MESA president Nathan J. Brown |
The Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) has sent a letter to the recent “International Conference for the Reconstruction of Gaza” expressing “grave concern over Israel’s indiscriminate bombardment and destruction of Palestinian educational institutions” and recommending that “international donors . . . hold Israel accountable” by insisting that aid be contingent upon ending “the blockade and other policies of military occupation” that allegedly imperil “academic freedom and the right to education” in the Gaza strip. The letter relies upon the notoriously biased United Nations for its obviously inflated figures. Worse, it makes no mention whatsoever of Hamas’s rocket attacks on Israeli civilians, or its kidnapping and murder of Israeli citizens, both of which precipated Israel’s military action. Also conveniently omitted is Hamas’s calculated use of human shields and UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) facilities.
MESA has a long history of issuing one-sided letters accusing Israel of supposed restrictions on academic freedom, as these from 2013, 2012, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2003, 2002, and 2001 demonstrate.
But rest assured, writes MESA president and George Washington University professor Nathan J. Brown, MESA’s role is merely “to promote scholarship and teaching on the Middle East and North Africa.”
