SPME can be effective in insuring a fairer, more balanced, and more accurate discussion, teaching, writing, and publication on the Middle East, the Arab-Israel conflict, and Islamic extremism. One specific way is by using our academic skills: our well established intellectual, pedagogical, and research abilities to demand a balanced picture and to state a fairer case.
We have done this in several fields of expertise: Our medical experts have published refutations of various politically-inspired falsehoods about health and medicine in Israel and Palestine. In another field, we have demanded that academic freedom be respected over political boycott campaigns, and have had major successes. As well, some of our Middle East specialists have struck at the theoretical heart of biased postcolonial theory and its application to the Middle East. This latter was done in an SPME conference, and the conference proceedings have just been published by Routledge under the title Postcolonial Theory and the Arab-Israel Conflict (P. C. Salzman and D. R. Divine, editors).
Other desirable and promising projects have however been delayed or cancelled because of lack of funds. With Ed Beck’s encouragement and expectation of promised funding, Barry Rubin and I began organizing a conference in Washington meant to be an alternative to the Middle East Studies Association conference which is a notorious hotbed of apologists and obfuscation. But then we lost a donor because of the long timeline of conferences and publishing, and there were no funds to more ahead with. So this project was dropped. Many other projects that we have imagined have so run beyond our resources, that they were never even begun.
SPME has a great membership: great in size, great in spirit, great in academic accomplishment. But SPME has only puny funding. I contribute a small bit, and quite a few others do so. But many of us have so far not contributed funds. As you know, we academics are all volunteers. We do, however, have to pay lawyers and accountants, buy supplies, maintain equipment, and we really need office staff. This is only possible if we all contribute. SPME can only function with funding. Please back up your moral support for SPME with some financial support. Any and every contribution will be welcome and appreciated. And will help SPME go ahead with its work.
Philip Carl Salzman
Philip Carl Salzman
Professor of Anthropology
McGill University
Montreal
Professor of Anthropology
McGill University
Montreal
It is important that everyone receiving this appeal make a contribution to SPME now. Your contribution is tax deductible according to IRS regulations as SPME is a 501(3)(c) not-for-profit educational charitable organization. A financial statement for 2006 is available from spme@spme.org . Instructions for making contributions to SPME can be found at spme.org/donation.html . Please be generous…SPME needs your help. Without you we are nothing. Thank you, in advance for your generosity.
