Social Justice Advocates vs. Israel
College and university professors seem to be a very social-justice-conscious bunch. 900 of them, from over 150 college campuses, signed a petition urging the US to abandon Israel as an ally because of its human rights abuses, for example.
But Prof. Fred Gottheil decided to try an experiment.
"Would these same 900 sign onto a statement expressing concern about human rights violations in the Muslim Middle East, such as honor killing, wife beating, female genital mutilation, and violence against gays and lesbians?" he wondered. "I felt it was worth a try."
The results? "Almost non existent," he told Frontpage editor Jamie Glazov. Only 27 of the 675 "self-described social-justice seeking academics" agreed to sign Gottheil’s Statement of Concern – less than 5 percent of the total who had publicly called for the censure of Israel for human rights violations.
Politics trumps social justice for this paragon of the Left; the academic. I would really like to know how deep this penetrates other areas of the Left. How about liberal churches that has divested themselves from Israel; do they also actively divest themselves from Islamic countries for the same reasons?
Filed under: Christianity • Culture • Israel • Middle East • Religion
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Sorry to’ve missed you over here, Doug… I’m not sure how that happened… Even though you’re personally not much of a petition signer, perhaps you’ll allow your readers the opportunity to be petition signers, themselves:
Dr. Gottheil’s Statement of Concern is now posted at PetitionsOnline.com, and is accepting signatures from anyone willing to speak out against human rights abuses in the Middle East. As you’re obviously interested in the story, I urge you to step up and sign it: Support Regarding Discrimination in the Middle East against Women, Gays, and Lesbians Petition
Thanks for reading, and I look forward to your support.
As I mentioned in my comment on your post, the point that Gottheil was making, and was made rather well, is not changed by my signing or not signing it myself, regardless of its merits. It does expose the Israel-bias among academia.
We disagree. (I explained why I believe you’re wrong in my reply comment–and I’m currently working on a full post wrap-up of my experiences and thoughts on this whole Gottheil bruhaha, as well), but thanks for adding the comment, regardless, and I hope there’ll be a reader or two of yours who chooses to follow the link and sign the Statement, no matter which of us they otherwise agree with.
Thanks for stopping by my place, and thanks again for the space on yours…