After viewing the film, Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY) called on Columbia to fire one of the professors portrayed in the movie, Joseph Massad. Many professors around the country saw this action as a threat to their academic freedom and signed a petition in support of Massad. Columbia President Lee Bollinger then created an ad hoc committee to investigate the film's charges.
In a letter to the editor in the Nov. 17 issue of The Amherst Student, Visiting Professor of Political Science Sayres Rudy wrote of the controversy, "The impression created is that Massad is anti-Semitic, and no one has denied it. That impression is false. ... Massad is only the most prominent target of the scurrilous, vicious and anti-intellectual Campus Watch-led campaign accusing anyone who criticizes Israeli criminality or Zionist ideology of anti-Semitism."
While I respect Professor Rudy and those with whom I disagree over the question of Israel, I disagree with the sentiment expressed in Rudy's letter. I see no inherent problem with Massad's Palestinian bias; if professors are upfront about their biases and present material that reflects opposing views, these biases need not affect the academic environment.
The problem with Massad and the other professors in the MEALAC department, however, is that they went beyond advocating one side of a debate to the point of intimidating and harassing students who disagreed with them. For instance, Massad asked a former Israeli soldier in the documentary, "How many Palestinians have you killed today?" Another accused professor, George Saliba, told a student that she had no claim to the land of Israel because she had green eyes, and therefore was "not a Semite."
The video also shows an article in the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram Weekly written by Hamid Dabashi, another accused professor and former chair of the MEALAC department. Referring to Israelis, he wrote, "Half a century of systematic maiming and murdering of another people has left its deep marks on the faces of these people. The way they talk, the way they walk ... the way they look at the world. There is an endemic prevarication to this machinery, a vulgarity of character that is bone-deep and structural to the skeletal vertebrae of its culture."
The comments by Saliba and Dabashi shockingly capture the essence of anti-Semitic stereotyping and propaganda that has gone on for hundreds of years. Massad's anti-Semitism is less obvious since he didn't assign certain physical characteristics to Israelis, but he's hardly the innocent victim of a vicious attack. Massad has attempted to delegitimize Israel and has written that Zionism, as an ideology, is racist.
Soon, Bollinger's ad hoc committee will decide the fate of these professors and give a report on whether they have created an intellectually intimidating environment for students at Columbia. At Amherst, we should also decide whether this type of behavior by faculty is acceptable.
Retracing the fight last year over Justice Scalia's presence in regard to the College's Statement of Respect for Persons, we discussed whether listening to Scalia's lecture fell under the realm of academic freedom or amounted to harassment of homosexuals based on what Scalia had written in his opinions. We are faced with a much more egregious violation of that Statement in this scenario. If the footage in the film is accurate, then there is no place for a Dabashi, Saliba or Massad at Amherst.
The Amherst community thrives on tolerance, discourse and respect for others. No matter the race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation of an individual, we must respect him or her. In the documentary, Dabashi, Saliba and Massad showed hatred toward those who support Israel. Their classroom conduct crossed the line from providing a legitimate perspective to creating an intimidating academic environment ruled by hate speech and inflammatory behavior. If the allegations are true, these are not the type of people we want as part of our community.
Sidman can be reached at mrsidman@amherst.edu