Dear friends and colleagues,
As you may already know, Daniel Pipes and his Middle East Forum have established a “Campus Watch” to monitor teaching and other activity relating to the
Middle East on campuses. www.campus-watch. http://www.campus-watch.org/
Several individuals and institutions, including Stanford, have been “targeted.” Judith Butler of UC Berkeley has suggested that colleagues who object to this McCarthyite-style practice step forward and identify themselves in solidarity with those named on the web site. Here is the text of the message she sent to them info@campus-watch.org:
“I have recently learned that your organization is compiling dossiers on professors at U.S. academic institutions who oppose the Israeli occupation and its brutality, actively support Palestinian rights of self-determination as well as a more informed and intelligent view of Islam than is currently represented in the U.S. media. I would be enormously honored to be counted among those who actively hold these positions and would like to be included in the list of those who are struggling for justice during these times.”
You may not wish to put yourself on the record in such overtly political terms, in which case you might formulate things any way that makes you feel comfortable. I do think it is important to respond to this effort to delegitimize critical thinking about the Middle East and urge you to consider some response.
My apologies if you get this more than once.
Best wishes for the new academic year,
Joel Beinin
Professor of Middle East History
Department of History
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-2024
President, Middle East Studies Association of North America, 2001-02
Tel: 650-723-4956
Fax: 650-725-0597
beinin@stanford.edu
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I hope my colleagues will not mind if I speak up, as one of those under surveillance by the Middle East Forum.
First of all, I hope everyone will realize that this technique is not a new development.
The ADL, which has behind the scenes ties to the MEF, spied on and harassed protesters of Apartheid and of Israeli policies in the occupied territories in San Francisco, and that case was only recently finally settled:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/02/23/MN169812.DTL
I am also sorry to report that, whether intended or not, the Pipes watch list has resulted in massive repetitive spamming of the email addresses of all the scholars on it, as well as of many others. In one instance one of the academics received repeated telephone death threats. In today’s world, singling someone out for opprobrium and monitoring has immediate effects in cyberspace, which a reasonable person could have foreseen. Obviously, denying academics use of their email facilities is a key interference with their research, scholarly communication, and career effectiveness.
What to do for now? I believe that an Amnesty-International-type approach may be the best response to the Middle East Forum watch list.
Those concerned that this move damages academic freedom and who object to the technique of keeping dossiers on and encouraging others to spy on teachers and writers should write letters.
If you hold such concerns, it would be legitimate to write letters of protest to the major news and cable networks protesting that they give Daniel Pipes a great deal of air time. As journalists, surely they are concerned that he is heading up a McCarthy-like campaign of watch lists and so fostering un-American values and attitudes. They will want to be sure to know that he is considered by many to be on the far right and to espouse views which ordinary Muslims often feel foster attitudes of hatred toward them; and that they should be sure, if they have him on the air, to balance those appearances with alternative views…
Sincerely,
Juan Cole
Professor
Department of History
University of Michigan
