From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Chris West and Daniel Sacker | Student Direct | 30 September 2002 Professor Mona Baker, a UMIST academic, made headlines over the summer when she fired Dr Miriam Schlesinger and Professor Gideon Toury, two Israeli academics on the editorial boards of two linguistics journals she edited, citing as her reason a worldwide petition criticising Israel's treatment of Palestinians and urging non-cooperation with Israeli universities. Chris West and Daniel Sacker discuss whether this action was justified.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Paul de Rooij | Counterpunch | 24 September 2002 The shockwaves of 9-11 have had a chilling effect on civil liberties in the form of the Patriot Act and the repressive measures taken by a plethora of government agencies. One must add to this the fallout from the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis, and it becomes evident that even universities are not immune from the chill.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Will Youmans | Counterpunch | 23 September 2002 A Philadelphia-based pro-Israeli organization with the seemingly innocuous name, the Middle East Forum, began a website to monitor US college campuses for academic pro-Palestinian bias and happenings. Campus- Watch (http://www.campus-watch.org) publishes dossiers on professors, as well as some examples of their writings. It describes itself as a group of "highly qualified American academics that have banded together in defense of US interests on campus, which includes the continued support of Israel.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Geoffrey Alderman | The Guardian | 22 July 2002 The demand by some British academics for a "boycott" of Israel is significant mainly for what it tells us about the prejudices and short-sightedness of the boycotters. As "gesture" politics I admit it has a certain interest, and it will undoubtedly provide material for scholarly articles. But, make no mistake, it will have no effect - none at all - upon Israeli policy in the Disputed Territories.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Caroline Davis | The Times Higher Education Supplement | 19 July 2002 The sacking of two Israeli scholars from the boards of journals as part of an academic boycott highlights the question of whether such actions work and whether they do more harm than good. Caroline Davis reports. The organisers of the 1986 World Archaeological Congress in Southampton wrote to all South African and Namibian participants to tell them they would not be welcome at the meeting.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Rod Liddle | The Guardian | 17 July 2002 A young British lecturer working at the University of Tel Aviv decided he would like to take a post back home, in the United Kingdom. However, the head of the first university department to which he applied told him, charmingly: "No, we don't accept any applicants from a Nazi state." We can imagine this university factotum very easily, shrouded in self-righteousness and spite, delighted at last to be able to vent a bit of spleen about a situation very far away which he either fails to understand, or perhaps, even, wishes to understand.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Robert Fisk | The Independent | 14 July 2004 The Mongols stained the Tigris black with the ink of the Iraqi books they destroyed. Today's Mongols prefer to destroy the Iraqi teachers of books. Since the Anglo-American invasion, they have murdered at least 13 academics at the University of Baghdad alone and countless others across Iraq. History professors, deans of college and Arabic tutors have all fallen victim to the war on learning.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Committee for Free Speech at York University | 30 May 2004 York University President Lorna Marsden is under fire from all directions for her decision to banish student activist and journalist Daniel Freeman-Maloy from campus for three years. Freeman-Maloy's expulsion was meant to send a message: challenge my administration’s authority, and you will suffer the consequences. Instead, it is demonstrating that crude repression of student activism will always backlash.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Committee for Free Speech at York University | Defend Free Speech at York University | 3 May 2004 To All Concerned Community Members: Last week, a 3rd-year undergraduate student of political science, Dan Freeman-Maloy, received a letter informing him of a 3-year suspension from York University, simply for using a megaphone on campus. The letter referred only to his "use of an unauthorized sound amplification device"
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Daniel Freeman-Maloy | Defend Free Speech at York University | 3 May 2004 On April 30, 2004, I received a letter signed by York University President and Vice-Chancellor Lorna Marsden declaring that I "will have no purpose on campus" after May 1, 2004. If I set foot on York's campus at any point in the three years following this date, she threatens, I will be charged for trespassing.