148 professors sign letter objecting to New York Times Nazi ad, but paper refuses to run it

Ali Abunimah Lobby Watch 30 April 2012

One hundred and forty-eight US college professors signed a letter objecting to an advertisement in The New York Times by notorious racist David Horowitz naming indvidual faculty members at several US colleges and accusing them of inciting murder of Jewish children, and likening the movement to boycott Israel (BDS) to Nazism.

The Times, however, failed to print it. Here is the letter and the full list of signatories:

Faculty letter to The New York Times:

To the Editor:

We are professors who teach in universities across this country. We are appalled at the advertisement by the David Horowitz Freedom Center (Op-Ed page, April 24, 2012) which compares the international movement for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel (BDS) to the Holocaust and ancient blood libels. It also asks that professors who support it be “publicly shamed and condemned.” It grossly distorts the statements of such professors, which are publicly available online and can be verified.

The Horowitz Center’s advertisement seeks to shut down informed debate. Free speech and thought was a crucial right at stake in 1930s Germany and it remains so today. The discussion that took place at the University of Pennsylvania did not use any objectionable language, and included many Jewish participants, including rabbis.

Your readers can hear for themselves what was said at www.PennBDS.org. It is Horowitz who uses the language of hatred and bigotry. Even those of us who do not support BDS are alarmed at your carrying an advertisement that misinforms and names individuals who do not have the money that Horowtiz has to defend themselves through his chosen medium.

We hope you will publish this letter to make this point.

  1. Ania Loomba, University of Pennsylvania
  2. Ajay Skaria, University of Minnesota
  3. Amy Lang, Syracuse University
  4. Andreas Huyssen, Columbia University
  5. Anjali Arondekar, University of California, Santa Cruz
  6. Ann Pellegrini, NYU
  7. Antonio Feros, University of Pennsylvania
  8. Boris Gasparov, Columbia University
  9. Brian Boyd, Columbia University
  10. Bruce Robbins, Columbia University
  11. Cesare Cesarino, University of Minnesota
  12. Charles Bernstein, University of Pennsylvania
  13. Crystal Bartolovich, Syracuse University
  14. Daniel Richter, University of Pennsylvania
  15. David Delgado Shorter, UCLA
  16. David Eng, University of Pennsylvania
  17. David Kazanjian University of Pennsylvania
  18. David Lloyd, University of Southern California
  19. David Pellow, University of Minnesota
  20. David Shorter, UCLA
  21. Elizabeth Bernstein, Columbia University
  22. Ellen Kennedy, University of Pennsylvania
  23. Farah Godrej, University of California, Riverside
  24. Gary Fields, University of California, San Diego
  25. Gillian Hart, University of California, Berkeley
  26. Heather Love, University of Pennsylvania
  27. Homay King, Bryn Mawr College
  28. Howard Winant, University of California, Santa Barbara
  29. Indrani Chatterjee, Rutgers University
  30. James English, University of Pennsylvania
  31. James Schamus, Columbia University
  32. Jasbir Puar, Rutgers University
  33. Jean Howard, Columbia University
  34. Jean Lave, University of California, Berkeley
  35. Jennifer Wenzel, University of Michigan
  36. Jigna Desai, University of Minnesota
  37. Jim Holstun, SUNY, Buffalo
  38. Joel Beinin, Stanford University
  39. Joel Wainwright, Ohio State University
  40. John Mowitt, University of Minnesota
  41. Joseph Slaughter, Cornell University
  42. Josephine Park, University of Pennsylvania
  43. Josie Saldaña, NYU
  44. Judith Frank, Amherst College
  45. Judith Surkis, Columbia University and the Institute for Advanced Study
  46. Kaja Silverman, University of Pennsylvania
  47. Katherine Franke, Columbia Law School
  48. Kathleen A. McHugh, UCLA
  49. Kathy Peiss, University of Pennsylvania
  50. Keya Ganguly University of Minnesota
  51. Lucy San Pablo Burns, UCLA
  52. Manan Desai, Syracuse University
  53. Margo Todd, University of Pennsylvania
  54. Marianne Hirsch, Columbia University
  55. Mark Levine, University of California, Irvine
  56. Max Cavitch, University of Pennsylvania
  57. Mayanthi L. Fernando, University of California, Santa Cruz
  58. Melissa Sanchez, University of Pennsylvania
  59. Michael Gamer, University of Pennsylvania
  60. Michael Rothberg, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  61. Michelle Clayton, UCLA
  62. Najam Haider, Barnard College
  63. Nancy Bentley , University of Pennsylvania
  64. Natalie Melas, Cornell University
  65. Nguyen-vo Thu-huong, UCLA
  66. Nikhil Pal Singh, NYU
  67. Page Fortna, Columbia University
  68. Patricia Morton, University of California, Riverside
  69. Persis Karim, San Jose State University
  70. Piya Chatterjee, University of California, Riverside.
  71. Rabab Ibrahim Abdulhadi, San Francisco State University
  72. Raka Ray , University of California, Berkeley
  73. Saadia Toor, City University of New York
  74. Saba Mahmood, University of California, Berkeley
  75. Sabina Sawhney, Hofstra University
  76. Sheldon Pollock, Columbia University
  77. Shelley Feldman, Cornell University
  78. Shu-mei Shih, UCLA
  79. Simona Sawhney , University of Minnesota
  80. Steve Hahn, University of Pennsylvania
  81. Susan Edmunds, Syracuse University
  82. Suvir Kaul, University of Pennsylvania
  83. Taher Herzallah, University of California, Riverside
  84. Tariq Thachil, Yale University
  85. Timothy Brennan, University of Minnesota
  86. Toni Bowers, University of Pennsylvania
  87. Toorjo Ghose, University of Pennsylvania
  88. Tsitsi Jaji, University of Pennsylvania
  89. Vijay Prashad, Trinity College
  90. Viranjini Munasinghe, Cornell University
  91. Warren Breckman, University of Pennsylvania
  92. Zachary Lesser, University of Pennsylvania
  93. Rei Terada, UC Irvine
  94. Ravi Palat, Binghamton University
  95. Irma T. Elo, University of Pennsylvania
  96. Gregory Mann, Columbia University
  97. Qadri Ismail, Univerisity of Minnesota
  98. Nik Heynen, University of Georgia
  99. Shefali Chandra, Washington University St. Louis
  100. Jason McGrath, University of Minnesota
  101. Ismail Poonawala, UCLA
  102. Zohreh Sullivan, UIUC
  103. Richard Dienst, Rutgers University
  104. Charles E. Butterworth, University of Maryland
  105. Gabriel Piterberg, Professor of History, UCLA
  106. Jennifer Olmsted, Drew University
  107. Katherine C. King, University of California at Los Angeles
  108. Dina Rizk Khoury, George Washington University
  109. Sondra Hale, Los Angeles (UCLA)
  110. Caren Kaplan, Professor, UC Davis
  111. Carole S. Vance, Columbia University
  112. Karen Brodkin, Professor Emerita, UCLA
  113. Lee Zimmerman, Hofstra University
  114. Louise Fortmann, UC Berkeley
  115. David Klein, California State University, Northridge
  116. Barrie Thorne, University of California, Berkeley
  117. Ahlam Muhtaseb, California State University, San Bernardino
  118. Neil Smith, CUNY
  119. Carole H. Browner, UCLA
  120. Kamala Visweswaran, University of Texas
  121. Guy Pollio, Nassau Community College
  122. Mona Mehdy, Univ of Texas at Austin
  123. Snehal Shingavi, University of Texas, Austin
  124. Tim Corrigan, University of Pennsylvania
  125. Paul Saint-Amour, University of Pennsylvania
  126. Michael Goldman, University of Minnesota
  127. Huma Dar, UC Berkeley
  128. Zachary Lockman, New York University
  129. Rebecca L. Stein, Duke University
  130. Dohra Ahmad, St. John’s University
  131. Richard Falk, UCSB
  132. Sondra Hale, UCLA
  133. Gayatri Gopinath, NYU
  134. Shane Minkin, Swarthmore College
  135. Lisa Duggan, NYU
  136. Hatem Bazian, UC Berkeley
  137. Jed Esty , University of Pennsylvania
  138. Christopher L. Chiappari, St. Olaf College
  139. Aniruddha Das, Columbia University
  140. Thomas Pepper, University of Minnesota
  141. Helen Scott, University of Vermont
  142. Gayatri Chakravoty Spivak, Columbia University
  143. Lisa Hajjar UCSB
  144. Stephanie McCurry , University of Pennsylvania
  145. S. Shankar, University of Hawai’i at Manoa
  146. Cindi Katz, CUNY.
  147. Nada Elia, Antioch University – Seattle
  148. Grace Kao, University of Pennsylvania

