I was going to jump all over this until I read the column. He's going to have a rough time with the 'smear' line.
His column says: "Of necessity, dispossession is implemented by force, and it follows that resistance to the coloniser must also be violent." (which I agree with, by the way) and: "Abandoned, isolated, beleaguered and unarmed, a few Palestinian men and women have responded to this massive force by weaponising their own deaths through suicide bombings, provoking still greater violence against themselves." (There is no negative comment on the suicide bombings in the column. At the very least this is not smart politics for someone resident in the U.S.) He has a right to say all of this, but he's going to have a hard time denying that his column was supportive or at least apologetic for what in the U.S. is understood simply as "Palestinian terrorism." Here's the column: http://web1.ahram.org.eg/weekly/2002/601/op12.htm If I was him I'd invoke academic freedom and try to mitigate the likely negative inferences of the latter statement. mbs M. Shahid Alam is a friend. He sent me this and I asked if I could forward it. I think that it is sad, but in line with the McKinney campaign. I am writing this note to keep you posted on a smear campaign that has been initiated against me for my support of the academic boycott of Israel. A couple of days back, Jerusalem Post published a malicious report on my essay on the boycott after it had been published in Al-Ahram; this was first published several weeks back in CP. While it made no mention of the title or the contents of my article, the JP accused me of "advocating Palestinian terror against Israel." This was a cue for others in US to jump in. I received several e-mails, so did Northeastern. The next morning Boston Herald published a similarly malicious report: "Prof Shocks Northeastern with Defense of Suicide Bombers." I had a call from Jewish Advocate and Bloomberg News too, but I haven't seen what they have written. This is clearly a smear campaign, and the intent is to harm me. My University issued a statement which, unfortunately, seems to accept the accusations; though, in a letter to me the same spokeswoman states just the opposite. I have mobilized some emails to Boston Herald; I wouldn't trouble about JP for now, though they started the campaign. What else should I do? I am wondering if it would be appropriate for someone to write a report on this smear campaign: the malicious attempt to punish me for making the moral case against Israel. Is there someone who might do it. I have all the resources that could be used for writing such a report. If you know of someone who could do this I would be happy to make this information available. Thanks for publishing my poems. Several people have written to express their appreciation of political poetry. Thanks for listening, Shahid M. Shahid Alam Professor of Economics Northeastern University Boston, MA 02115 617-373-2849 -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
