SEE: “The Trial of Israel’s Campus Critics”, by David Theo Goldberg and Saree Makdisi, SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2009 TIKKUN MAGAZINE

(excerpt) …It is an extraordinary fact that no fewer than thirty-three distinct organizations-including AIPAC, the Zionist Organization of America, the American Jewish Congress, and the Jewish National Fund-are gathered together today as members or affiliates of the Israel on Campus Coalition. The coalition is an overwhelmingly powerful presence on American college campuses for which there is simply no equivalent on the Palestinian or Arab side. Its self-proclaimed mission is not merely to monitor our colleges and universities. That, after all, is the commitment of Campus Watch, which was started by pro-Israel activists in 2002. It is, rather (and in its own words), to generate “a pro-active, pro-Israel agenda on campus.” There is, accordingly, disproportionate and unbalanced intervention on campuses across the country by a coalition of well-funded organizations, who have no time for — and even less interest in — the niceties of intellectual exchange and academic process. Insinuation, accusation, and defamation have become the weapons of first resort to respond to argument and criticism directed at Israeli policies. As far as these outside pressure groups (and their campus representatives) are concerned, the intellectual and academic price that the scholarly community pays as a result of this kind of intervention amounts to little more than collateral damage…

ENTIRE EXCELLENT ARTICLE – link to tikkun.org

There is no political issue that is so censored in American public life.

While there is a revolting amount of censorship in regard ot the Israel/Palestine conflict, it is nothing compared to that in regard to whatever really happened on 9/11. Even people Amy Goodman, who adamantly speaks out on the Israel/Palestine conflict, is visibly afraid of doing anything more than acknowledging the need for a new investigation into 9/11.

TONY JUDT – IN DEFENSE OF ACADEMIC FREEDOM

I concur. This reminds me of when Dr. Martin Luther King said that his work was to save the bodies of black folks and the souls of white folks.

Protesters at Citi Field Hebron settlement fundraiser are violating the Hebron Fund’s Fist Amendment rights to meet in private and conspire to fund terrorism;

President Ungar was well within his rights to cancel, unilaterally and within just a few days, an public academic discussion forum that was vital to the curriculum of a Peace Studies class, ostensibly because the panel did not include a pro-occupation/pro-war/pro-human rights violations speaker. It was entirely appropriate that he insist that NO PUBLIC SPEECH be made about when or where, as well as to dictate just how long the forum was going to be held.