Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
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by Steven Stotsky
officials described as "propaganda" and "practically proselytizing." The Notebook included such
bizarre assertions as the claim Muslims discovered America before Columbus and Iroquois Indian
chiefs had Muslim names. Later editions of The Notebook removed some of the absurd claims, but
its fundamental flaws remain.
However, the criticism from wary Massachusetts education officials did not deter the Center for
Middle Eastern Studies from pursuing its partisan agenda. The Outreach Center plays a crucial
role. Although its programs deal with many aspects of the Middle East and has recently focused on
the unrest in Egypt, its handling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict stands out as an example of
political bias tainting educational training.
Anti-Israel Activities of Its Director
Each year the Center runs several multi-day workshops drawing in teachers and students from
regional school systems. Its director, Paul Beran, also conducts seminars at both secondary and
middle schools. The workshops and seminars provide attendees with recommended reading lists,
films and curricular materials. Its association with Harvard University gives the Center the
imprimatur of reputable scholarship. In reality, the Center staff and its associates are not
distinguished as scholars but some have burnished their credentials as anti-Israel scribes and
activists.
For instance, Director Beran promotes the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign
against Israel. At a Teach-In and Organizing Conference on Dec. 11,
2005 at Harvard, Beran discussed the success of BDS within the
Presbyterian Church - PC (USA) - and offered his vision of the BDS
movement. Beran advocated "constructing long-term networks of broad
based support for action." He boasted of successfully forming a
coalition with the radical anti-Israel group, Jewish Voice for Peace. In
this way, Beran stated, "it helped the PC (USA) to deal more forcefully
with the criticism it has and continues to receive from Zionist groups
and their ilk."
After the BDS movement failed to gain passage of a divestment resolution in the Boston suburb of
Somerville, Beran published a letter in Lebanon's Daily Star newspaper and on a blog
called Presbyterians for Justice on Feb. 6, 2006 accusing Israel's supporters of using threats and
influence peddling. Charging that "the town mayor, the pension-fund manager and even elected
state representatives were all recruited by pro-Israel groups to urge the council to vote no,'" Beran
opined, "until now, those who acted as if Israel is always right enjoyed a near monopoly over U.S.
attitudes." He concluded by asserting, "The first step for divestment campaigns is to have a broad
base of cross-community support on which to fall back when the Zionist backlash against the
campaigns commences."
In a letter, still available on the internet, to then acting Harvard President Derek Bok protesting the
enrollment of former Israeli Chief of Staff Dan Halutz into a Harvard Business School course in
2007, Beran leveled defamatory accusations. He wrote, "Mr. Halutz is a noted war criminal,
responsible for the deaths of over 1000 Lebanese civilians during the Lebanon-Israel War of the
Summer of 2006." In fact, Halutz has not been tried or found guilty of any war crimes. This is the
rhetoric of an extreme detractor, not the measured words of an objective educator.
Also indicative of Beran's extreme views was a speech to parishioners at the Clarendon
Presbyterian Church in Somerville. He compared "the military occupation of Israel over the West
Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem ... to the Roman occupation of Jews nearly 2000 years ago,"
and asked "How would Joseph and Mary get to Bethlehem with the now 25 foot high Separation
Wall in their way?"
Beran has also appeared with his wife Hilary Rantisi, who serves as director of the Middle East
Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Rantisi has been active with Sabeel
Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, a radical Palestinian Christian group that uses religious
imagery to demonize Jews and sponsors gatherings of anti-Israel figures, some of whom compare
Israelis to Nazis. At an event sponsored by Friends of Sabeel at the First Church in Salem on May
7, 2005, Beran described the suffering of Palestinian Arab refugees. When queried about Jewish
refugees from Arab lands, he incorrectly explained, "Yes, there were Jewish refugees, but they
weren't on the same scale." Yet the number of Jewish refugees from Arab and Muslim states
exceeded the number of Palestinian refugees.
Promotion of Anti-Israel Sources for Recommended Reading and Film Viewing
A review of the resources favored by the Center's workshops and courses reveals pervasive bias.
The syllabus for Introduction to Middle East politics includes a reading list prominently featuring
anti-Israel material.
There is Joe Sacco's Palestine, which contains graphic and inflammatory anti-Israel cartoons.
Deceased professor Edward Said's, Reflections on Exile and Other Essays is also featured.
In light of Said's unremitting hostility to and biased commentary on the Jewish state, one might
expect equal prominence would be given to a work by a leading Zionist thinker to provide balance.
But instead, ignoring numerous distinguished Israeli historians, the Center commends the work of
expatriate Israeli professor Ilan Pappe who has been discredited for his shoddy scholarship,
including inventing a quote he attributed to Israeli leader David Ben-Gurion calling for the removal
of Arabs from the land.
Other Israelis whose works are recommended, such as Avi Schlaim and filmmakers Yoav Shamir
and Yuli Gerstel are similarly notorious for denigrating Israel. To gauge how distorted the
perspective provided by the Center is in relying on Jewish defamers of Israel, it is important to note
that recent polls of the American Jewish community confirm that over 90 percent of Jews strongly
support Israel and reject anti-Zionist positions. Yet the recommended reading list heavily favors
anti-Zionist Jewish authors. Supporters of Israel and Zionism are nearly invisible.