March 4, 2005
The Honorable Jerrold Nadler
201 Varick Street, Suite 669
New York, New York 10014
Fax: (212) 367-7356
RE: The Middle East & Academic Integrity on the
American Campus Conference, Columbia University
Dear Congressman Nadler:
Last summer, some members of our organization, Jews Against the
Occupation (JATO), met in Washington, D.C. with your Administrative
Assistant, Brett Heimov, as representatives of the U.S. Campaign to
End the Israeli Occupation. We are very glad to have had the
opportunity to present our views to Mr. Heimov regarding issues
pertaining to the Israeli Separation Wall. We are also glad to have
had the opportunity to discuss with him the International Studies in
Higher Education Act of 2004 (H.R. 3077 RFS), which we are pleased
to learn will not pass Congress in its original version. We are now
writing to share with you our concerns about the upcoming Middle
East & Academic Integrity on the American Campus Conference at
Columbia University in which you are scheduled to participate.
As you surely know, Professors at Columbia University Middle East
and Asian Languages and Cultures Department (MEALAC) have become
targets of a politically motivated intimidation campaign supported
by U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner and members of the New York
City Council. These attacks were sparked by the limited release of
Columbia Unbecoming, a filmed collection of unsubstantiated
claims about faculty intimidation of students in MEALAC courses. The
film was funded by the David Project and systematically excludes the
broad range of perspectives of many satisfied MEALAC students-Jewish
and non-Jewish-who refute the film's allegations.
The David Project claims political balance, but it is really part of
a larger campaign against critics of the United States and Israel
and their roles in the Middle East. Along with the David Project,
which will be well-represented at the Columbia conference, this
campaign includes Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, which has
organized the conference. The campaign's strategy is to wrongly
equate all criticism of Israel with antisemitism and use this
spurious charge to silence critical voices and dissent. This
strategy draws from the general rise in discrimination against
Arabs, Muslims, and South Asians within the context of expanding
United States militarism. The strategy is also antisemitic, for it
silences the growing number of Jews at Columbia and
elsewhere-including many in your congressional district-who oppose
the Israeli occupation and its repression of Palestinians.
As a result of the negative publicity, one of the most targeted
Columbia faculty members, Professor Joseph Massad, will not be
teaching his signature course, Israeli and Palestinian Societies and
Cultures, this Spring. Other anti-occupation professors who were not
specifically targeted by Columbia Unbecoming are nonetheless being
adversely affected by this vicious smear campaign. For instance,
eminent historian and Professor Rashid Khalidi, director of the
Middle East Institute at Columbia, was recently dismissed from the
New York City Teacher Training Program on Israeli-Palestinian
Conflict Curriculum Development, a volunteer position he has held
for many years. Farther afield, Professor Ward Churchill of the
University of Colorado was recently compelled to resign his teaching
position following a smear campaign against his dissenting views on
United States foreign policy. We see this trend as heralding a new
form of McCarthyism.
Members of JATO, along with many other analysts of this issue,
believe that all of our rights to freely express dissent are
jeopardized, and a chilling, fearful atmosphere results, when
responsible decision-making is abdicated. By your participation as
the only elected official in the Middle East & Academic Integrity
Conference at Columbia University, your office becomes implicated in
a process of capitulation to bias and hearsay; this process can only
exacerbate such behavior and the anti-Arab racism, Islamophobia, and
McCarthyism attendant thereupon.
Because members of JATO believe you share cherished values with them
such as concern for the basic human rights of all persons regardless
of race, gender, creed, sexual orientation, religion, or
nationality, we ask that you clear the record by retracting your
support for groups such as the David Project and Scholars for Peace
in the Middle East by withdrawing from participation in the Columbia
conference. We also ask that you recommend publicly that the New
York City Council withdraw its proposed investigation of professors
being targeted by these groups. In any event, we ask that you issue
a public statement condemning the cynical misuse of "academic
integrity" to intimidate professors expressing dissent.
JATO welcomes the opportunity to discuss this matter with you in
person or over the telephone. You may reach our voicemail at (212)
539-6683 or the undersigned at (212) 580-8081. We look forward to
the possibility of speaking with you and thank you in advance for
your serious attention to our demands.
Sincerely,
Jews Against the Occupation