[News] Michigan professor punished for supporting boycott - Israel lobby groups pressured the university
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Wed Oct 17 10:30:25 EDT 2018
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/listen-michigan-professor-punished-supporting-boycott
Michigan professor punished for supporting boycott
Nora Barrows-Friedman
<https://electronicintifada.net/people/nora-barrows-friedman> - 16
October 2018
------------------------------------------------------------------------
/On this episode of The Electronic Intifada Podcast: University of
Michigan punishes professor for refusing to write a recommendation
letter for a student wishing to study abroad in Israel; Major Jewish
communal organizations fund far right-wing, Islamophobic and homophobic
groups./
/https://soundcloud.com/intifada
/
In recent weeks, two professors
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/10/09/a-second-michigan-instructor-withheld-a-recommendation-letter-from-student-headed-to-israel/>
at the University of Michigan have declined
<https://palestinelegal.org/news/umich-punishes-professor-boycott> to
write recommendation letters for two separate students seeking to join
study abroad programs in Israel.
The professors cited Israel’s discriminatory laws and policies of
occupation and apartheid against Palestinians in their decisions to not
write the letters. They have expressed their support for the call to
boycott Israeli institutions as long as Israel continues to violate
Palestinian rights.
In September, after he refused
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/michigan-professor-stands-firm-despite-israel-lobby-attacks>
to write a recommendation letter, professor John Cheney-Lippold received
death threats. The threats were not publicly addressed by the university.
But the administration did choose to comment on the professor’s actions,
charging him with interfering in the student’s request with his own
“personal views and politics.”
Israel lobby groups pressured the university to discipline
Cheney-Lippold, claiming that his choice was an act of discrimination
and anti-Semitism.
In an apparent effort by the university to appease Israel advocates, an
advisory committee declared in late September that “a student’s merit”
must be “the primary guide for determining how and when to provide
letters of recommendation.”
On 3 October, the university again bowed to the demands of Israel
supporters, sanctioning him
<https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2018/10/09/university-michigan-disciplines-professor-over-israel-letter-controversy/1580969002/>
with the loss of his earned sabbatical for two years and no merit pay
raise for the academic year.
Cheney-Lippold is being threatened with further sanctions
<https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2018/10/09/university-michigan-disciplines-professor-over-israel-letter-controversy/1580969002/>
if his politics
<https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2018/10/university_of_michigan_creates_6.html>
guide future decisions about recommendation letters.
Another University of Michigan instructor recently refused
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/10/09/a-second-michigan-instructor-withheld-a-recommendation-letter-from-student-headed-to-israel/>
to write a letter of recommendation for a student wishing to study
abroad in Israel.
Doctoral student instructor Lucy Peterson said that she had “pledged
myself to a boycott of Israeli institutions as a way of showing
solidarity with Palestine.”
Last week, she was questioned by the administration. Peterson also faces
potential discipline, according
<https://palestinelegal.org/news/umich-punishes-professor-boycott> to
civil rights group Palestine Legal.
“This is an alarming violation of the professor’s First Amendment and
14th Amendment due process rights under the US constitution,” Palestine
Legal’s Radhika Sainath told The Electronic Intifada Podcast.
As an employee of a public university, Cheney-Lippold has full
constitutional protections, she said, “and that means that the
university may not punish him for his viewpoint supporting Palestinian
rights, or because he is taking this principled stance to support the
boycott for Palestinian rights.”
Sainath said that the administration’s punishment is a “really extreme
measure, and it will have a chilling effect” on political speech.
Moreover, Sainath noted, by refusing to write the letters for a program
that inherently discriminates against students of Palestinian ancestry,
Cheney-Lippold and Peterson are merely “abiding by the university’s
really strict anti-discrimination and diversity policies by refusing to
write recommendations for institutions that all of their students cannot
study at.”
Appeals
Approximately 800 individuals have signed a petition
<https://www.change.org/p/elizabeth-cole-defend-lucy-peterson-john-cheney-lippold-support-academic-freedom-right-to-boycott>
in support of the professors, urging the university to rescind
Cheney-Lippold’s punishment and ensure that Peterson not be subjected to
similar sanctions.
Academics
<http://usacbi.org/2018/10/defend-academic-freedom-and-the-right-to-boycott-support-lucy-peterson-and-john-cheney-lippold/>,
scholars
<https://www.richard-hoffman-reinhardt.com/writing/letter-to-dean-interim-dean-cole-in-support-of-john-cheney-lippold-and-lucy-peterson>,
graduate students
<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdEzhihG0-TTkELNAA-QLVXIUymv6XKMhH8tEIzS7VmxHOGuQ/viewform?c=0&w=1>,
alumni
<https://www.michigandaily.com/section/viewpoints/op-ed-university-will-not-silence-us>
and human rights
<https://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/51044/p/dia/action4/common/public/>
advocates <https://secure.everyaction.com/VUraYfNM5U26-EU6ldTo_Q2> are
appealing to the university to drop the punishments as well.
