The dean of Humanities, Ben Artzi, presented the university’s case in a letter that states that Pappe’s "attacked again and again the university and represents it in front of the academic world as a place where moral abuses are taking place, as a place of discrimination and ideologically biased in every possible way."

In a phone interview with the Militant, Pappe said there are several reasons why he is under attack. One is his support for a student who exposed in a doctoral thesis a massacre of Palestinians by Israeli forces in the village of Tantura in 1948. The student had a high grade on the thesis but was disqualified.

"I was the only one who said it was correct to expose the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians that accompanied the creation of Israel in 1948," said Pappe. Some 200 Palestinian civilians were massacred in Tantura after the village surrendered to the Zionist Haganah forces.

"Secondly was my intent to begin teaching a course on the Nakbah," the professor said. Nakbah, which means "catastrophe" in Arabic, is the term used by Arabs to denote the expulsion of the Palestinians from their lands in 1948 and the creation of the state of Israel.

"This would be a first in Israeli history," he said. "And they want to prevent that because here we are talking about the original sin of Israel. Thirdly is the fact that I have publicly called for an international boycott of Israeli academia."

Israel "has never been a democracy," Pappe said. "It is just playing at being one. The silencing of Arab academics is nothing new in Israel but this is the first time they are going at Jewish dissident academics."

In a written public appeal, Pappe said he is not appealing for "personal help" but fighting the "opening gambit" by the university in which "many colleagues, especially my Palestinian Israeli colleagues, can be next."

"I can mention many examples of how people questioning the state’s policies are being silenced," Pappe said in the interview. "Yofa Yarkoni who is a cultural hero, a pop singer in her 70s now, spoke out against the brutality in Jenin. Now all her performances have been canceled. Haaretz Daily is under immense pressure to fire the journalist Amira Haas. Those who do not toe the general line that this is a war for ‘our’ very survival are immediately branded as traitors. In this atmosphere the university believed that the time was ripe to go after me."

An international committee with supporters in Australia, France, the United States, and other countries has been set up to defend Pappe. It is appealing for letters of support and petitions defending academic freedom. More than 1,000 letters to the university were sent in less than two weeks, according to Pappe. The university administration "did not expect such a response," he said. "They are very insular and do not look beyond these borders. Now they are beginning to reassess their action so public pressure is very important.

"Until about a couple of weeks ago doors were being closed," the professor said. "There were difficulties to challenge the growing consensus around Sharon’s policies. There were growing difficulties in presenting alternatives to the use of force, to argue for a two-state solution, let alone to present an alternative to Zionism."

Explaining that Israeli Jews have to come to grips with what he calls Israel’s "original sin," Pappe said, "at the end of the road we must have a solution to the Palestinian refugee problem. We must do away with the apartheid state in Israel and we must respect the international status of Jerusalem. This can only be done in a unitary, democratic and secular state. What actual form that will take I do not know. Two separate states may be a step on that road."

The Al-Awda Palestinian Right to Return Coalition in the United States has issued an action alert and is calling for letters of protest to be sent to the University of Haifa to Professor Yehuda Hayuth at: hayuth@ uvm.haifa.ac.il; and to Professor Yossi Ben-Artzi at: yossib@univ.haifa.ac.il.  
 
 
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