Campus Watch reports the following from December 15-26, 2019:
We Couldn’t Have Said it Better
"[T]he particular funding program at issue provides funding for Mideast studies to promote knowledge of the Middle East to serve U.S. foreign policy objectives. As a result of this mandate, the relevant funding law requires universities to pledge that their programs will be balanced. In other words, monitoring balance is not some bizarre or aggressive anti-academic freedom initiative, but just enforcing the law, –a law, admittedly, that previous administrations failed to enforce.”
David Bernstein, a professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University, responding to criticism of President Trump’s executive order that could impact Title VI funding for Middle East studies programs; Reason Magazine, December 12, 2019.
Campus Watch Research
Why Are Academics Ignoring Iran’s Colonialism? (A.J. Caschetta): https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60167/why-are-academics-ignoring-iran-colonialism
MESA Again Demonstrates Its Contempt for Israel (David Gerstman): https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60137/mesa-again-demonstrates-its-contempt-for-israel
Campus Watch Blog
Why Are Academics Ignoring Iran’s Colonialism? (David Gerstman): https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60169/why-are-academics-ignoring-iran-colonialism
MESA Again Demonstrates Its Contempt for Israel (Winfield Myers): https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60138/mesa-again-demonstrates-its-contempt-for-israel
Christmas Cultural Appropriation Palestinian Style (David Gerstman): https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60139/christmas-cultural-appropriation-palestinian-style
Middle East Studies in the News
U. of Massachusetts Amherst prof David Mednicoff receives a grant from the Worldwide Universities Network for the “Legal Cultures and New Regional Policies towards Forced Migrants” project: https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60148/mednicoff-receives-grant-for-migrant-policy
On a Christian/Muslim conversation group in Saskatoon, Canada, that was co-founded by St. Thomas More College Islamic studies prof Fachrizal Halim: https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60146/christians-and-muslims-friends-in-conversation
The Arabic Immersion Magnet School in Houston, TX, will start serving pre-K to eighth grade: https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60153/highly-sought-after-arabic-program-teaches-more
On what happens now that the US Senate has approved a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide (incl. Clark U’s Taner Akçam): https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60151/after-the-armenian-genocide-senate-resolution-quo
Jerusalem Post on Rhodes College prof Yasir Qadhi defending the hadith about Jews hiding behind the rocks and the trees: https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60178/us-based-islamic-scholar-defends-antisemitic
Duke U. prof Shai Ginsburg discusses video games: https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60171/games-art-and-new-frontiers-on-shai-ginsburg
On Columbia U. alumnae Jamie Kreitman filing an antisemitism complaint with the DoE against the University’s federally funded Middle East Institute (incl. Rutgers’ Noura Erakat, and Columbia profs. Katherine Franke, Joseph Massad, and Hamid Dabashi):
The Algemeiner: https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60157/columbia-university-faces-second-recent-complaint
Fox News: https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60164/jewish-israeli-student-files-complaint-alleging
The Jewish Press: https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60173/israeli-student-at-columbia-files-first-violation
On eight Republican members of Congress calling on Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to deny Title VI funding for Middle East studies centers that promote BDS:
JNS: https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60143/congress-members-call-on-devos-to-deny-taxpayer
The Jerusalem Post: https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60159/congress-pressures-us-education-dept-stop-funding
On concerns over radical speakers at “Reviving the Islamic Spirit,” Canada’s largest Islamic conference (incl. Southern Methodist U’s Omar Suleiman, Rhodes College’s Yasir Qadhi):
B’nai Brith Canada: https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60150/radical-speakers-on-agenda-for-toronto-islamic
The Algemeiner: https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60144/canadian-jewish-group-raises-concerns-about
The Canadian Jewish News: https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60158/controversial-islamic-conference-in-toronto-draws
Jihad Watch (incl. Wilfrid Laurier U. prof Jasmin Zine): https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60179/canadian-jewish-news-exposes-anti-semitic-muslim
Articles that include UC Berkeley’s Hatem Bazian:
New York Post on a Manhattan court ruling that Fordham U. must recognize SJP: https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60126/fordham-forced-to-recognize-students-for-justice
On Bazian’s BDS fail re Trader Joe’s selling Israeli Feta cheese:
Israel National News: https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60177/call-to-boycott-israeli-cheese-backfires-on-hatem
Fousesquawk (blog of Gary Fouse): https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60155/hatem-bazian-trader-joe-boycott-flop
Moonlighting
Bret Stephens’s “Jewish genius” NYT column leads to accusations of racism (incl. UC Riverside’s Reza Aslan): https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60176/new-york-times-bret-stephens-faces-racism
Jewish Press op-ed on anti-Israel Jews (incl. Princeton’s Richard Falk, Norman Finkelstein): https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60156/fake-news-fake-jews-incl-richard-falk-norman
On allegations of systematic antisemitism at Fieldston School, a private school in NY, incl. an anti-Israel lecture by Columbia U. prof and Open Society Foundations employee Kayum Ahmed:
Tablet Magazine: https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60149/pride-and-prejudice-at-fieldston-incl-kayum-ahmed
The Jerusalem Post: https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60160/new-york-school-founded-by-jews-accused
Articles that include U. of Detroit Mercy prof Amer Zahr:
Clarion Project on “Michigan terror supporters” who “seek to influence government policy": https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60172/michigan-terror-supporters-seek-to-influence-govt
Clarion Project on the “courageous leaders” honored at the annual CAIR-Los Angeles banquet (incl. Temple U’s Marc Lamont Hill, Zaytuna College’s Zaid Shakir, Southern Methodist U’s Omar Suleiman, Rhodes College’s Yasir Qadhi): https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60170/here-are-the-courageous-leaders-honored-by-cair
On the PA’s Saeb Erekat retweeting Zahr’s 2018 video claiming Jesus was a Palestinian:
Israellycool Blog: https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60152/saeb-erekat-retweets-video-of-antisemitic-terror
Elder of Ziyon: https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60147/calling-falafel-israeli-is-cultural-appropriation
