Palestinian Universities
Leslie Feldman, Franklin B. Krohn, and Arthur Goodman
Editor's Note:
Academe received an enormous response to "Palestinian Universities: An Update," which appeared in the September-October issue, including letters sent as part of an Internet-based letter-writing campaign. The responses printed below are a sample. Replies from the author and the editor follow.
To the Editor:
I found Mary Gray's update on Palestinian universities in the September-October issue completely one-sided. While castigating Israel for cutting off some Palestinian towns and villages from others, keeping them under "house arrest," chopping down their trees, and violating international law, nowhere does she mention the homicide bombings of civilians in pizza parlors, discos, buses, or a Passover seder.
Last time I checked, homicide bombing of civilians was a violation of international law, and also of the United Nations' Human Rights Declaration. But this is not mentioned in Gray's essay. Her article demonizes Israel, leaving the reader to infer that Israelis engage in this behavior because they are wanton aggressors, hell bent on the destruction of the Palestinians when actually the case is quite the opposite.
Leslie Feldman
(Political Science)
Hofstra University
To the Editor:
Academe is at it again, allowing a one-sided, biased article on the Israeli-Palestinian issue. Mary Gray's article in the September-October issue ignores critical issues in attacking Israel's justifiable attempts to thwart Palestinian suicide bombers.
Gray casually compares the travel restrictions now in place with 1990. She ignores the fact that Israel is protecting itself against the murderous terrorist organizations and suicide bombers intent on killing Jews. While Mary Gray takes great pains to sympathize with Palestinian college students, she fails to mention that the fence and checkpoints are Israeli defensive responses to suicide bombers. Those suicide bombers have murdered thousands of innocent men, women, babies, schoolchildren, and college students. In fact, one bomber killed a number of students right in Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Gray entitled her article "Palestinian Universities: An Update." Those universities would not even exist if the Israelis had not started them. Unfortunately, those same schools have become hotbeds of anti-Israel propaganda and refuges for terrorists. The Palestinians have had numerous opportunities to develop themselves and their schools but instead have chosen the road of violence and terror. The Oslo Accords gave the Palestinians land, recognition, water, weapons, and massive international aid that has been squandered and misappropriated. As the 1960s song says, "When will they ever learn?"
More than 20 percent of Israel's citizens are Arabs. Several Israeli Arabs have been elected to and are members of the Knesset. At the same time, the Palestinian Authority refuses to accept any Jews to live in "its" areas and wants to make the West Bank judenfrei. No Jews are members of its parliament. Who is practicing apartheid here?
Unfortunately, the violence and subsequent travel restrictions will continue until the Palestinians start to love their children more than they hate the Jews.
Franklin B. Krohn
Distinguished Service Professor
State University of New York at Fredonia
To the Editor:
The article by Mary Gray in the September-October issue on Birzeit University was breathtaking in its ability to expose the bias of the author. Not to cite the situation in Israel that forced Israel to build the fence, and not to mention the efficacy of the fence boggles the mind. Birzeit University is one of the homes to the incitement of Palistinian terror—home to Hamas, where they won a student election by featuring models of exploding Israeli buses! Really! Shame on you!
Arthur Goodman
(Mathematics)
Queens College
Mary Gray Responds:
The 1990s brought hope that the situation in Israel and the Occupied Territories would permit students in both places to have access to education without fear and intimidation. That this did not happen is tragic for everyone, but all the students at the Palestinian universities are not to blame. As I had written about conditions there earlier, I felt that readers of Academe would be interested in an update. In particular, little is said here about the fact that the wall does not just cut off the West Bank from Israel; it gerrymanders the West Bank itself, cutting off Palestinian residents from their hospitals, fields, friends, relatives, and, yes, universities.
Academe Editor Responds:
No other article published in Academe under my editorship has generated as much mail as Mary Gray's brief update on Palestinian universities. Indeed, this article, its author, and Academe quickly became the targets of an Internet-based letter-writing campaign. It was clear that few of the letter writers responding to this campaign had read the article, and their missives were quickly discounted. Gray's update eloquently recounted the appalling conditions under which Palestinian faculty and students labor. Like the other pieces in our issue titled "Rebuilding Academia Around the World," this update underscored the fragile condition of higher education around much of the globe. Those academics who wrote threatening epistles against Gray should be ashamed. Those who believe that Academe did or should take up arms in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should look elsewhere for succor.
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