|
Hiring and tenure decisions are typically decided (and
appropriately decided, most in academe would say) by academics. A
series of lobbying campaigns by pro-Israel groups, however, have some
scholars worried that those who criticize Israel are being subjected
to political tests and having their jobs endangered.
At Barnard College, Nadia Abu El-Haj, an anthropologist who is
coming up for tenure, is under attack by some alumnae and pro-Israel
groups for a book, published by the University of Chicago Press, that
was critical of Israeli archaeology and its use in the context of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. At Wayne State University, similar
groups are pushing the university not to hire Wadie Said for a faculty
position in the law school. In that case, critics of Said are
attacking him and his late father, the literary theorist Edward Said,
saying that both Said’s activism on behalf of the Palestinian cause
has amounted to support for violent groups.
These debates follow
the
cancellation last month of a lecture by Tony Judt, a professor at
New York University, at the Polish consulate in New York City, amid
charges that the Anti-Defamation League had encouraged Polish
officials to call off the talk. And in June, Yale University
turned down Juan Cole, a University of Michigan professor who is a
leading figure in Middle Eastern studies, for a position — after a
lengthy period in which critics of Cole argued that he was not a
suitable choice for the position, in part because of his criticism of
Israel. And Princeton University has faced
criticism over a possible hire as well.
This weekend, the Middle East Studies Association, of which Cole is
the president, voted to expand the work of its academic freedom
committee — which has focused on helping scholars in the Middle East —
to engage in efforts on behalf of colleagues in the United States.
“The subtext of these controversies is whether it is going to be
allowed for Palestinians to hold positions in academe in the United
States. Is it going to be allowed for people who are not Zionists to
hold positions? Is there a Zionist litmus test in the United States?”
said Cole in an interview Monday. He characterized the pro-Israel
groups’ activities as “the privatization of McCarthyism” and said that
they represented the most serious threat today to academic freedom in
the United States.
Winfield Myers, director of Campus Watch, a pro-Israel group that
publicizes information about professors who are critical of Israel,
said that Cole and others in Middle Eastern studies are distorting
what is going on and that his group respects the right of faculty
members to decide academic appointments. Myers said, however, that
non-academics have every right to make their views known and that
Middle Eastern studies professors are trying to prevent that from
happening. “It is ultimately for faculty to decide. We’re not saying
‘approve this guy and turn this other fellow down,’ ” Myers said. But
he said that academics do not have the right to make these decisions
in a “cocoon of silence” in which information about scholars’
“politicized work” isn’t well known.
The professors who are being criticized were not available for
comment on the criticism, much of which is taking the form of e-mail
campaigns urging alumni and others to weigh in against them with
senior administrators. In the case of El-Haj, much of the criticism
concerns her book
Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial
Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society.
Material published on
Campus Watch states that the book’s aim is to undermine the
historic connection between the Jewish people and Israel, that the
critique of Israeli archaeology is poorly researched and written, and
that the author’s anti-Israel bias undercuts her work. The material
also questions whether El-Haj knows enough about Israel and has enough
mastery of Hebrew to conduct any anthropological work about Israeli
society. The material includes Barnard President Judith Shapiro’s
e-mail address and phone number.
Wayne State President Irvin Reid has had his contact info — as well
as that of Frank H. Wu, the law dean — widely distributed by those
seeking to prevent Said’s appointment. The Web site of the pro-Israel
group
Stand With Us states that Said “shares his father’s views” and is
“supportive of his father’s legacy of ‘post-colonial,’ ‘Orientalist’
slander against Israel.” Said is also criticized for his participation
in the defense team of
Sami Al-Arian, the former University of South Florida professor
who reached a plea agreement with the government on various charges
against him after a jury rejected some charges and was divided on
others.
David Horowitz’s magazine is also coming out against Said.
(Defenders of El-Haj and Said make much of the tone of the Web sites
attacking them, but some of the Web sites defending them aren’t
exactly subtle in their tones either.
One site defending Said says “the Negro President of WSU Irvin
Reid is a staunch supporter of the racist state of Israel” and that
because of his “unconditional support for the settler-colonial state
of Zionist Israel,” he has no business running a university in
Detroit, home to a large Arab-American population.)