. at ProfKFranke <https://twitter.com/ProfKFranke?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>:
"Like [Michigan professor Cheney-Lippold], I don't write letters of
recommendation for students seeking jobs/internships in Israel
because I have many students who are structurally disqualified from
applying for those opportunities on account of being Palestinian."
pic.twitter.com/es9dFe3jFM <https://t.co/es9dFe3jFM>
— Palestine Legal (@pal_legal) October 11, 2018
<https://twitter.com/pal_legal/status/1050478266505748481?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
USPCN's Abudayyeh praised @UMich
<https://twitter.com/UMich?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw> professor
Cheney-Lippold's stance in support of #BDS
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/BDS?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>:
"It's exactly what the academic boycott was established for. We
thank him and we support him." https://t.co/Xq5E3m9MxG
— US Palestinian Community Network (@uspcn) October 13, 2018
<https://twitter.com/uspcn/status/1050909513631567874?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
Essayist and academic Maximillian Alvarez
<https://activeforgetting.com/> pointed out on Twitter that the
University of Michigan renewed and expanded
<http://record.umich.edu/articles/20m-kahn-foundation-gift-expands-michigan-israel-research-effort>
a research grant with Israel’s Technion
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/technion>. The grant is worth $20
million.
After @UMich
<https://twitter.com/UMich?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>/@DrMarkSchlissel
<https://twitter.com/DrMarkSchlissel?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw> drop the
hammer on Prof. Chenney-Lippold over #BDS
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/BDS?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>/rec
letter controversy UM Record announces, "$20M Kahn Foundation gift
expands Michigan-Israel research partnership." Probably pure
coincidence... @palumboliu
<https://twitter.com/palumboliu?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>@stevesalaita
<https://twitter.com/stevesalaita?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>https://t.co/k3xc3T59Vp
— Maximillian Alvarez (@maximillian_alv) October 12, 2018
<https://twitter.com/maximillian_alv/status/1050854383401889793?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
The Technion is a major Israeli research institution that works
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/palestinian-boycott-campaign-end-cornells-collaboration-technion>
in partnership with a number of Israel’s arms manufacturers and has even
helped develop a remote-controlled function
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3231665.stm> for the Caterpillar
bulldozers Israel uses to demolish Palestinian homes.
Jewish Community Federation funds hate
The Technion has another financial backer in the US: a major Jewish
communal organization that has secretly funded a bevy of right-wing,
pro-Israel and pro-Trump groups while purporting to represent
<https://jewishfed.org/> the “vibrant, caring and enduring Jewish
community” of the San Francisco Bay Area.
In early October, an investigation by /The Forward/ revealed
<https://forward.com/news/411355/revealed-canary-mission-blacklist-is-secretly-bankrolled-by-major-jewish/>
that the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula,
Marin, and Sonoma Counties <https://jewishfed.org/>, a major communal
philanthropic organization, has been a top funder
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/jewish-community-federation-admits-it-secretly-funded-canary-mission>
of Canary Mission <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/canary-mission> –
the anonymous blacklisting website that aims to tarnish the reputations
of US supporters of Palestinian rights.
The blacklist is also used by the Ministry of Strategic Affairs
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/ministry-strategic-affairs> to bar
activists and supporters of Palestinian rights from entering through Ben
Gurion airport, according
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-official-documents-prove-israel-bans-young-americans-based-on-canary-mission-site-1.6530903>
to documents recently released by Israeli newspaper /Haaretz/.
Tax filings led reporters to an Israeli company named Megamot Shalom
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/megamot-shalom>, /The Forward/
reports, “that operates or operated Canary Mission.” Their address is an
abandoned office west of Jerusalem.
Last week, /The Forward/ reported
<https://forward.com/news/national/411895/second-major-jewish-charity-admits-funding-canary-mission-blacklist/>
that another major charity, the Jewish Community Foundation of Los
Angeles, “made a series of grants totaling $250,000” to Megamot Shalom.
“Evidence is now building that major Jewish institutions with hundreds
of millions of dollars in assets, and boards of directors that include
prominent members of the US Jewish community, have played a significant
role in bankrolling the site,” /The Forward’s/ Josh Nathan-Kazis wrote.
On Monday, /Haaretz/ reported
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-new-details-revealed-about-the-israeli-money-pipeline-to-canary-mission-1.6554802>
that the head of Megamot Shalom is a British-born Israeli settler named
Jonathan Bash.
Ben Packer <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/ben-packer>, a far-right
rabbi from the United States and a devout follower of racist leader Meir
Kahane, works with Bash and both are shareholders in Megamot Shalom.
Packer has a long history of racist and inflammatory statements and
recently called for
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/michael-f-brown/former-duke-rabbi-campus-calls-death-curse-durham>
a “death curse” on Durham, North Carolina, after city leaders voted to
prohibit
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/listen-how-durham-activists-led-city-ban-police-training-israel>
“military-style training” programs for its police force in foreign
countries, including Israel.
Packer is also a friend
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/michael-f-brown/former-duke-rabbi-campus-calls-death-curse-durham>
of Stephen Miller, the senior White House official who is a key
proponent
<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/18/us/politics/immigration-children-sessions-miller.html>
of President Donald Trump’s racist immigration policies separating
children from their parents.
