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Most recently on August 21, an article covered academic freedom, under attack and threatened because hardline Israeli extremists favor McCathyist censorship against free expression. As a result, anger in academia was aroused, the latest example reported on August 29 by International Middle East Media Center writer Saed Bannoura headlining, "Israeli universities condemn 'witch hunt' by right-wing groups," saying:
"In a joint statement by Israel's largest and most prominent universities, the academic leadership challenged a foreign-funded campaign to undermine academic freedom in the name of Zionism, led by radical Israeli rightists and Christian fundamentalists," a threatening sinister partnership.
University officials condemned "this dangerous attempt to create a thought police," targeting professors considered too left-leaning. The Institute for Zionist Strategies demands review of their assigned readings and class content as well as "balancing" them with hardliners, saying otherwise pressure will be put on major donors to cease support. To their credit, university authorities refused to accede to extortion or threats backed by scholars, intellectuals and Haaretz editorial writers, another August 20 effort headlined, "Protecting academia," saying:
"a pluralistic, democratic society is incompatible with external interference in course curricula of lecturers' political views." Censorship has no place in academia, the media or anywhere in a free society if it's to stay that way. As in America, in Israel, it's fast eroding.
Historical Revisionism in Textbooks
Nurit Peled-Elhannan is an Israeli peace activist, Hebrew University Professor, and one of the founders of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine. She's also a recipient of the Sakharov Prize for Human Rights and Freedom of Speech, awarded annually by the European Parliament to honor individuals or organizations active in the defense of human rights and freedom.
Earlier in 2010, her article titled "Legitimation of massacres in Israeli school history books....examine(d) reports about massacres in eight Israeli secondary school history books, published between 1998 and 2009."
It explained how they're legitimized verbally and visually, rewriting history to justify the "killing of Palestinians as an effective tool to preserve a secure Jewish state with a Jewish majority," as well as prepare Israeli youths to be good soldiers, and to justify a repressive occupation.
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