Academic freedom continues to be destroyed by the tenured Left. Academic freedom today increasingly means that faculty members have the right to agree with radical leftists and Marxists but not the right to disagree with them. And criticism of radical leftist academics is never permitted. It is considered “McCarthyism.”
The absurdities surrounding the leftist take on academic freedom have never been so glaring as in a pair of events, involving two very different professors in Israel, both allegedly involved in “sexual insensitivity.”
Ben Gurion University in Israel has long been something of a public laughingstock. Outside its science and engineering departments, it is largely a parody of a real university. It hires and promotes large number of anti-Israel faculty extremists, in many cases people whose academic records consist of nothing more than churning out anti-Israel hate propaganda. The political science department there is without a doubt Israel’s worst; it does not contain a single non-leftist and it fired the one non-leftist who had worked there on grounds of incorrect thinking. It and other departments in the humanities and social sciences at Ben Gurion University see their mission as indoctrinating students into Marxism and far-leftist hatred of Zionism. Ben Gurion University hosts Neve Gordon, the Israeli equivalent of Norman Finkelstein, best known for his campaign for a world boycott against Israel. Gordon has built an academic career upon denouncing Israel as a fascist, apartheid regime, engaged in state terror, a country whose existence Gordon wants ended. Gordon recently hosted a convicted Palestinian terrorist in his own home for several months, to serve as a moral role model for Gordon’s own children.
The tenured extremism at Ben Gurion University has long been defended by the university officials on grounds of “academic freedom.” But that just made the recent firing of professor Yeruham Leavitt all the more outrageous. Leavitt is actually a retired professor who was retained by Ben Gurion University to teach an ethics course to students in the Clinical Pharmaceutical Department. Alas, Leavitt, was guilty of political incorrectness, and was fired for that. The very same President of the University, Rivka Carmi, who defends having dozens of radical tenured traitors on her academic staff, defended the decision to fire Leavitt because he had made “offensive” and “insensitive” statements.
Just what was Leavitt’s horrific crime? In the ethics class the subject of children being raised by homosexual couples came up. Leavitt expressed skepticism as to whether such arrangements are healthy for the children. He also claimed in class that homosexuals who wish to do so can suppress or ignore their sexual urges, much like he himself does when he sees a pretty young coed. The university reacted in a statement,
“The lecturer made a categorical comment on the homosexuality phenomenon. During his hearing, (Leavitt) did not apologize for his offensive comments and even repeated them. Ben-Gurion University sanctifies freedom of thought and expression, but the lecturer blatantly crossed the line.”
Leavitt actually favors airing different views in the classroom. He was quoted in the local press as insisting he is in favor of pluralism and equality. “In my many lectures on medical bioethics I have always tried to instill pluralistic culture while stressing multiple opinions and making them heard in a respectable fashion,” he said. The President of Ben Gurion University issued a public letter in which she defended the firing of Leavitt, making it clear that politically incorrect comments will not be tolerated in Ben Gurion University, but treasonous anti-Israel and anti-Semitic pronouncements are protected speech and students will be tested on them. Even the far-leftist Israel Association for Civil Rights in Israel, which ordinarily does not favor freedom of speech for non-leftists, attacked the University for firing Leavitt.
Leavitt was quoted in the press as saying, “My embarrassing dismissal from Ben-Gurion University constitutes a severe violation of basic rights, including the right to dignity, academic freedom and freedom of expression.”
Now one can agree or disagree with Leavitt’s comments. Sexual psychologists seem to be divided over the matters he discussed. Even if one believes he is wrong, since when is being wrong a basis for firing faculty members? If it were, most of Ben Gurion University would be a ghost town. It should also be borne in mind that he was teaching an ethics course, where ethical debate and controversy are the focus of the class.
Ben Gurion University’s anti-democratic officials claimed that a student in Leavitt’s class had felt offended by what he said about homosexuals. But Ben Gurion University has always refused to take action against any of its many far-leftist faculty members who routinely denounce Israeli soldiers as Nazis, who endorse terrorist attacks against Jews, who call for the extermination of Israel, and who dismiss Jews as moral inferiors. They do so even when many of the students in class are themselves reserves soldiers, and some are people who have lost fathers and brothers in Middle East wars. No one has ever thought that offending the feelings of these people should serve as grounds for dismissal of the tenured extremists.
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For the second of our Tales, let us introduce Eyal Ben-Ari. He is a far-leftist full professor of sociology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, a department famous for employing far-leftist and Marxist anti-Israel radicals. He claims to know something about the sociology of the military. He is an anti-Zionist extremist with a track record of turning out anti-Israel propaganda, such as claims that Israel is an ultra-militarist society. Much of his propaganda is misrepresented as scholarly research. Ben-Ari has also served as a consultant to the Israeli army over the role of women in the military.
I am asking Israelis, why do you allow Ben Gurion university to operate? Can you not realize the way it operate and who operates from it one can see it as the enemy of the entire state? Under the circumstance, BGU must shut its doors
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pALENSTAINS SHOULD BE KILLED BUT OBAMA DOES NOT CARE HE IS A STUPID PRESIDENT.mARY MILLER&BELL MILLER ARE NAZIS.
