Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Opposition to Ilan Pappe, the new chairman of the History Department at Exeter University

From EJP via HNN:

UK’s Jewish leaders concerned over university appointment

British Jewish leaders have spoken of their concern after a Haifa University lecturer who has called for a boycott of Israeli academics, was made Chair of History at Exeter University in the south of England.

Ilan Pappe has published numerous books and essays accusing Israel of “ethnically cleansing” the Palestinians.

"Zionism is far more dangerous to the safety of the Middle East than Islam," Pappe said in one interview recently and two years ago he was a major supporter of the Association of University Teachers’ proposals for an academic boycott of Israel.

2 comments:

straightchris said...

The article says that there are concerns about impressionable minds being influenced by Ilan Pappe.
I would have thought that there should no concern about these impressionable minds if there was a compelling argument against Ilan Pappe’s claims.

Adam Holland said...

By your "logic", universities should hire professors who will misinform their students.

The problem with Pappe is that he is a doctrinaire opponent of Israel more than an advocate of responsible scholarship. He has actually stated that precision about facts is of no importance to him. That statement alone should raise red flags, regardless of your beliefs about Israel. For any academic, the facts should be of primary importance. Moreover, he has sought to exclude scholars who disagree with him from academic positions in Europe, while falsely portraying HIMSELF as the victim of blacklisting. Pappe's view of the world is that when a scholar differs with him, that's a limit on academic freedom, but when he seeks to prevent other scholars from working in European universities, that's just. Twisted view of things, isn't it?

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