging students in legitimate debate of the Israeli- 
Palestinian situation.

“We have seen this sort of tactic used time and again, in this country  
and others, to silence and recast legitimate discussion,” Fasenfest  
said.

David Peetz, a global and international studies professor at Griffith  
University in Australia, said there’s no reasonable basis for labeling  
criticism of the Israeli government as anti-Semitism.

“I am astonished that a university would even consider laying charges  
of anti-Semitism against one of its faculty on the basis of his or her  
having criticized, or disseminated criticism of, the Israeli  
government,” Peetz said. “Do I take it that, if a staff member made  
similar criticisms of an African leader, he or she would be charged by  
the university with being racist?”

Professor emeritus Alan Nasser of Evergreen State College in  
Washington, said it’s a “textbook case” of violations of academic  
freedom.

“This kind of thing has happened repeatedly: critical comments  
regarding Israel have been met with well-funded campaigns to denounce  
the alleged ‘anti-Semite’ and indeed to sever his/her employment at  
his/her institution,” Nasser said.

Mario Barrera, an ethnic studies professor at UC-Berkeley, said the  
charges should have been dismissed “out of hand.”

“In my forty years of teaching on five UC campuses, I have never seen  
a case based on such flimsy evidence and clearly faulty reasoning  
proceed to a formal hearing,” Barrera said.

UCLA professor Sondra Hale — acting co-chair the Islamic Studies  
Program and chair of the faculty advisory committee for UCLA’s Center  
for Near Eastern Studies — warned that UCSB’s actions constitute a  
form of harassment against all academics.

“Such blatant lack of protection of faculty by its primary governing  
body (the Academic Senate) can be highly damaging to USCB and to the  
UC system as a whole,” Hale said.

In fact, the California Scholars for Academic Freedom, which includes  
more than 100 academics at 20 California institutions, said the group  
is “deeply disturbed” about the charges against Robinson.

A similar letter was sent by the entire staff of the UK-based  
scholarly journal Race and Class.

“We are shocked that these charges have been pursued against professor  
Robinson,” the staff wrote. “It is patently absurd to allege that his  
circulating of material comparing the Nazis and Israel’s human rights  
abuses of Palestinians is evidence of anti-Semitism.”

All letters can be viewed in their entirety on the Committee to Defend  
Academic Freedom blog site at www.sb4af.wordpress.com.