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(temporary) boycotts, for being pro-Palestinian (!) as soon as there is the slightest hint of
criticism of Israel voiced or implied within these media. Many critiques of Israel, such as this
one, are simply not published, largely or partly because of publishers’ fear of being labelled
‘anti-Semitic’. 708
The same powers are at work in academia and intellectual circles, so that many
publications containing criticism of Israel, as well as the authors of such criticism, are not
only criticized, vilified, and publicly disparaged, but also receive death threats and become the
targets of anonymous cyber-attacks, such as hacking, e-mail viruses, and hate-mail. Some
scholars, such as Noam Chomsky and Edward Said, have needed police protection at
speeches, at work, and at home. On the whole, US academic discourse on Arabs and Islam
abounds with stereotypes and misrepresentations, since well before 2001. Blacklists of
academics critical of Israel are being circulated in the USA, reminiscent of the McCarthy era
witchhunts of alleged Communists during the 1950s.
In September 2002, for example, the Philadelphia-based Middle East Forum, a pro-
Israel research and policy group, launched a web site (www.campuswatch.org) to monitor
what it regards as biased scholarship and teaching at some of the most prestigious US and
Canadian universities. It urged (and keeps urging) students to monitor their professors and
report alleged cases of bias so that dossiers could be built up. Six months later, the site already
had files on 35 institutions. When it went online, however, nearly 100 outraged professors
asked to be added to the list to protest against the intellectual intimidation. 709
Otherwise, unlike the 1960s reactions to such unfreedoms and human rights abuses,
the present persecution of people in the USA who are critical of Israel has elicited only
marginal resistance from the general public, including the civil rights and civil liberties
groups, as well as the media. In some cases, US academics and media professionals critical of
Israel have lost their jobs due to such campaigns. Ellen Schrecker, a courageous critic of the
new thought-police even considers the current witchhunt of academics critical of Israel in the
USA as worse than McCarthyism since grounds for ostracizing and firing professors are now
being sought in the classroom, in that supposed haven of academic freedom, and in the
curriculum, whereas the 1950s Communist-haters only sought and produced evidence against
academics in the extracurricular spheres. 710
Elsewhere in the world similar events take place. A Jewish critic of Israel in Australia
had to experience this as calls circulated to stop the publication of his book on the conflict
before it was due to be published by a university press. 711
This, then, is how the wide concept of hasbara, Israeli propaganda, works, and why, as
Said indicated, it costs hundreds of millions of dollars to practice, i.e. why it is, perhaps, the
708 Ackerman, G.: Israel Freezes out BBC over “Biased” Reporting, 2003; Sadeh: Boycotting the Beeb, 2003;
Bathish et al. 2004. On my own experience, see Preface, above.
709 Elsner: U.S. Mideast Academics Fight Charges of Bias, 2003; Beinin: Wise Words on Deaf Ears, 2003: 51-
59. See also Campus Watch: Monitoring Middle East Studies on Campus, no date; Loewenstein: Hanan Ashrawi
and the Price of Dissent, 2003; Fisk: When Did ‘Arab’ Become a Dirty Word? 2003; Khleif: Distortion of
“Islam” and “Muslims” in American Academic Discourse: Some Observations on the Sociology of Vested
Enmity, 1998: 279-292. In 2004, an even more rabidly Zionist copy of Campus Watch opened in Israel, Israel
Academia Monitor, a blunt thought-police device, which apparently equates criticism of Israel with antisemitism
and terrorism. See Gordon: Academic Witch-Hunt in Israel, 2005. On the support for intimidations and
threats against academics by the mass media, especially the New York Times, see Cole: New York Times
Supports McCarthyite Witch Hunt, 2005; Herman: The New York Times Supports Thought Control: The
Massad Case, 2005.
710 Schrecker: Worse than McCarthy, 2006: Page B20; Herman, November 25, 2002. Schrecker mentions the
Boston-based ‘David Project’, and the misnomer, ‘Students for Academic Freedom’, among the leaders in the
quest for an American academia void of criticism of Israel. See also ProFusion: Basic Facts of the Academic
Freedom Violation at Roosevelt University, 2006; Mearsheimer & Walt 2006: 20-30; Solomon, Norman: The
Lobby and the Bulldozer: Mearsheimer, Walt and Corrie, Truthout, April 13, 2006; Findley: They Dare to Speak
Out: People and Institutions Confront Israel’s Lobby, 3 2003
711 Loewenstein: Stop the Press! Attempts to Squash my Book on Israel/Palestine, 2005