It is unclear what impact the campaigns will have. The academic job
market is tough enough that when someone doesn’t get a position, there
are any number of reasons that could explain that decision. Winning
tenure at Barnard or a faculty position at Yale aren’t easy things to
do regardless of whether one is being criticized on pro-Israel Web
sites. At the same time, some of those who have lost their shot at
jobs — like Cole at Yale — had strong faculty backing and appeared
well positioned to gain certain positions prior to the lobbying
campaigns.
Wu, the law dean at Wayne State, said that lobbying administrators
there will have no impact. He said that the tradition at the law
school — which he supports — is that job offers come only after
two-thirds of the faculty agree. Wu said he has never tried to
influence the faculty vote, and would never do so — or attempt to
block a candidate who gained that level of support. Wu said he feels
so strongly about this principle that he does not even vote as a
faculty member. “We have a celebrated tradition of shared governance
and academic freedom,” he said. Sending him an e-mail about Said’s
candidacy would have about as much impact, he said, as sending an
e-mail about Said to the dean of Harvard Law School, where Said is not
a candidate for anything.
If the pro-Israel groups start lobbying professors, Wu warned that
the effort might backfire. He said that his faculty holds a range of
views politically and that professors likely don’t all agree on
whether it’s appropriate for members of the public to seek to
influence their hiring decisions. “Some might welcome [the e-mails].
Some might be offended. Some might be so turned off by the e-mail
coming in that they may be persuaded to take a position that they
might not have otherwise,” Wu said
Roger Bowen, general secretary of the American Association of
University Professors, said flatly that outside groups do not have a
role in these hiring and tenure decisions. “Non-academics and external
advocacy groups should not be permitted to intrude in hiring and
tenure cases in the academy", he said. “Academic freedom also requires
recognition that scholars alone have the right to pass judgment on the
quality of a professor’s credentials. No scholar should have to be
subjected to political litmus tests conjured up by partisan groups.”
A Barnard spokeswoman said that the college has received around 25
letters and e-mail messages from alumnae about El-Haj. The spokeswoman
said that the college would never comment on the status of a tenure
review. Judith Shapiro, Barnard’s president, has posted on the alumnae
Web site
a letter about the dispute. In her letter, Shapiro noted that a
review of El-Haj’s work would include outside evaluations, by experts
in the field. Shapiro — a cultural anthropologist herself — did not
offer an opinion on El-Haj’s work. But she defended the type of work
done, saying that “it is a legitimate cultural anthropological
enterprise to show how archaeological research can be used for
political and ideological purposes,” and noted that such critiques are
not unique to the Middle East.
And while Shapiro said she welcomed feedback from alumnae, she also
said she wanted to share “my concern about communications and
letter-writing campaigns orchestrated by people who are not as
familiar with Barnard as you are, and who may not be in the best
position to judge the matter at hand.”
Cole said that in both the Barnard and Wayne State disputes, good
scholars are having their careers unfairly maligned. (In both cases,
he said that he knows their work, but isn’t a personal friend.)
El-Haj is “very well respected” and the issues she raises in her
work are important ones, Cole said. A long-standing concern of
Palestinians, he said, is that Israeli archaeologists dig through
materials that cover centuries of key developments in the region to
focus on the period of ancient Israel. “Getting rid of this professor
would be like replicating what she is writing about in terms of what
was done on the ground,” he said.
And while Cole is no critic of Edward Said, he also said it was
unfair and inappropriate for people who didn’t like his ideas to take
that out on his son. “This shows that it’s a blood feud,” he said.
Ari Drissman, president of the Wayne State chapter of Students for
Israel, said that there were legitimate reasons to oppose Said’s
appointment. Drissman said that the environment at the university is
“very tense” for students who support Israel, who are barraged with
anti-Israel leaflets that are “without any facts.” He characterized
the publicity being given to Said’s background as similar to a
background check done by a business before hiring a new employee.
And Myers of Campus Watch used similar language. He stressed that
all the groups are doing is publicizing information, not trying to
intrude on actual decisions. As for his opinion, he said that El-Haj’s
work is “part of an ongoing effort to delegitimize the modern Israeli
state,” and that Said has “some rather radical politics.”
In getting out the word about these people, Myers said, his group
“is not part of some effort to silence the Arab voice.” Rather, he
said, his group is trying to open up debate. If Middle Eastern studies
scholars are offended by the work of Campus Watch, Myers said, “they
aren’t used to getting criticism,” adding that information put out by
all groups — his own included — should be open for critique.
—
Scott Jaschik
| 
