Listen to Academic Freedom Forum appeared on Muzzlewatch and was posted by Cecilie Surasky, its communications director (by permission). It was a report on the October 12 conference entitled, In Defense of Academic Freedom, which followed the denial of tenure by DePaul University to Norman Finkelstein, because of his views of Zionism and Israel’s continuing hegemony over the Palestinians.
Depaul buckled under pressure from Zionist proponents and outed Finkelstein for his views. The question of Zionist degradation of American academic freedom immediately came under scrutiny and a conference was held to discuss this pernicious influence.
The Oct. 12 conference, titled ‘In Defense of Academic Freedom,’ brought together not only Jews and non-Jews, but professors whose ideological differences are so vast they likely agree on little else than the notion that Jewish groups have degraded the quality and breadth of discussion in the media and in Washington.
In other words, to what degree will America permit Zionists to dictate what dialogue is permitted about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the American college and university campus?
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports,
A conference last week at the University of Chicago brought the latest volley in the controversy over academic freedom and protest involving the much-publicized denial of tenure to Norman G. Finkelstein at DePaul University. Finkelstein’s writings on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and what he has termed the “Holocaust industry” have become a lightning rod for debate about American support of Israel.
The Chicago Maroon, an independent student newspaper at the university, reports that Rockefeller Chapel was packed with some 1,500 people to hear such speakers as Noam Chomsky, emeritus MIT professor, Tariq Ali, editor of The New Left Review, John Mearsheimer, the Chicago professor who has stirred controversy with his attack on “the Israel Lobby,” and Tony Judt, the New York University scholar who has come in for his own share of tumult over his criticism of Israel.
Ben Harris at the Jewish Telegraphic Agency writes:
Collectively they have published more than a hundred books and countless articles. Four are tenured professors at elite American universities. Internet searches reveal them to be widely cited experts on international affairs and American foreign policy.
In short, it’s difficult to imagine a collection of academics more secure in their posts or more prominent.
But there they were — Noam Chomsky, John Mearsheimer, Tony Judt and fellow travelers — at a conference last week hosted by the University of Chicago warning that pressure from American Jewish groups is having a chilling effect on unpopular scholarship and free-wheeling debate on university campuses.
“Universities are the one place in the United States where Israel tends to get treated like a normal country,” said Mearsheimer, the University of Chicago professor and co-author of “The Israel Lobby,” which asserts that the pro-Israel community stifles debate over U.S. policy in the Middle East.
“Some find this situation intolerable,” he told a nearly packed 1,500-seat auditorium, “which causes them to work hard to stifle criticism of Israel and to instead promote a positive image of Israel on campuses.”
The Academic Freedom conference was sponsored by the DePaul Academic Freedom Committee, Verso Books, the American Friends Service Committee, and Jewish Voice for Peace (from which this Muzzlewatch article originated).
