[Peace-discuss] Secondary School Teachers Barred from Learning History

[David Green]

Chronicle of Higher Education
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Columbia U. Professor, Criticized for Views on Israel,
Is Banned From
Teacher-Training Program

By BROCK READ

The New York City Department of Education will
prohibit a professor of 
Arab
studies at Columbia University from appearing in an
occasional training
program for secondary-school teachers, citing the
professor's criticism 
of
Israel.

Rashid Khalidi, director of Columbia's Middle East
Institute, had 
spoken
this month at one of a series of teacher-development
workshops, paid 
for by
the university, about Middle Eastern culture and
politics. But last 
week,
after The New York Sun published an article assailing
Mr. Khalidi's
involvement in the program, Joel I. Klein, the city's
schools 
chancellor,
announced that the professor would no longer be
allowed to participate.

"Considering his past statements, Rashid Khalidi
should not have been
included in a program that provided professional
development for DOE
teachers, and he won't be participating in the
future," Jerry Russo, 
Mr.
Klein's press secretary, wrote in an e-mail message to
the Sun.
In the past year Mr. Khalidi has participated in two
training sessions.
Neither generated any controversy.

But Columbia's Middle East Institute has come under
heavy fire from
politicians and newspapers like the Sun, which have
accused the program 
of
promoting pro-Palestinian views, disparaging Israel,
and intimidating
pro-Israel students.

Last fall Anthony Wiener, a Democratic member of
Congress who is now
running for mayor of New York, urged Columbia to fire
a colleague of 
Mr.
Khalidi's -- Joseph A. Massad, a professor of Arab
politics -- for his
purportedly heated attacks on Israel. The criticism
was alleged to have
taken place in class, where Mr. Massad was said to
have badgered 
students
(The Chronicle, November 5, 2004).

Mr. Khalidi, in an interview on Monday, criticized Mr.
Wiener and the 
Sun
for attacking his institute and the field of Arab
studies in general. 
"I
think there's a broad attack on professors of the
Middle East, and it's
based on calumnies, innuendo, and taking situations
out of context," he
said.

Mr. Khalidi also blamed the Columbia administration's
"supine" response 
to
the controversy, which, he said, has emboldened the
institute's 
critics.
In the wake of the allegations about the Middle East
Institute, the
university established a committee to look into claims
that students 
were
intimidated in class. Hundreds of people, mostly
college faculty 
members,
have signed a petition urging Lee C. Bollinger,
Columbia's president, 
to
defend Mr. Massad and to condemn the accusations
leveled at the Middle 
East
Institute.

Mr. Khalidi was among the petition's signers. "The
sooner there's an
organized response to these people who have absolutely
no scruples 
about
twisting the truth, the better," he said.

Columbia officials have not officially commented on
the city schools'
decision to ban Mr. Khalidi from the training program.
In a statement
released after the Middle East Institute came under
fire last fall, Mr.
Bollinger pledged to uphold the university's policy on
freedom of
expression but added, "We believe that the principle
of academic 
freedom is
not unlimited."