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Dr. Ilan Pappe: a letter to the American historical societyFriday 23 Nov 2001
author: Ilan Pappe (via Alef email list)
summary
I appeal to you as a member and as a colleague to voice your opinion and protest against a shameful decision taken by Haifa University on November 18, 2001. On that date, the university decided to disqualify an MA thesis that has originally passed cum laude in the department of Middle Eastern History.
To the president of the American Historical Society
To the president of the British Middle Eastern Society
To the president of the American Middle Eastern Association
Dear madam\sir,
I appeal to you as a member and as a colleague to voice your opinion and protest against a shameful decision taken by Haifa University on November 18, 2001. On that date, the university decided to disqualify an MA thesis that has originally passed cum laude in the department of Middle Eastern History. I attach my article in the Journal of Palestine Studies that describes the chronicles of this sad affair, and I beseech you to read it so that you can be
updated with the events surrounding this thesis.
The article describes how the student revealed in his thesis the occurrence of a terrible massacre a Jewish military unit committed in the Palestinian village of Tantura on the night between the 22ed and the 23rd of May. This was probably one of the worst massacres in the war. The veterans of this unit have exerted pressure on the university to disqualify the thesis and succeeded in doing so, by that trampling the very elementary freedoms of academic research and expression. This may not come to you as a surprise given the present atmosphere in Israel – a consensual nationalist and jingoist mood – and yet the Israeli academia depends very much on the opinion of your members and association (if not for anything else, you are badly needed for the completion of promotion and tenure procedures). You can not possibly allow them to evade the basic rules of decency and honesty even when the issue at hand is the Palestinian catastrophe, the history of which has bearings on the present conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
Your intervention and assistance would be most welcome and appreciated at these dark hours when Israeli academics can not find in themselves the courage to remain loyal to the basics rules of academic research and freedom.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Ilan Pappe
Department of Political Science
Haifa University
Haifa 31905
Israel