Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) is one of those rare organizations whose name accurately reflects its agenda and goals. We are neither a part of the pro-Palestinian solidarity movement nor an Israeli advocacy group. We stand for fairness and honesty in discourse, for credibility and integrity in scholarship and reporting, and for right of all participants in the academic marketplace of ideas to have a respectful hearing. We have been an effective protector of academic freedom and a defender of those who have been publicly (or privately) bullied, abused, and otherwise disenfranchised for saying what they believe.

Given what has been accomplished so far, with financial support from only a few hundreds of the many thousands who subscribe to SPME, it is quite clear that an expansion of contributors from less than 2% of our subscribers to 20%, 30%, or even 50% would have far-reaching positive consequences for the organization and, more importantly, for the advancement of “PME”. If you believe that quality and tenor of academic discourse reverberates outside of the academy, that the minds of students should be cultivated by reasonable discussion and not poisoned by one-sided misinformation, and that progress towards peace depends on honest dialogue, then you should step up to help SPME continue and expand its work by backing up your subscription with a contribution.

Stanley Dubinsky
Professor of Linguistics
Associate Dean
The Graduate School
U of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208

803-777-1297
dubinsky@sc. edu
http://www.cas. sc.edu/LING/ faculty/dubinsky /dubinsky. htm

International Advisory Board for Academic Freedom,
Bar-Ilan University

Affiliated Faculty
University of Haifa