“Our Inner Scourge:
The Catastrophe of Israel Academics”

Shlomo Sharan

“If the Nazi programme for the final solution of the Jewish problem
had been complete, for sure there would be peace today in Palestine.”

Baruch Kimmerling,
Guardian Unlimited (Internet) October 5, 2002

The opinions and claims of Israel academics against Jews, Zionism and Israel are discussed and analyzed in this study. It is estimated that some 20 to 25% of people who teach the Humanities and Social Sciences in Israel’s universities and colleges have expressed extreme anti-Zionist positions, largely, though not exclusively, in regard to Israel’s policies and actions vis-à-vis the Arab Palestinians. In addition to their expression of anti-Zionist, and often outright anti-Semitic attitudes, they have engaged in public demonstrations, prepared and signed petitions addressed to soldiers in the IDF to disobey their commanders’ orders and not serve in Judea and Samaria, and have been active in encouraging academic organizations abroad (particularly in England) to boycott Israel universities and academics. These academic personnel travel abroad and consistently denounce Israel for a series of crimes against Arabs that are as fictitious as are the claims made by the Arabs themselves. In fact, the anti-Zionist academics have adopted the Arab view of Israel’s history and of Arab accusations against Israel without regard for their relation to reality. In particular, is the distressing use of the analogy between Israel policy and practices of the Nazi regime in WWII. A distinct percentage of the far-Left anti-Zionist outcries espoused the extreme position that Israel should be either a bi-national state or should be replaced in its entirety by an Arab-Palestinian nation, precisely in the terms advocated by Hamas and the PLO. In short, Jewish academic personnel who teach Israeli students in our institutions of higher learning advocate that Israel be dismantled as Israel as a Jewish state; the ingathering of the exiles should be discontinued, and Israel should cease persecuting the Palestinians by killing homicide bombers who infiltrate Israel or retaliate against the firing of rockets at towns like Sderot. In short, we should surrender to the Arabs for the sake of peace. Is this phenomenon sanctioned under the guise of academic freedom, or is it actually sanctioned by the incumbent powers that be who want peace now at all costs, including the destruction of the third commonwealth?

Not a few of the anti-Zionist academics were lifetime communists and adhere to a Marxist ideology that opposes separate nationalism beyond the international brotherhood of the proletariat. To dismantle Israel is a first step in this direction, despite the fact that other nations oddly enough refuse to follow suit.

For the complete text of this paper in English, click here.