abughoush
12.03.05, 09:37
By Yair Sheleg
For years, Jewish organizations and their leaders seeking to contend with
blatant anti-Israel statements have encountered the response, "What do you
mean? Similar statements are made in Israel, by Israelis."
A few weeks ago, there was a new precedent for this phenomenon. Abraham
Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, sent a letter to
Hebrew University President Prof. Menachem Megidor demanding a public
response to statements made by the head of the university's German studies
department, Prof. Moshe Zimmerman. According to the letter, Zimmerman
compared Israel Defense Forces soldiers to Nazis.
University authorities in effect failed to say a thing to Zimmerman.
Moreover, the university rector, Dan Rabinowitz, demanded that the former
leader of the Jewish community in Berlin, Dr. Alexander Brenner, apologize
for his statement that "there are professors at the Hebrew University who
compare the behavior of IDF soldiers to the behavior of SS soldiers."
Foxman decided to intervene after the matter was brought to his attention in
repeated requests from one of the university's lecturers, Dr. Yaacov Bergman
of the School of Business Administration. Bergman, who says that he leans to
the political right since the events of September 11, 2001, is leading a
campaign over Zimmerman's statements, not only on the political front but
also mainly as part of a struggle for the image of universities in Israel.
His own university, he says, "acts as a guild primarily protecting the
interests of its own members, as opposed to the interests of the public."
In applying pressure to Foxman, Bergman took advantage of the fact that
Foxman has been embroiled in a similar affair in New York in recent months.
There, in a scandal that made waves across the United States, Foxman urged
Columbia University leaders to denounce Arab professors in the Middle East
and Asian Languages and Cultures Department, who regularly question the
legitimacy of Israel.
In the wake of the media storm, Columbia President Lee Bollinger decided to
cancel a controversial course entitled "Palestinians and Israel," taught by
Prof. Joseph Massad. Massad was quoted as having said in a lecture that "The
Jewish state is a racist state that does not have a right to exist," and that
Ariel Sharon "resembles Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels."
Another professor, Hamid Dabashi, was quoted as having said that Israel is "a
ghastly state of racism and apartheid," and called Israel's
supporters "Gestapo apparatchiks." Dabashi later announced that he had
decided to exercise caution regarding his public statements, and canceled
several public appearances.
Foxman writes to Megidor
Foxman did not enter lightly into the Zimmerman affair at the Hebrew
University. Bergman says that he threatened Anti-Defamation League personnel
that if they do not intervene here, he would "pick up the telephone and call
Bollinger's office to tell him that he does not need to take them seriously."
In recent months, Bergman consistently leaned on Ken Jacobson, who heads the
Anti-Defamation League's International Department, to the point where
Jacobson angrily responded, "I do not respect your pressure tactics."
However, the pressure appears to have worked. On February 16, after a few
weeks of correspondence, Foxman wrote a letter to Megidor. In his letter he
notes that, "While any professor has the right to express his or her views,
it seems to me that the university administration has an obligation to
consider when certain views are beyond the pale and harmful to the
institution and the Jewish People. I believe leaders of institutions have an
obligation to speak out when hateful messages are conveyed, and to consider
taking certain actions against those individuals who are articulating such
messages."
As the letter's tone makes clear, Foxman does not point to specific
actions. "Because of my feelings regarding the question of freedom of
expression and academic freedom, I also did not demand that Columbia
University take specific steps," he told Haaretz. "I only demanded that
action be taken in this matter, and that is what I demand of the Hebrew
University."
Foxman said he indeed approached Megidor with a measure of hesitation
partially because a Jewish and Israeli institution was involved.
"However, I cannot finally adhere to a double-standard: One demand of
Columbia University and another of Hebrew University."
The affair began in August 2001, with an article written by historian Anat
Peri for Haaretz. Peri's article investigated the image of Europe and its
relations to Israel. Peri wrote a sentence stating that while smaller
European nations denounced Israel and compared Israel to Nazi
Germany, "Germany, which cannot afford to denounce Israel as the equivalent
of Nazi Germany, supports any Israeli person or group who compares Israel to
the Nazis, from B'tselem to Prof. Moshe Zimmerman."
Zimmerman filed a libel suit against Peri and Haaretz. It is not Zimmerman's
first libel suit. The late Rehavam Ze'evi sued him for libel in response to
an article in the weekly Jerusalem that compared members of the right-wing to
Nazis. In 2000, Ze'evi won that suit. This time, too, Tel Aviv Magistrate's
Court Judge Yehudit Shevah accepted the assertions of Peri and Haaretz that
Zimmerman did compare Israeli organizations and individuals to Nazis, on
various occasions. She even cited some examples, "Between Hebron youth and
Hitler Youth, between the motivation and conditions of service in some of the
IDF's elite units and that of the Waffen SS, between Israeli soccer fans and
those of the Third Reich, and between the Old Testament and Mein Kampf."
Zimmerman writes to Brenner
In January 2004, about two months before Zimmerman's suit was dismissed,
Alexander Brenner was interviewed on Israel Radio in a program about new
European anti-Semitism. "The fact that Hebrew University professors compare
Israel to the Nazis fans the flames of German anti-Semitism," he complained.
A few days later, Brenner received a letter from Zimmerman demanding an
apology, on the grounds that, "The faculty at the Hebrew University may
assume that you were hinting about me."
He received another request to apologize several weeks later. This letter,
signed by Hebrew University Rector Haim Rabinowitz, actually included a
proposed script outlining the language of the apology.
Bergman is convinced that the timing of both demands for an apology is not
coincidental. "Zimmerman knew that a judgment in his case was about to be
made public, and believed that Brenner's apology regarding such an indictment
would influence the magistrate."
The demands made of Brenner were exposed in another article, written by Peri
for Maariv in July, entitled, "The Hebrew University's Disgrace." The article
was accompanied by a response from the university's spokeswoman, Orit
Sulitzeanu. According to Sulitzeanu, "The rector believed, based on
information which he received, that Dr. Brenner was interested in apologizing
to the professors of the university, and, therefore, he was offered a
proposed transcript of a letter which would make it possible for him to
withdraw his general indictment of them. In retrospect, the rector believes
that he should not have become involved in the matter. Zimmerman's reaction
to this reticent response was a letter to Maariv attacking the rector for his
failure to meet his obligation to protect fellow members of the academic
faculty at the university."
Brenner's response was unavailable this week. University spokeswoman
Sulitzeanu reiterated her claim that the rector believed, "that Dr. Brenner
is interested in apologizing in order to put an end to the affair."
Even when asked,
