Israel Matzav

Bar Ilan turns down extreme Leftist for tenure

Bar Ilan University has turned down the tenure application of Ariella Azoulay, an extreme Leftist, 'politically active' professor.

Over the past decade she has become one of Israel’s foremost cultural theorists, producing dozens of journal articles, book chapters and translations, curating a number of exhibitions, and writing several books. She has been published by such presses as MIT, Zone, Verso and Stanford. She is also the supervisor of more than ten PhD students. Just the kind of academic, in other words, that universities want on their staff.

Yet Bar-Ilan recently denied Azoulay’s bid for tenure, effectively firing her. The reasons for the decision have not been made public, but it should baffle anyone familiar with academic promotion procedures who looks at Azoulay’s CV. There is, however, another fact to be taken into account: Azoulay’s prominent political activism. One of the exhibitions she curated, for example, Act of State, included hundreds of photographs exposing the realities of four decades of occupation. The show was held at a gallery in the centre of Tel Aviv. A significant part of Azoulay’s work is critical of Israel’s human rights abuses and of Zionism. So much for the liberal idea of a neutral professional process. Bar-Ilan, it seems, could not stomach giving tenure to a vocal Zionist apostate.

It's a shame that none of Israel's other universities is likely to follow suit and throw out its 'Zionist apostates.' Especially not Ben Gurion University, which employs Neve Gordon, who authored the blog post cited above.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:24 AM