Prompted by these recent findings, Chicago-based researcher Stephanie
Skora <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/stephanie-skora> sorted
through more of the Jewish Community Federation’s (JCF) tax filings and
found
<https://medium.com/@stephanieskora/the-jewish-federation-of-san-francisco-funds-far-right-and-anti-muslim-groups-and-i-can-prove-it-dc030484266c>
that it has not only been a top funder of Canary Mission, but of many
other far right-wing, anti-Muslim and homophobic groups going back at
least 15 years, with funds totalling more than $300 million.
The Federation “seeks to be this progressive Jewish organization that
funds aspects of American life and progressive and liberal causes in the
US, but is willing to go so far right as a pro-Israel organization that
they fund some of the nastiest people that the country has to offer,”
Skora told The Electronic Intifada Podcast.
Skora’s research indicates that the JCF gave $100,000 to the American
Society for Technion, designated for the “Iron Dome Project.” Iron Dome
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/iron-dome> is an Israeli missile
interception system.
Federation funds pro-Trump, anti-Semitic groups
Among the beneficiaries of the federation’s funding are right-wing,
pro-Trump groups such as Turning Point USA
<https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/a-conservative-nonprofit-that-seeks-to-transform-college-campuses-faces-allegations-of-racial-bias-and-illegal-campaign-activity>,
the Tea Party <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/tea-party> and the
anti-LGBTQ
<http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2017/09/trump_is_laying_the_groundwork_to_overturn_marriage_equality.html>
Heritage Foundation.
Groups with deep ties to white supremacy and anti-Semitism, such as the
Tea Party, and the Zionist Organization of America
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/zionist-organization-america> –
which has invited former Trump adviser Steve Bannon
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/michael-f-brown/anti-semites-feted-zionist-organization-america>
to speak at its annual gathering – highlight the contradictions in the
federation’s funding priorities.
“You run into this contradiction where you have this major Jewish
organization funding the work of anti-Semites to promote the interests
of the Israeli state,” Skora noted.
Right-wing Zionist organizations including the David Horowitz Freedom
Center
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/david-horowitz-freedom-center>, led
by David Horowitz, a key player in the Islamophobia industry, and the
American Freedom Defense Initiative
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/american-freedom-defense-initiative>,
headed by notorious anti-Muslim bigots Pamela Geller
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/pamela-geller> and Robert Spencer
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/robert-spencer>, have also been
funded by the federation.
The Dutch anti-Muslim politician Geert Wilders
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/geert-wilders>, who has been funded
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/geert-wilders-dutch-anti-muslim-party-forced-reveal-us-donor>
by the David Horowitz Freedom Center, has also received funding through
the federation, according to Skora’s research.
The Foundation for Defense of Democracies
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/foundation-defense-democracies> – a
neoconservative Israel lobby group
<https://electronicintifada.net/content/national-security-cited-reason-al-jazeera-nixed-israel-lobby-film/24566>
and the Middle East Forum
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/middle-east-forum>, which is run by
leading anti-Muslim bigot Daniel Pipes
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/daniel-pipes> – have collected
funding as well.
Skora found that other beneficiaries of the federation’s largesse
include Israel lobby groups that attempt to disrupt boycott, divestment
and sanctions (BDS) campaigns and smear student activists.
StandWithUs <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/standwithus> received
almost $1.3 million, while The Israel Project
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/israel-project> received nearly $2
million.
The Israel Project shares a funder
<https://electronicintifada.net/content/censored-film-names-adam-milstein-canary-mission-funder/25356>,
Adam Milstein, with Canary Mission.
Other campus-focused right-wing Zionist groups such as the Amcha
Initiative <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/amcha-initiative>, the
American Israel Education Foundation <http://www.aiefdn.org/>, Hasbara
Fellowships <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/hasbara-fellowships>,
Students Supporting Israel
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/students-supporting-israel> and the
Israel on Campus Coalition
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/israel-campus-coalition> have
collectively received millions of dollars through the JCF.
Reconsidering support
The Federation also supports
<https://awiderbridge.org/jewish-community-federation/> A Wider Bridge
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/wider-bridge>, a group that engages
in pinkwashing <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/pinkwashing> – a
public relations strategy that deploys Israel’s supposed enlightenment
toward LGBTQ issues to deflect criticism
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/pinkwash-greenwash-hogwash-ali-abunimah-israels-use-sex-and-marketing-distract>
from its human rights abuses and appeal particularly to Western liberal
audiences.
Skora said that she hopes her research prompts progressive US Jewish
communities to reconsider their support of the federation.
“I’m sure that most of the Jews in the Bay Area would be horrified to
learn that the JCF funded the Tea Party,” she said.
For college students, Skora said this research could be helpful for them
to know where the funding is coming from “when they’re fighting against
groups such as Students Supporting Israel, the Israel on Campus
Coalition, or even just right-wing groups associated with their local
Hillel [chapter].”
“These groups that claim to speak for the interests of Jews on campus
are in fact representing the Israeli state, and they have the right-wing
funding to do it.”
Listen to the interviews with Radhika Sainath and Stephanie Skora via
the media player above.
/Theme music and production assistance by Sharif Zakout/
--
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415
863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/
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