Philip Weiss
Mondoweiss / July 9, 2024
Middle East scholars see anti-Palestinian bigotry as far more of a problem on campuses than antisemitism. And they say administrations are wildly out of touch with student and faculty sentiment on protests of the war.
Seventy-five percent of Middle East scholars say that Israel is carrying out genocide or war crimes “akin to genocide” in Gaza, but overwhelmingly they are afraid to express their views because of the consequences on campus.
A fresh survey of Middle East scholars conducted by the Brookings Institution a month ago reveals a starkly polarized campus environment. Four out of five Middle East scholars in the U.S. (83 percent) say they censor themselves when speaking about the conflict, and the self-censorship is overwhelmingly of criticism of Israel. 11 percent say they are censoring criticism of Palestinians.
Why do they bite their tongues? Roughly half say they fear discipline by their administrations, or fear actions by outside “advocacy” groups, or fear offending students or upsetting campus culture.
In a related development, news broke yesterday that Columbia University suspended three deans for text messages about campus protests that the administration deemed to be “antisemitic”– apparently because they referred to the wealth of supporters of Israel.
The scholars in the Brookings Survey say that school administrations are wildly out of touch with their faculty and students on the Palestine question. The administrations oppose the campus encampment protests of the war, 61 percent to 4 in favor, in the scholars’ view. While it is the opposite with others on campus: students favor the encampments by 51 to 8 percent and faculty by 38 to 7 percent.
Three of four Middle East scholars see Israel as committing a “genocide” or “war crimes akin to genocide”
The scholars see a similar imbalance in concerns about antisemitism and Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian feeling. While 50 percent of the scholars say that antisemitism is prevalent on the campus even somewhat, over 79 percent say that anti-Palestinian prejudice is evident. And 73 percent see Islamophobia. A similar number –72 percent –see anti-Israeli feeling on campus.
The survey of 758 scholars was conducted in May and June. It was led by Shibley Telhami and Marc Lynch.
The respondents are left leaning (83 percent support the encampment protests, and 83 percent support the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions in whole or in part).
Their views on Middle east are very pessimistic. 57 percent of the scholars say that Israel’s primary objective of the war is “making Gaza uninhabitable in order to force Palestinian removal,” while zero percent see the goal to be advancing the two-state solution. Nearly three of four scholars say the war “is likely to lead to new large-scale, long-term displacement of Palestinians from Gaza and/or the West Bank.” (University of Chicago Professor John Mearsheimer expressed this view lately in a video seen 3.4 million times; he said he has concluded that Israel is practicing a “genocide” with the aim of “ethnically cleansing” Gaza).
The scholars are also very cynical about the Biden administration’s policy. By 80 or more percent they say that Biden has had a “negative” impact on U.S. standing in the world, on U.S. interests in the Middle East, and on the goal of advancing peace between Israel and Palestine.
They say that two state solution is either impossible or not possible in the next ten years (total of 86 percent). Two thirds say the current reality in Israel and Palestine is one-state with apartheid, while 23 percent say Israel is engaged in “semi-permanent occupation” of Gaza and the West Bank.
The investigators point out that the genocide view of the scholars reflects public opinion. “While these views may seem surprising, they are not markedly different from the views of some segments of the American public, especially Democrats, with one recent poll showing a majority of Democrats saying Israeli actions amounted to genocide.”
Philip Weiss is senior editor of Mondoweiss.net and founded the site in 2005-2006
