28 mars 2024

Dartmouth appointed a virulently anti-Israel prof

Dartmouth thinks it’s a good idea to appoint a virulently anti-Israel prof as Dean of the Faculty

 

Now, some at Dartmouth are speaking out against promoting Prof. Bruce Duthu to such a prestigious position

Duthu checks all the right boxes for diversity and inclusion. He comes from one of those “very special” departments, Native American Studies, where there is little critical peer review and leftist ideology rules the roost. It brooks no dissent among students or faculty. To dissent from the approved view is to side with the oppressors, the white supremacists, the colonialists, the capitalists, and so on. It was at such at department (at U Colorado-Boulder) where Ward Churchill spewed his venom until the wider world discovered him and his faux scholarship.

Departments like Native American studies, Gender Studies, and Black Studies are all firmly on the left–the very far left.

They uniformly loath Israel, praise the Palestinians, say nothing about terror attacks, and maintain a discreet silence about the vast violations of human rights across the Muslim world. If they need ideological support, the centers for Middle East Studies are always on campus to provide it.

It is no surprise that Duthu thrived in such a hot-house and did his best to raise the temperature. He

coauthored a statement in support of the boycott of Israeli academic institutions as follows: “The NAISA Council encourages NAISA members to boycott Israeli academic institutions because they are implicated with the Israeli state and we wish to place pressure on that state to change its policies.”

–Dartmouth Prof. Alan Gustman, a senior economist, writing publicly to denounce Duthu’s elevation to Dean of the Faculty

The noxious statement Duthu authored is available online, here (scroll down to the bottom of their web page).

What Duthu and his association want to do called BDS, or Boycott, Divest, Sanction all Israel institutions, including its universities and their students and faculty. The BDS movement wants sanctions imposed on Israel, wherever possible, and divestment from any investments there. They do not advocate these policies against any other country in the world, as far as I know. Just Israel, which they consider uniquely evil.

As Prof. Gustman explains:

In advocating the boycott of Israeli academic institutions, BDS is anti-Semitic. The chant of the BDS movement, from the river to the sea, is anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, and profoundly anti- Jewish. It refers to sweeping the Jews out of Israel. . . .

This movement has become a cover for many anti-Semites who like nothing better than to once again be free to exercise their prejudices. It also is important to understand, especially when evaluating the significance of appointing a BDS advocate as the Dean of the Faculty, that BDS is not just a statement of beliefs or a philosophical movement: it is a statement of action. –Alan Gustman

Gustman is not making any accusation about Duthu personally. He says so clearly in his public letter.  What matters is his prominent public advocacy of BDS:

What is relevant here is that he is supporting a movement that is substantially anti-Semitic, and that he has taken a position with regard to the BDS movement that is in opposition to the position and responsibilities he will have as Dean of the Faculty. Most importantly, he has not publicly renounced his public NAISI statement on the BDS movement. –Alan Gustman

If this problem were limited to Dartmouth, it might not be worthy of national attention. Alas, it is part of a long-term, international movement by the left and their Palestinian allies to delegitimate and isolate Israel. In their dream world, Israel would be swept away and Palestine would occupy the entire land “from the Jordan River to the (Mediterranean) Sea.”

And then, as we know from experience across the region, peace, love, friendship, human rights, and religious toleration would take root and cover the land.

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You can read more about the Duthu case at

On a personal note . . . the outgoing Dean of the Faculty, Michael Mastanduno, is a truly outstanding scholar and a model of intellectual probity. I know him and hold him in the highest regard.

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Thanks to Richard Baehr, Paul Miller, and Haym Salomon Center for letting me know about his Dartmouth case.

 

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