Deny El-Haj Tenure Petition Breaks 2,200

Deny El-Haj Tenure Petition Breaks 2,200

More than 2,2000 people have signed a petition to stop Nadia Abu El Haj from getting tenure at Barnard College. The petition was launched because all other efforts to reach the Barnard administration were ignored. Early on, I wrote to President Judith Shapiro that, 'As a Jew, as an American, as an Israeli, as a Barnard graduate, and as someone who has read her book, I can only pray that Abu El-Haj will not be allowed to represent Barnard or given the honor of educating future Barnard graduates.' Her response was to imply that I was an outsider and that the process should be left to the Barnard tenure committee, which consisted of two art history professors, a biologist and two historians...one who specializes in early American history and the other in medieval intellectual history; economic history; history of science."

The petition is about doing what is right - it isn't about the numbers. It's about academic standards and integrity. Abu El Haj's book, the single credential on which her tenure is based, is filled with lies, twisted truths, absurd assumptions, and characterized by a tremendous ability to ignore proper research and evidence in order to get her political agenda across. This is all about Barnard's future and what it will mean to the next generation. The petition is yet another way to show Columbia and Barnard that there is massive support AGAINST Nadia Abu El Haj. Meanwhile, a petition in favor of El Haj's tenure continues to lag behind by several hundred...but again, it isn't about the numbers - it's about the incredible embarrassment Columbia and Barnard should feel at considering tenure for a candidate so lacking in credibility and credentials. Even more interesting is to read the names of those who support Nadia Abu El-Haj's tenure request. Many comments on the pro-El Haj site are filled with hatred, anti-Jewish and anti-Israel messages.

If you haven't signed the correct petition yet, you can find it at:

http://www.petitiononline.com/barnard/

This is a petition to reaffirm scholarly integrity, not limit anyone's freedom of speech. We firmly believe that El Haj has the right to speak anywhere she wants, but our alma mater shouldn't have to suffer because she is unable to speak, write, or research the TRUE facts on the ground.

Note that while the vast majority of those who signed the DENY EL HAJ TENURE petition are Barnard and Columbia graduates, this is not a prerequisite. At the same time, it is worth noting that the VAST MAJORITY who signed the petition in favor of El Haj are indeed the very outsiders that Barnard President Judith Shapiro said shouldn't have an impact on the decision making process. We hope that Barnard's president will take the time to read the petition (especially given her admission well into the tenure process that she still hadn't even read El Haj's book in its entirety).

Also of note is a new website that was launched by members of the "Deny Nadia Abu El Haj Tenure" Committee ( http://www.nadiaabuelhaj.com/ ).

Comments on the Petition from Barnard/Columbia Graduates and Others:

• I am writing anonymously for obvious reasons. The situation at Columbia is very bad. Jews can major in MELAC as long as they are willing to demonize Israel. Or to keep our mouths shut and write term papers on topics we choose very, very discretely to get a good grade without lying, that is , without doing what our professors teach and slandering Israel, slandering the Jews, or slandering the United States. Not simple. On exams, you sometimes just have to lie (i.e. write what the professor wants to hear.) - Current Columbia College Undergraduate - MELAC major.
• I have a Ph.D in Middle East Languages and Cultures and Islamic Law, Columbia, 1971. This is not in the exalted traditions of Profs. Joseph Schacht, John Badeau, J. C. Hurwitz, Gershon Cohen, et. al. It makes a mockery of the work and tradition of all these emminent forbears and should be denied. (Columbia graduate)
• If this woman doesn't like Jews, she has that right. She does not have the right to lie about the archaeological data.
• Sorry I did not hear about this earlier (8/07); believe she was hired. This needs to be addressed in the alumnae magazine. Consult http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/3505 for dissection of Abu El Haj's twisted writings, also Full search for 58 other probing analyses. Shame on Barnard! (Barnard/Columbia graduate)
• No student of mine would have been permitted to misuse evidence in this way. I taught at a school with standards. (Teacher's College  at Columbia University
• What this tenure process has already accomplished - it is turning Barnard and Columbia's reputation for academic standards and excellence...into a joke. (Columbia graduate)
• Abu El-Haj's lack of professionalism and integrity, coupled with her arrogance is astonishing. She asserts that the ancient Hebrew kingdoms are not historical realities but political fabrications, "a tale best understood as the modern nation's 'origin myth'... transported into the realm of history." p. 104
• Tenure is not a license to publish nonsense.
• Jerusalem in the time of Jesus was not Jewish?! What nonsense
• She has lied, distorted and insulted Jewish history.
• Her work is like Holocaust denial. She would be a good colleague of David Irving in Ahmadinejad University, not Columbia.
• I wrote my thesis on ancient Israel and I know this book is a lie.
• putting opinion in with history (might have been jews....because they were present) is putting opinions in with things that happened too long ago to give an opinion now. Statistics, this is an opinion. As a professor she should know this. Her opinion is bias. She should not be given tenure with such obvious political anti-semitic opinions.
• I can't believe that a school with a reputation for excellence such as Barnard would lower itself to accept such standards. I have read Abu El-Haj's book and was able to identify many factual errors and points of faulty logic.
• The anti-Israel bias in this book is shocking. (Columbia graduate)
• I am so disappointed with the hate preachers such as the late Said, Massad and now Abu El Haj, that I recommend to parents/grandparents not to send their children to Columbia to study in the Liberal Arts fields. This hate mongering has been going on for years - such "teachers" should be fired, not given tenure. (Columbia graduate)
• Let's see if Columbia University has the courage to stand up for something they so rarely stand up for - Educated discussion on the Middle East. (Columbia graduate)
• This professor and her book are a disgrace to the University.
• Tenure should not reward such dishonest work.
• Proud that NYU has not sunk this low.
• Awarding El-Haj tenure will set a disastrous precedent and lead to further degradation of academic standards.
• Awarding tenure based on rabid anti-semitism and hatred alone will set a disturbing precedence. Shame on Columbia, shame on anyone that finds this acceptable.
• It's disgraceful that she falsely accuses the Israelis of destroying artifacts on the Temple Mount. In fact, in the last few years, the Muslim Waqf has destroyed Jewish artifacts from the Temple , while expanding their mosque in Solomon's Stables.
• I took a look at the opposition petition. A typical comment, #446 from one "Ramsis Lutfy - Human being-citizen of the world" goes after the "the Zionist lobby in the US for their fiendish behavior and antihuman tactics."
• Such authorship is outrageous and does not belong at such a prestigious university.
• Academia cannot be allowed to fall to racist sloganeering. I looked at the "counter-petition". Several signers made references to a "Zionist lobby." I am even more convinced now of the danger of anti-Semites using academia for racial propaganda. (Columbia graduate)
• Anthropology is supposed to be a quest for knowledge, not an exercise in agitprop. (from a PhD in Anthropology)