Behind the Myth
What you won't hear from the David Project
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Myth: The students who have recently complained of "intimidation"
by MEALAC professorsdid all that they could to voice their concerns
before turning to their current campaign, but found no one willing to
hear.
Fact
No complaints about these MEALAC professor have been filed,
according to Susan Brown, Columbia’s assistant vice president for
public affairs.
A Columbia Hillel spokeswoman reported knowing of no complaints
ever filed against MEALAC professors.
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Myth: Students at Columbia simply do not have an opportunity to
learn about Israel from pro-Israeli perspective.
Fact
Columbia's Center for Israel and Jewish Studies has 13 full-time
affiliated professors, soon to be 14.
MEALAC itself has leading minds on the study of Israel who stand in
strong disagreement with Professors Massad, Dabashi, and Saliba
on many issues.
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Myth: Professor Joseph Massad told a student in his classroom that
"Zion" means "penis" in Hebrew.
Fact:
Professor Massad has never claimed that "Zion" means "penis" in
Hebrew. It is an uncontroversial fact that "zayin" means both "penis"
and "weapon" in Hebrew and Professor Massad brought this up in a
class discussion of Israeli militarized masculinity. The student in
question misunderstood Professor Massad but has failed to correct
this misconception.
However, even though Professor Massad has explained the
misunderstanding, and despite the fact that this is a ridiculous
accusation to launch at a Professor of his caliber, this distortion of
the truth continues to be propagated irresponsibly by individuals such
as David Project President Charles Jacobs.
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Myth: Dr. Joseph Massad is a dogmatic professor who does not allow
pro-Israeli voices in his classes.
Fact
Dr. Massad has won an award in teaching and is widely loved by his
students, be they Arab, Jewish, Zionist, anti-Zionist, or otherwise. He
consistently allows his students to air staunchly pro-Zionist views in
class.
Dr. Massad's book, Colonial Effects: The Making of National Identity
in Jordan, has been widely acclaimed as a trailblazing contribution to
the field of Middle East studies and received the Middle East Studies
Association's Malcolm Kerr Dissertation Award. Would a dogmatist
who leaves no room for critical thought win such acclaim? We believe
his colleagues are a better judge of his abilities as an academic than
Daniel Pipes and group of students who have never taken his class.
See: http://www.columbia.
edu/cu/cup/catalog/data/023112/0231123221.HTM
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Myth: Columbia is a hostile environment for Jewish and Zionist
students and is a hotbed of anti-Semitism.
Fact
Columbia is one of the most welcoming campuses in the U.S. for
Jewish students and has a thriving Jewish community.
Students and faculty participate in a variety of pro-Zionist activities,
including courses, talks, panel discussions, debates, and trips to
Israel.
"It is a crazy, crazy exaggeration to claim that Jews are under attack
at Columbia or that the faculty is anti-Semitic. . . . No one has seen
the video . . . . There is no video to see. There's a cloud of videos
constantly changing. It's innuendo and gossip." Robert Pollack,
Professor of Biological Sciences and Former Dean of Columbia
College
"[S]ome commentators go further to suggest that anti-Semitism is
pervasive at Columbia. This is simply not the case. As an observant
Jew, I am entirely at home at Columbia. We were the first American
university to establish a chair in Jewish studies, and we now have
six such chairs. A substantial percentage of the students and faculty
are Jewish, and we have launched countless Jewish graduates to
extraordinary careers." Dean David Schizer, Columiba Law School
"The idea that Columbia is a place that's unfriendly to Jewish students
or Israel studies is a calumny." Michael Stanislawski, Nathan J. Miller
Professor of Jewish History, Columbia.
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Myth: The students accusing MEALAC professors of intimidation are
only concerned with conduct in the classroom that silences student
speech and are not attacking the content of the professors'
scholarship or lectures.
Fact:
They have blasted the Ad Hoc Committee report for failing to address
the larger question of "bias" in Middle Easter studies scholarship at
Columbia.
They have consistently called for "rebalancing the biases in Middle
Eastern studies."
For example, Ariel Beery, the self-appointed champion of the students
in the film Columbia Unbecoming has himself repeatedly called for a
remaking of how Middle Eastern Studies is taught at Columbia.
For example, witness the following excerpt from an article he wrote in
the Columbia school newspaper:
"[Massad also] says that the claim that Israel is democratic is
no more than a ‘propagandistic image.’… th[is]…charge on Israel should
again disqualify Massad from teaching at Columbia."
- These statements are part of a larger pattern of criticism of the
content of what is written and taught by these professors. Thus, the
students and outside groups like the David Project have made it
vividly clear that they seek a change in the content of Middle
Eastern studies scholarship and instruction at Columbia. This is a
dangerous idea, one that threatens the freedom of professors to
teach and denies the validity of voices that are critical of Israeli
government policy.
See: On Propaganda and Letter to the Editor of the Columbia
Spectator
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Myth: Professor Joseph Massad informs his students before each
class that he would be teaching from a "biased" perspective and
not to expect "balance."
Fact:
This is one of the most dishonest misrepresentations to come out of
this affair.
In the syllabus to his Palestinian and Israeli Politics and Societies,
Professor Massad writes the following: "The purpose of the course is
not to provide a 'balanced' coverage of the views of both sides, but
rather to provide a thorough yet critical historical overview of the
Zionist-Palestinian conflict to familiarize undergraduates with the
background to the current situation from a critical perspective."
This does not mean that he will teach from "unbalanced" perspective,
but that the course is not about retelling and "balancing" the traditional
Israeli or Palestinian versions or narratives of the conflict against each
other; the purpose is to take a critical view of both Israeli and
Palestinian societies.
Massad's statement is, thus, the diametrical opposite of the one the
"Columbians for Academic Freedom," Alan Dershowitz and others
have either carelessly or dishonestly attributed to him.
