Setting The Record Straight

Campus Watch corrects false allegations made against it.

Campus Watch Responds:

In the course of an article alleging that "heavy Zionist pressure" led the University of Michigan Press to withdraw Joel Kovel's book, Overcoming Zionism, from distribution, Abourezk mistakenly labels the organization Stand with Us an "offshoot" of Campus Watch. In fact, Campus Watch is a project of the Middle East Forum and has no relationship with Stand With Us.

Abourezk also repeats the canard that Campus Watch and Middle East Forum director Daniel Pipes are part of the "pro-Israeli Lobby," when in fact, both seek simply to bring objectivity and scholarship back to the field of Middle East studies.

Abourezk then goes on to reference an oft-recycled quote from former Stanford Middle East studies professor and current director of the Middle East Studies Department at the American University in Cairo, Joel Beinin, accusing Campus Watch of regularly compiling "dossiers on professors and universities." In truth, several dossiers were posted at the Campus Watch website for a mere two weeks in September, 2002.

It seems the editors at the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, where Abourezk's article appeared, should have consulted a fact-checker before sending it to print.

(Posted by Cinnamon Stillwell)