Professor Plaut is one of the most incisive analyst of the onslaught by, in this case flocks of what I call are unJews, elements formatted over the years in the seminars, colleges and universities penetrated by the former Jews. Those individuals were allocated key positions during and just afer the Oslo heyday and under the cover provided by the Rabin assessination.
They are not self hating. Those are veritable, well trained and paid by foreign centers enemies of the Jews. Some called them fith columns, other degenrate lements, to my view those are unJews, renegades, traitors, criminals well organized to sabotage the state and all Jews.
This article is another clear ringing bell of warning about that nefarious aggregate.
They must be identified, extracted and forever branded and set aside. The US is also infested by that element.
Couldn't agree more… as a person living in israel, i can tell you that this country has nothin gto do with a state where jews can live, but more with the next ghetto of warsaw, (of course our court jester jews like the rothschild, shimon peres and other will gain nicely from slling of the jews to the heathens; what new new, we did it in the roman times, we did it during the crusades and hell…. we did it in biblical times…. see josef).
Sadly enough I cannot go home to my native europe, as the court jews there were also instrumental in getting the muslims in and destroting my home!
aT THE STERLING CLUB OR WEWSTCHESTER COUNTY JAIL,OR ARDSELY sOS IT WILL BE DECIDED THEY,SAID SO ON NHK TV JAPAN.
We need a little McCarthyism. We know today who are Communists, Marxist, Progressives, Far Lefties and Liberals and we see with our own eyes the damage they have and will continue to do to our Republic is we don't stop them…
There has to be a pay-off for such thinking by the university. What could that possibly be? Otherwise, it's utter lunacy.
Given the impressive discipline in the IDF, and the great lengths they go to fight in a humane way (like using paintball guns against viscious thugs), I would be very surprised to learn that systematic rape of Jewish women or anyone else was part of their repertoire.
I wonder if those who don't rape any women (the majority, I suppose) are seen as misogynist rather than racist by the perverted professor.
Ben Gurion U, Tel Aviv U, and Hebrew U all have outstanding departments in the sciences. But the dominance by the extreme left in the humanities and social sciences departments and by their administrations has dissuaded many from supporting them. (Money, after all, is fungible.) Indeed, I replied to a solicitation from Hebrew U noting the "soldiers don't rape because they're racist" thesis. They never responded.
I myself do support both the Technion and the Weizmann Institute – both world class – given their focus on science, research and technology. Yes, I'm sure they've got their share of leftists, but they can do less damage there. Nobel laureate (in Chemistry) Yonath, for example, caused a furor when she suggested Israel free all its Palestinian prisoners so they would have no motivation to kidnap. She subsequently retracted, and apparently decided to stick to Chemistry.
But things may be starting to change. One of TAU's Governors (and major benefactor) resigned when a proposal to sanction professors who promote the boycotting of their own university was obstructed by the university's President. Others look to follow suit. Moreover, government legislation is being considered on the matter. Leftists, of course, are screaming about "academic freedom" and charging "McCarthyism".
yes operation paper clip brought the nazis over this country after ww 2,eventually they all died of old age but,before that they had kids they taught their children how to become nazis.
Could you contact me at 423-650-7222? We have the same name apparently.
Thanks.
Superb article. Neve Gordon really IS a Neo-Nazi and a Holocaust Denier
In leftist thought, everything is relative to outcome. Good is everything that benefits the cause, bad is anything that hurts it. Therefore, there is no truth other than what they define it as and truth's definition is amorphous and changing as well. It is a Machivellian-universe to near perfection, that is drrven by an unjustifiable arrogant savior-syndrome and its attendant need for power.
Oh, how George Orwell would have a field day with these "smelly litttle orthodoxies"!
That was an amazing string of words, I like how undulated through the various unrelated stories to come to a grand conclusion.
Where is the Israeli Government on this? If they can't fire them maybe they can give them free
medication. Or get them a job on HBO as stand up comedians .
It is too bad the father or brother of one of these women was not given the opportunity to demand an explanation from this liberal pseudo academic POS. Had it been my daughter this guy would be excreting his body fluids through a catheter and drinking through a straw permanently.
Why the outrage? The Shabak only targets religious Jews, so-called settlers and Zionists. Wherein lies the difference between the government and the university?
Perhaps Israeli soldiers are just too fastidious to rape arab women.
Surely the funds which support these treacherous Universities are derived from patriotic Jews and non-Jewish friends of Israel who must be oblivious to these suicidal policies. There must be more deserving institutions in Israel which are faithful to the spirit which nurtured the State.
Starving those with policies which are unhelpful to Israel's spiritual status would surely be a Mitzvah. Thank you Professor Plaut for acting as did our Prothets of old and enlightening us all of the cancerous nature of the policies of some of Israel's institutions of learning. I hope there are just too many others, observing healthy policies to publicize.
Wondering where the Israeli Government is on this? operation paper clip brought them to this country post www2, they had kids and now there is a legacy …. an alarming thought that has many a person all in gd poker thinking about what could be waiting in the next generation…..scary stuff that has me reaching for the good book.