Comment by Prof. Ivan K. Cohen
Dear Sirs/Madams
Never before have I felt the need to write to the Board on any matter, but your recent mailing concerning the above member of the UCU is not entirely accurate, and because it may do little to serve the cause of peace I feel compelled to take time to make the effort to correct appalling inaccuracies.
The facts are that the posting in question was made to a CLOSED Activists’List of the UCU, to which all subscribers agree not to make public. It is also quite apparent that the links included were done through naivete rather than malice. I have no special love for Ms Delich. Indeed, to the contrary, as her e-mailings to the UCU Activists’ List remind me too often of “The Protocols…” in style and rhetoric, if not in direct substance.
However, whomever made her particular posting known off-list has acted inappropriately and with malice and cowardice, in my opinion.
You also make the mistake of chiding UCU, yet only a very tiny minority of UCU members are subscribers to the Activists List. Were this not the case I would have resigned a long time ago from the UCU. The truth is that the vast majority of UCU members have little direct interest in matters beyond “bread and butter” issues, such as pay and conditions. The Activists List, by contrast, consists of people who are more politically motivated (in various directions) and also more vocal. In other times we would have referred to such people as extremists, and there may well be some who deserve this accolade, including (IMHO) Ms Delich who only ever posts e-mails which are virulently anti-Israel. However, to condemn her and also the entire UCU on the basis of an inappropriately “leaked” e-mail (or more probably summary thereof) is both wrong and immoral. It will not serve the cause of pursuance of peace in the Middle East, and may well be counter-productive by making non-active UCU members feel under attack from one side of the “Boycott debate”. In short, this is not the way to proceed, and I hope that in future more care will be taken to use **fully informed** details. I would not wish to continue to belong to an organisation which acted on the basis of partial facts and innuendo.
I thank you for your time, and hope this will be a “one off”.
Your sincerely
Ivan
Ivan K. Cohen, Ph.D.
Associate Professor in Finance and Economics
Richmond, The American International
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Response by Professor Ashley Grossman, UK
Dear Prof. Cohen,
I note your comments and concern that SPME have used a ‘private’ website to publicise the comments of one of its contributors. In fact, the SPME became aware of the information on the website when it had entered the public domain. How this came about is not salient to the discussion, although a discussion forum of some 700 ‘activists’ is hardly a private area, particularly when it is used to put forward political plans of a highly controversial nature. While I understand your concern I feel it is completely misplaced.
I have very little interest as to whether Ms Delich does or does not like Jews, and indeed as to her views on the Israeli state. However, she takes part in a discussion forum on the internet which is widely and probably correctly seen as a group of activists seeking to delegitimize the State of Israel. These members are linked through the UCU, which I assume provides their initial contact details such that they can organise their group. This group is not a private talking shop but is politically active and uses this site to organise its activities. Under such circumstances, the fact that Ms Delich links her views to known racists, while personally professing to be anti-Israel and not anti-Jewish, is a matter of public interest and concern. If the British national party (BNP) have a group website where strongly racist and anti-black views were purveyed, then it would be a legitimate function of any investigative journalist to disclose these details publicy, and indeed it would be their social responsibility. This is a matter of public and political debate, and not a private group of stamp collectors. As many of the activists promoting a boycott of academic contacts with Israel put forward the concept that this is a non-racial and purely political proposal, the linking of one of their supporters with a scurrilous racial website is of legitimate concern: matters of personal or corporate privacy do not come into it. While I was not personally involved in the ‘outing’ of Ms. Delich, and nor I understand were the SPME, I hardly feel it is fair to refer to this as ‘malice’ or ‘cowardice’.
This is a delicate moment in Middle East negotiations, with at least the possibility of some sort of agreement being reached between Israel and its Palestinian interlocutors: such “peace in the Middle East” is best assisted by those of us outside putting forward constructive and helpful proposals, where appropriate; I note the deep involvement of many Moslems in the UK who also express their legitimate opinions. Exposing the racial stereotypes of those seeking to undermine such accord is in my opinion a public service.
I trust you will now understand the actions of SPME in discussing the actions of Ms. Delich which had entered the realm of public discourse.
With regards,
Ashley Grossman
Professor of Neuroendocrinology
Barts and the London School of Medicine
