The University of Haifa Response to the AUT Decision

The University of Haifa-the Spokesman Office
24 April 2005

The University of Haifa is saddened and not a little outraged by the utterly
unjust and unjustifiable decision of the AUT and by its attempt to erect
barriers and obstruct the flow of ideas within the international academic
community.

In lieu of evidence to support the singling out of Israeli academia, the
authors of this campaign have chosen to adopt a three-year old urban legend.
We are astounded by the fact that the AUT never requested our response prior
to adopting their resolution, and did not allow our position to be presented
by members of the AUT who are familiar with the facts. The case against
Israeli academia, in general, and the University of Haifa in particular, is
devoid of empirical evidence and violates the principle of due process.
Driven by a prior and prejudicial assumption of guilt, the AUT has refused
to confuse itself with facts.

In actual fact, during the past few years, Dr. Pappe has transgressed all
common ethical standards of academic life. Yet, despite his conduct, the
University of Haifa has demonstrated extraordinary tolerance. One of his
colleagues did indeed lodge a complaint with the internal faculty
disciplinary committee. The complaint focused on Dr. Pappe's unethical
behavior towards his peers and his efforts to disbar them from international
forums for daring to contradict his views. Contrary to Dr. Pappe's claim,
the university made no attempt to expel him.

As to the now too famous thesis that provoked this altercation, an
independent committee was asked to examine the validity of the quotes that
were used as the "scientific basis" for the highly controversial charges
proffered in this thesis, authored by Mr. Teddy Katz. After a thorough
examination, the committee members concluded that, in fact, the quotes in
the written text did not match the taped comments of the interviews and that
the text was grossly distorted. Therefore, they disqualified this MA thesis.
This decision, it is important to note, matched a court decision given on
the same matter. As Dr. Pappe did not like the committee decision, despite
the undeniable discrepancies between the text and the taped interviews, he
reacted by calling the academic community to boycott the members of this
committee and the University of Haifa. Despite these violations of academic
collegiality and ethics, Dr. Pappe was never summoned by the disciplinary
committee as the committee's chairperson decided not to pursue the complaint
that had been filed against him.

Although there is always more work to do, the University of Haifa is proud
of its record of Arab-Jewish cooperation and reconciliation, both on campus
and in the community. Twenty percent of our student body are Arab citizens
of the State of Israel, and the many Arab faculty members at Haifa include
departmental chairs and a Dean. We will continue our efforts to further
Jewish-Arab reconciliation, despite politically motivated initiatives to
muzzle free speech and the academic discourse.

We are puzzled by the fact that despite the deluge of abuses of academic
freedom throughout the world, the AUT has chosen to focus upon a politically
spurious charge and, on the basis of false allegations, single out the
University of Haifa for condemnation. The University of Haifa calls upon
the AUT to rescind its resolution, one that represents a complete distortion
of facts far more embarrassing to the AUT than to the University. We call
upon the academic community throughout the free world to reject this
politically motivated abuse of academic discourse.