Wednesday, July 6, 2005
Robert KC Johnson points to this latest volunteer roll-call of useful idiocy (my term, not his) -- yet another petition of academics decrying Israeli crimes against Palestinian academic freedom for daring to defend themselves against the Palestinian Arabs' overtly genocidal designs. The petition is the usual exemplar of mendacity (claiming that checkpoints have multiplied while in fact their number has declined despite the explicit refusal of the PA to take action against terror groups), political cant (whining about academic freedom's suffering and the rights of academics while before 1967 there were no Palestinian Universities -- so much for the horrors of occupation), and outright fellow-traveling with the murderers as they make themselves useful in getting the Israelis to tear down their security fence while failing to give even the briefest of nods to the reason there are checkpoints, a security fence and an "occupation" in the first place -- the aforementioned genocidal designs of the people on the other side of the wall in the disputed territories [edited: I had written "terrortories" -- a Freudian slip]. The petition has many meanings and uses, none of which have anything to do with "academic freedom."
Johnson correctly points out this story at the Jerusalem Post about a Palestinian academic who had the poor judgement to criticize the PA Security Forces and found himself arrested.
PA arrests academic voicing criticism
Prof. Riad al-Agha, president of the Gaza-based National Institute of Strategic Studies, was invited on Sunday by Palestine TV to participate in a live program on the growing state of lawlessness and anarchy in PA-controlled areas...
...Prof. Agha criticized the PA's Preventative Security Force for refusing to obey orders issued by the PA Interior Ministry, which is in charge of all Palestinian security forces.
He claimed that the Preventative Security Force, which is headed by Gen. Rashid Abu Shabak, was operating on instructions from the "higher echelon" of the PA – a reference to PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas and his top aides.
Immediately after the program ended, members of the Preventative Security Force arrested Agha on charges of "incitement." ...
...Prof. Agha was released from prison only after he agreed to publish a statement in which he apologized for making "offensive remarks" against the security forces and their commanders.
In the apology, he said the Preventative Security Force was led by "nationalistic figures whom I highly appreciate and respect and who have a known history of struggling [against Israel]." ...
I like that last part of the apology. That's some quest for peace the PA is on. This story is another example of what I touched on in the post below -- that the differences in academic freedom between free and fear societies are so profound it's a poison to trust what's coming out of a totalitarian fear society as having anything to do with the "academics" practiced in a free one. Academics signing on to political statements in the service of the nationalism born of a fear society -- like the PA -- help no one, on either side of the line.
Says Johnson:
Don't hold your breath. The fact that there is no such petition and won't be should be an indicator to the canny observer that the current petition -- currently attracting thousand of signatures (including such luminaries as Adolph Eichmann -- see signature #1959) -- has absolutely nothing to do with its label of "academic freedom," and everything to do with slavery to an evil political agenda.
