By Simon Fischler
A great friend of mine passed on an opinion piece that was in The New York Times called “Academic Freedom Against Itself: Boycotting Israeli Universities” by Stanley Fish.
I seldom read the New York Times because it almost always has an anti-Israel slant and quite often goes far enough to print out-n-out lies against the Jewish Nation State. But when a good friend forwards me an article, I read it and I’m glad I did.
Stanley Fish attacked the Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement (BDS) and its supporters from a strictly academic point of view. What Fish said is simple: BDS cries for academic freedom and in the same breath tries to deny that same freedom to Israeli academics, only because they are Israeli!
This is only one tiny piece of the story. Fish is correct in saying that BDS is wrong in calling for a boycott; however, there is a much greater evil behind the BDS banner.
Fish wrote his article in response to statements made in the American Journal for Academic Freedom by Omar Barghouti, head Nazi of the BDS movement.
Barghouti defended his Brown Shirt tactics by saying that the alleged “criminal attitude of the Israeli government against the Palestinian people” justified the BDS movement’s tright to toss all the principles and beliefs of academic freedom in the garbage to fight against the Jewish Nation!
Here is where the problem really begins
Here is where the problem really begins
How can The American Journal for Academic Freedom justify printing the thoughts of one whose main occupation is destroying the 80% percent Jewish state of Israel? Fish’s observation that BDS and ts backers are the worst type of hypocrites is valid, but falls short of the reality of BDS’ racism and anti-semitism.
Barghoutti is not fighting for academic freedom or for the betterment of Palestinian lives; he is fighting for the destruction of Israel – a stance which is in violation of international law. In other words, BDS stands in direct opposition to academic freedom and the national freedom of a people, the Jewish people.
Omar Barghoutti is an Arab supremacist who says the Arabs have more of a right than the Jews to self-determination and this is nothing more than ol’school racist, anti-semitism.
Like his predecessor Joseph Goebbels, Barghoutti uses the media and University campuses to promote his lies and innuendo against Israel.
More than anyone Barghouti knows Israel is not an Apartheid state. If anything it offers too much academic freedom: after all, Omar studied at Tel Aviv university, despite the fact that he is a Palestinian and not an Israeli Arab. He knows that the Israeli university system offers more academic freedom to both Israeli Arabs and to Palestinians (who are not citizens of the State of Israel) than its Western equivalents.
Barghouti and The American Journal for Academic Freedom also must know there would be a Palestinian State today if Yassar Arafat and the Arabs had not turned it down in 2000 at the Camp David peace negotiations.
It is a travesty that this journal would entertain the likes of Barghoutti and the BDS movement. I guess today “Freedom” is everyone’s RIGHT except for that of the Jewish Nation!
Sadly, but not surprisingly, when The Times does print an article tackling the disgusting tactics of the BDS movement, it is for the wrong reasons. It makes no difference that these people are hypocrites. What does make a difference are their blatant lies against the democratic State of Israel and the Gestapo-like tactics and dreams that emanate from Arab supremacists!
In the end the road to peace and freedom always ends at the road block of fascist Arab supremacy!