Haifa University: We Won’t Fire Ilan Pappe
Haifa University is not planning to bring disciplinary action against Ilan Pappe despite his role in persuading Britain’s Association of University Teachers (AUT) to boycott the university, according to university president, Aaron Ben-Ze’ev.
Pappe published a letter in the British Guardian newspaper accusing Haifa University of discriminating against him because of his outspoken pro-Palestinian opinions. He called on the AUT to boycott the university as a tactic to ensure pro-Palestinian views continue to be expressed.
“A very precise and focused policy of pressure on the university allowed me, albeit under restriction and systematic harassment, to purse my classes and research,” Pappe wrote, adding that many Arab students at the university do not feel safe to express their own support for the Palestinians.
However, Ben-Ze’ev told the Jerusalem Post that Pappe’s moral stance was “gravely disturbing” and strongly denied Pappe’s claims that the university planned to dismiss him for defending Teddy Katz, a student accused of misrepresenting facts in a controversial thesis three years ago. Katz accused Israel of massacring Arab villagers in Tantura in 1948. His thesis was rejected, however, after an independent committee concluded Katz had distorted quotes from taped interviews and failed to substantiate the accusations.
“I think that a person who calls to boycott his university should join the boycott and resign immediately from the university,” Ben-Ze’ev said. “It is difficult to describe a greater moral injury to academic freedom than the behavior of someone who has been bullying his colleagues and calling to boycott them. It is bizarre that he has chosen to attack the very same university that has exercised such a policy of tolerance towards him.”
