Supporting Acadmic Freedom in Israel

We the undersigned, members of both the Israeli and international academic communities, wish to express our dismay at Haifa University's decision to subject Senior Lecturer Dr Ilan Pappe to a trial.

We have strong reservations about the attempt being made by the University Prosecutor and the Dean of Humanities Professor Yossi Ben Artzi to revoke Dr Pappe's tenure and fire him because he made harsh statements sent by e-mail about individual professors and has allegedly defamed the institution as well as asked for intervention of some professional associations.

Dr. Pappe, who holds a rank roughly equivalent to a tenured Associate Professor, criticized the institution and its procedures following the nullification of a highly controversial Master's thesis that documented the fates of 5 Arab villages in northern Israel during the 1948 war. The thesis, which was originally approved with an excellent grade, was later nullified following pressure from veterans groups. These groups threatened a libel suit because the thesis portrayed them as possibly being responsible for a massacre. Dr Pappe unequivocally asserted in his e-mail postings that the thesis was nullified not on professional or scholarly grounds, but for personal and political reasons.

While we do not take a position on either the nullification of the thesis or on Dr Pappe's assertions, we call on the University of Haifa to rescind its prosecution of Dr Ilan Pappe for the following reasons:

* First and foremost, the revocation of tenure is usually conditioned upon a legally proven criminal act or deviance from academic standards. If there was an ethical violation, it lacked the severity to justify use of academia's ultimate weapon, the revocation of tenure.

* The University of Haifa must avoid the appearance of using its institutional powers to exact revenge on an individual faculty member engaging in legitimate criticism of authority. This is the very core of academic freedom. Without such freedom, the continued existence of the university itself is in jeopardy.

* Dr. Pappe is considered a political dissident. Revoking his tenure cannot be viewed but as political persecution -- an act which completely contradicts the idea of university.

* Establishing a precedent for firing a faculty member on such weak and unusual grounds constitutes a grave danger both to higher education and the entire Israeli society. Especially in these days, when freedom in Israel is under attack, the university should be a stronghold of freedom.

Therefore, out of respect and concern for academic freedom in Israel and the image of the University of Haifa, we strongly urge that Haifa University authorities reconsider this decision.