Israeli university rebukes professor who expressed sympathy for both Israeli, Gazan victims

[geek tragedy]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by cyberswede (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: Haaretz

Prof. Hanoch Sheinman’s email was sent to reassure his second-year law students that because the security situation had disrupted many students’ routines, there would be an additional date scheduled for his course’s final exam. Sheinman opened the email, however, by saying that he hoped the message “finds you in a safe place, and that you, your families and those dear to you are not among the hundreds of people that were killed, the thousands wounded, or the tens of thousands whose homes were destroyed or were forced to leave their homes during, or as a direct result of, the violent confrontation in the Gaza Strip and its environs.”

Sheinman then proceeded to inform the students of the additional testing date.

Sheinman’s reference to the victims of the fighting with no reference to their national affiliation led many students to complain to the dean of the law faculty, Prof. Shahar Lifshitz, who issued an urgent message to the students yesterday. “I was shocked to learn of the email sent to you by Professor Sheinman,” Lifshitz wrote. “It was a hurtful letter, and since this morning we have been justifiably flooded with messages from students and family members, many of whom are involved during these very days in the battles in the south.”

Lifshitz added, “Both the content and the style of the letter contravene the values of the university and the law faculty. The faculty champions the values of pluralism, tolerance, and freedom of expression, but the inclusion of positions as were included in the administrative message sent by Prof. Sheinman to the students on a matter relating to exams does not fit into the framework of academic freedom or freedom of personal expression in any acceptable sense. This constitutes the inappropriate use of the power given to a lecturer to exploit the platform given to him as a law teacher to convey messages reflecting his positions, in a way that, as noted, seriously offended the students and their families.”

Read more: http://www.haaretz.com/mobile/.premium-1.607888

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Not the Onion.

Note that that expressing sympathy for Palestinians draws greater outrage in Israel than does suggesting punitive rape against Palestinian women as an anti-terrorism tactic.

[Mosby]

1. The article is by subscripion only

should be locked.

[geek tragedy]

2. Heh. Care to comment on the substance? nt

[Mosby]

4. The article is by subscripion only

[geek tragedy]

5. So, you also wish to see discussion of

suffering on Gaza stifled.

[mike_c]

6. I clicked straight to the article with this link....

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.607888

No subscription necessary.

[Comrade Grumpy]

9. What a crass and blatant attempt to stifle the discussion. Not surprised in the least.

[Viva_Daddy]

3. So much for Israel being a democracy.

"The faculty champions the values of pluralism, tolerance, and freedom of expression, but...." Not in MY Jewish democracy.

[Comrade Grumpy]

7. Israel is outing itself as a deeply racist nation.

[oberliner]

8. Kedar's statement drew much more outrage

Feminist groups across Israel in particular spoke out strongly against those statements.

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10. From feminists. The university thought

that was acceptable but considers treating Palestinians as human beings to be a thought crime.

The entire university community recoiled on horror at the idea of an implicit statement of sympathy for dead children. Because those dead children were of the wrong race and religion.

One was punished, the other defended.

[oberliner]

11. Respectfully disagree

The situation in the OP involved a prof adding his personal opinion on the conflict into an email about rescheduling an exam. I think regardless of his views, that isn't really something a professor should do. I think they would get a similar reprimand in the US.

As for Kedar - he was actually on a talk show, being asked his opinions - and made presented an offensive hypothetical to make a rhetorical point (or so he has later explained).

In any case, I don't think your characterization of "the entire university community recoiling in horror" is an accurate one. Probably a few right-wing students grumbled about the remark so and the teacher was told to keep his opinions to himself when contacted students about unrelated matters.

I could be wrong though - this is all conjecture on my part.

[geek tragedy]

12. An expression of sympathy would draw at most

a few people rolling their eyes in the US, not this kind of official censure.

[cyberswede]

13. Locking...

I'm sorry, but the Hosts' consensus is that this isn't LBN.