Fateful Triangle

Israel and Palestine: Historical Backgrounds2465.3 The Attack on Palestinian CultureThroughout this period, the Arab intelligentsia have been a particulartarget of attack, in accordance with “the clear plan of Sharon to driveout and destroy any sign or element with an Arab national character, tobring about full Israeli control in the territories.” 122 Bir Zeit university inthe West Bank has been one of the favorite targets, with “night raids onwomen’s and men’s dormitories, and on student and facultyapartments,” disruption of classes by military checkpoints, confiscationof students’ ID cards making it illegal for them to travel, and in general,“daily humiliation inflicted on students [which] placed them underpsychological pressure that made the normal functioning of theUniversity difficult” 123 —an understatement, as more detailed reportingshows.More recently, much of the foreign faculty has been expelled forrefusing to sign a statement that they will not offer support for the PLO(as does the overwhelming majority of the West Bank population), elicitinga protest from the State Department. 124 Secretary of State GeorgeShultz condemned the Israeli loyalty oath as “an abridgment ofacademic freedom” and as “totally unnecessary” for Israel’s security, aclear infringement “of freedom, freedom of thought,” and called upon“people in the intellectual community particularly…to speak up” inprotest. That American intellectuals should suddenly become exercisedover violations of academic freedom under Israeli occupation seemsunlikely, given their dismal record of “support for Israel.” There was,however, a statement of protest by two hundred Israeli academics,organized before the Shultz statement. 125 The expulsion of foreignfaculty (by November, 22 had been expelled, including the President ofal-Najah University in Nablus, and many more had been banned fromClassics in Politics: The Fateful TriangleNoam Chomsky