The Columbia report on the controversy over its Middle Eastern Studies Department is out. Apparently, Columbia gave an exclusive to the New York Times to report on the document, but on condition that the Times publish the story without asking the activist students who had prompted the report for comments, and, indeed, before students had a chance to read it. For this and more substantive criticisms, click here. I was struck by the Times’ coverage’s emphasis that the report found no evidence of anti-Semitism related to this controversy. I’ve read quite a bit about the controversy, and I don’t believe that there ever were allegations of anti-Semitism.
The one big piece of news from the report is that after interviewing various students who were present, the report finds the following allegation “credible”:
[The incident involved] Professor Joseph Massad, who was teaching a class on Palestinian and Israeli politics. According to the report, a student, Deena Shanker, recalled asking if it was true that Israel sometimes gave a warning before a bombing so that people would not be hurt. She said the professor blew up, telling her, “If you’re going to deny the atrocities being committed against Palestinians, then you can get out of my classroom!”
If true, this was not only an extremely intemperate and inappropriate response by Massad, but completely non-responsive to the student’s comment. Massad had apparently been bloviating about civilian casualties caused by Israel’s anti-terrorism military actions. The student, in response, didn’t deny these casualtes, but requested that the professor confirm some additional information and significant context. But God-forbid a student should interupt the professor’s rants against Israel! Is it the job of professors to indoctrinate their students with propaganda, and the job of students to sit back and be indoctrinated? (For a professor who actually argues something very close to “yes,” see the comments of a philosophy professor quoted over at the Leiter Report–doesn’t everyone know that the only plausible interpretation of Plato is opposition to the Iraq War?!).
Professors are certainly entitled to have a point of view, and some students may find that point of view obnoxious. But students are also entitled to have a point of view, and to the extent they express that point of view at an appropriate time and place and in an appropriate manner, they should not be silenced. Even more so, a student who merely requests confirmation of additional information.
UPDATE: Whoops, here’s a (new) allegation of anti-Semitism from the head of the David Project, whose movie brought the whole controversy to public attention.
Comments are closed.