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Al-Ahram Weekly Online
16 - 22 May 2002
Issue No.586
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875
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'To break the mirror'
Israeli historian Ilan Pappe faces expulsion from Haifa University for supporting
Palestinian rights, Hala Sakr reports
When Israeli historian Ilan Pappe's name popped up on Al-Ahram Weekly's e-mail
last Sunday, the initial reaction was to assume that his message would relate to his
latest contribution to this newspaper (see supplement). But, one double click later,
the unexpected content of his e-mail was displayed on the screen.
Pappe had been requested by his own University of Haifa to stand "trial". The
prosecution, represented by the Dean of Humanities, had called upon the court "to
judge Dr Pappe on the offences he has committed and to use the court's legal
authority to expel him from the university."
Pappe, a professor of political science and a member of the non-Zionist Arab
Democratic Front for Peace and Equality, has written a number of books including
The Making of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1947-1951.
According to a statement issued by Pappe, the real reason why Haifa University is
seeking to put him on trial lies in his "past critique of the university's conduct in
the
Katz affair". Teddy Katz was an MA student who was expelled by the university in
2001 for unearthing evidence of a massacre committed by Israeli forces in the
coastal village of Tantura in May 1948. Pappe and fellow revisionist historians such
as Avi Shlaim and Benny Morris have dedicated their professional lives to unearthing
the truth about events that have entered Israel's triumphalist mythology associated
with what Israel calls its "war of independence" and the Palestinians, Al-Nakba, or
the catastrophe.
The rector of Haifa University appointed a committee of four lecturers from April to
June 2001 to examine Katz's thesis. According to Pappe, they inspected only six
instances, previously highlighted by the prosecution as the worst cases of
misquotation and falsification, claiming that they were only the tip of an iceberg of
systematic fabrications.
Pappe recalls that the committee ended up with only one inexcusable misquote out
of hundreds which, he says, "does not at all undermine the conclusions of the
thesis". The committee's report, however, stated that the thesis contained grave
problems and fallacies and left the final decision to the university. Five months
later,
Haifa University's Council for Advanced Studies decided to disqualify Katz's thesis.
Pappe said earlier: "The Katz case sheds light on the extent to which mainstream
Zionism is prepared to go in discouraging research that brings to the fore such
aspects of the 1948 war as 'ethnic cleansing'."
Having no illusion that he will receive a "fair trial", Pappe said in his statement
that he
did not intend to participate in what he called a "MacCarthyist charade". To him, the
current proceedings are nothing but "an opening gambit."
"Many colleagues, particularly my Palestinian-Israeli colleagues, may be next," he
warned.
Pappe stated that, despite the fact that he would shortly be on trial, his "situation
is
far better than that of (his Palestinian) colleagues in the occupied territories,
living
under the daily harassment and brutal abuses of the Israeli army."
In his statement, Pappe called upon his friends to voice their opinions and help
expose "the already dismal and false pretense of Israel as the only democracy in the
Middle East." He stressed, however, that his was not a personal appeal. Pappe said
his expulsion was likely to happen sooner or later, given the present atmosphere in
Israel where "Israeli academia has unanimously decided to support the government
and silence any criticism." This could be the time to "shed light on the debate of
whether or not to boycott Israeli academia," he suggested.
The Academic Secretariat, Haifa University's disciplinary body, says the writ Pappe
was served did not contain any political implications. They sent an e-mail reply to all
the addresses listed on Pappe's "claims" e-mail denying that Pappe was being
"hounded for his political views" and arguing that the complaint was lodged against
him because of his behaviour, described in the letter as "contrary to all accepted
rules of ethics at an academic institution". Furious that Pappe made the case public
in a "distorted manner," the Secretariat stressed that "any person -- whether a senior
political figure, a judge, or a person with unacceptable views -- against whom
charges have been levelled of exhibiting behaviour that appears unethical or illegal,
has no immunity when these charges are brought up for clarification."
On the other hand, Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, issued an action
alert condemning Haifa University's efforts to expel Pappe. The alert also called on
all academics "to join the growing demand for a boycott of Israeli academic
institutions."
Salman Abu Sitta, an expert on Palestinian refugees, described Pappe as "an
honourable academic with integrity and conscience."
"Even if we cannot do anything in Haifa University, we should let the world know
about it and make those 'judges' unwelcome in all academic forums. The case of
Katz is only a thin guise for silencing his human rights' position," he said.
Following Israel's recent incursions into the West Bank, Pappe, along with two other
Israeli academics -- Tanya Reinhart and Rachel Giora -- issued a statement
expressing "their support for the initiative to call on Princeton University to divest
all
holdings in corporations doing significant business in Israel."
Pappe has always stood apart in his open support of the Palestinian struggle for
independence. He strongly believes that the only means to achieve peace and
reconciliation with the Palestinian people is to de-Zionise Israel, a first step
towards
the creation of some form of a future bi-national or secular democratic state. Along
with other Israeli "new historians", Pappe continues to unveil what really happened in
1948, refuting Israel's claims that Palestinians left their homes willingly and
affirming
that they were expelled by military force.
Many Palestinian intellectuals have hailed the position Pappe has taken. After a
conference he attended with Edward Said in Paris -- where Israeli new historians met
their Palestinian counterparts -- Said wrote that, "... Ilan Pappe ... was open in his
espousal of the Palestinian point of view and, in my opinion, provided the most
iconoclastic and brilliant of Israeli interventions."
Pappe once wrote that despite all the risks involved, he was determined to "go on
telling my own people, from within, to break the mirror that shows them a superior
moral body. They must replace it with one that exposes the crimes that they, on their
behalf their various leaders and governments, are committing against humanity and
the Palestinian people."
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