SPME
I am delighted to help inaugurate this forum on academic freedom. Academic freedom is essential if universities are to succeed in their missions of creating and disseminating knowledge. Universities excel when they are governed by the authority of ideas rather…
read moreHarvard’s Dining Services is now admitting the obvious. In the face of criticism over a spring decision to suspend purchases from an Israeli soda water company with a presence in the West Bank, a Harvard University Dining Services spokesperson wrote…
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Typically we don’t find ourselves cheering on the folks at that Ivory Tower up in Cambridge, Mass. But whenever there is an outbreak of common sense on our elite campuses, we aim to encourage it. In that spirit, as the…
read moreIntroduction The end of the fall semester saw continued BDS successes in academic organizations but failures in other areas. In political terms, recognition of Palestine continued among European countries. Coupled with American comments about possible sanctions over Israeli construction activities,…
read moreThose who lie about themselves are not in a position to judge others. I used to serve as Campus Outreach Co-Coordinator for Open Hillel – an organization committed to abolishing the Hillel International’s Standards of Partnership. These standards preclude Hillel…
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One of Harvard University’s most renowned professors, psychology theorist and philosopher Steven Pinker, has written a harsh letter to the university’s president and provost protesting a decision by Harvard University Dining Services (HUDS) to ban the use of SodaStream water systems. SodaStream, an…
read moreAnthropologists are the most recent group of Israel bashers to publicly link their academic identity with their hatred of Israel. Earlier this month at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association (AAA), the organization’s members rejected by an overwhelming…
read moreThe Harvard University Dining Service has been rebuffed in its efforts to join the Boycott Movement against Israel. A group of radical anti-Israel Harvard students and faculty had persuaded the dining service to boycott Sodastream, an Israeli company that manufactures…
read moreSome, but by no means all, Palestinians, think that SodaStream, a company that does business in the West Bank, should be boycotted on the grounds that it profits from the “occupation.” I say some but by no means all because…
read moreHolly Bicerano is no friend of ours. In her Times of Israel blog, she has defended the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.’s) indefensible divestment vote, denied that Israel’s most recent Gaza incursion was “self-defense,” and complained that Israel is sabotaging Palestinian democracy.…
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