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Comments

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David Shorter replied on

This should be a moment that every signer on here cancels all subscriptions (digital and hard copy) this week, on the phone, explaining why. They now know NYT's editorial loyalties.

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PAA replied on

totally agree with David. Any reason not to send the letter broadly to the national press or at least the press in each of the localities of those 'named' in the ad?

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Martin Riley replied on

The way things are going we will all be anti Semites soon. Israel is sowing its own seeds. But the world will come to bear on them soon.
We are sick of their Holocaust rants, it was sixty years ago. America has killed more people since then and the uk had queen Victoria who was the biggest mass murdered in history!! I have Irish blood can you tell!

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Anne Norton replied on

There have been other letters censored as well. I sent a similar letter to the New York Times before this one went off and I know of others who've done the same. I also wrote the public letter. There has been no response, though they acknowledge receiving the letters. This is silencing indeed.

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Brad Davis replied on

I think the New York Times should publish this letter, and I'm going to cancel my digital (only) subscription over their decision not to, but this isn't 'silencing'. They're not preventing anyone else from publishing this letter. It's just (very) poor editorial policy. People should post links to this site on Facebook and Twitter and embarass NYT into changing their editorial policies. They are a private company, they're allowed to make decisions for themselves about what they will and will not publish. Likewise, the rest of us are allowed to make decisions about what we will and won't read.

Ali Abunimah

Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of The Battle for Justice in Palestine, now out from Haymarket Books.

Also wrote One Country: A Bold-Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. Opinions are mine alone.