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Zionist group challenges essay
by Miranda Neubauer
Senior Writer
News | 3/13/07
Posted online at 10:51 PM EST on 3/12/07
/ Last updated at 5:48 AM EST on 3/12/07
The leader of a national Zionist organization has criticized the University over an essay written by a senior fellow at the Crown Center for Middle East Studies.
The essay, penned by senior fellow Khalil Shikaki and published by the center, appears to have gone mostly unnoticed on campus.
But Morton Klein, the president of the Zionist Organization of America, seized upon the essay as further proof that donors should reconsider their financial support for the University. Referring to Shikaki's call for the release of former Fatah party leader Marwan Barghouti-who in 2004 was convicted of murder in Israel-Klein wrote in a press release last month that it "simply reinforces ZOA's outstanding call that donors to Brandeis should reconsider giving money" to the University.
Shikaki could not be reached for comment, but Crown Center director Shai Feldman, defended the essay, "With Hamas in Power: Impact of Palestinian Domestic Developments on Options for the Peace Process," in which Shikaki argues in favor of increased American and Israeli engagement with the radical Hamas party in order to encourage law and order in the Middle East.
In the essay, Shikaki called for Barghouti's release in an effort to overcome divisions within the moderate Fatah group.
Calling Barghouti "a Palestinian Arab murderer of Jews," Klein stated "it is clear that Brandeis University is failing to address the widespread concerns about the direction its Crown Center has taken."
It is not the first time Klein and the right-leaning ZOA have criticized Brandeis, or even Shikaki, in recent years. The New York Sun reported in Jan. 2006 that Shikaki has alleged ties to a Palestinian terrorist group-charges he has denied-and Klein called on donors to boycott the University. He and the ZOA have previously criticized the University for its partnership with a Palestinian university, as well as its decision to bestow an honorary degree last year on Tony Kushner, a playwright who Klein said has made anti-Israel remarks.
The essay, penned by senior fellow Khalil Shikaki and published by the center, appears to have gone mostly unnoticed on campus.
But Morton Klein, the president of the Zionist Organization of America, seized upon the essay as further proof that donors should reconsider their financial support for the University. Referring to Shikaki's call for the release of former Fatah party leader Marwan Barghouti-who in 2004 was convicted of murder in Israel-Klein wrote in a press release last month that it "simply reinforces ZOA's outstanding call that donors to Brandeis should reconsider giving money" to the University.
Shikaki could not be reached for comment, but Crown Center director Shai Feldman, defended the essay, "With Hamas in Power: Impact of Palestinian Domestic Developments on Options for the Peace Process," in which Shikaki argues in favor of increased American and Israeli engagement with the radical Hamas party in order to encourage law and order in the Middle East.
In the essay, Shikaki called for Barghouti's release in an effort to overcome divisions within the moderate Fatah group.
Calling Barghouti "a Palestinian Arab murderer of Jews," Klein stated "it is clear that Brandeis University is failing to address the widespread concerns about the direction its Crown Center has taken."
It is not the first time Klein and the right-leaning ZOA have criticized Brandeis, or even Shikaki, in recent years. The New York Sun reported in Jan. 2006 that Shikaki has alleged ties to a Palestinian terrorist group-charges he has denied-and Klein called on donors to boycott the University. He and the ZOA have previously criticized the University for its partnership with a Palestinian university, as well as its decision to bestow an honorary degree last year on Tony Kushner, a playwright who Klein said has made anti-Israel remarks.
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Ephraim
posted 3/15/07 @ 4:26 PM EST
Dear Justice:
My son is a Brandeis alumnus, but I must register my profound and bitter disappointment at the direction Brandeis has taken.
How can a supposedly Jewish university continue to employ a man who advocates coming to terms with a terrorist organization that is dedicated to the destruction of Israel? How can releasing Marwan Barghouti, who is guilty of murdering Jews as part of a terrorist campaign to destroy Israel, strengthen the "moderates"? The mind boggles. (Continued…)
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