Incidentally …
Further to the Dispatches programme, I wonder whether you have seen this revealing piece regarding one of its talking heads, Oxford professor Avi Shlaim. It’s an oldie but a goody.
http://jewishrefugees.blogspot.com/2005/08/inside-mind-of-avi-shlaim
Far be it from me to suggest the muzzling of academic freedom (I’ll leave that to the despicable advocates of an academic boycott of the struggling little Jewish State), but the presence in the higher echelons of academia in the UK of such serial defamers of Israel as Avi Shlaim and Ilan Pappe must be cause for concern.
It is perhaps not generally known that among the endorsers of the “One State Declaration”, of which Pappe is one of the signatories, is the Reader in Jewish History at the University of Leicester. The incumbent came to Leicester from Monash University in Australia, where she had taught in the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilization. She has been active in a number of groups highly critical of Israel – as, of course, is her right in a personal capacity (although it is rather surprising that she still gives Melbourne as her address when signing the electronic statements that emanate from Australia, seeing as she has been resident in Leicester for a number of years!).
It seems to me that the footholds in university teaching posts that extreme critics of Israel are getting in Britain (and no doubt elsewhere) is a real cause for concern. I don’t mean critics of “The Occupation”, although I’m not fond of the way some of them express that criticism. I mean people, including yordim, like the supporters of the “One State Declaration” – the above-mentioned senior Leicester academic among them – people who advocate an end to Israel’s very existence.
I’m not suggesting a witch-hunt, but surely a sharp eye and a vigilant ear should somehow be trained on what these individuals are teaching students in the courses they give – courses that in some cases such as at Leicester – include the history of Zionism, complete with a prospectus reference to “the Nakbar” (a term which might reasonably be interpreted as propagandistic).
It is to be hoped that lectures and tutorials are given in objective fashion, and that students who support Israel’s right to exist, and a two-state solution, aren’t penalised for their views.
I really feel that this aspect of Israel’s demonisation in the West is often overlooked. But we friends of Israel overlook it at our peril.