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Kathleen Alcala's avatar

Thank you for leading us through the convolutions of this story! I'm told by someone in another academic setting that the UW program's relationship with the community is unique, and it would be a shame to weaken the Ladino program.

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Linda Seltzer's avatar

The point isn't one person's opinion vs. another. It's the quality of scholarship and the difference between historical accuracy and propaganda. For example, consider the photo of children that set off a firestorm of anti-Israel sentiment. When a provocative photo like that circulates, it is the responsibility of scholars to exercise due diligence. The ADL and Reuters both reported that this photo was actually not from Gaza. It was from Syria. So this wave of anti-Israel sentiment was based on fake news, also known as disinformation. It is the responsibility of a University to counter disinformation. The department should have contacted UW's Center for an Informed Public to counter the disinformation that was spread on social media. It was incompetent scholarship for them to just ride the wave and sign the petition. That is the first violation of accuracy in scholarship. Second, there is no such country as "Israel/Palestine." Israel is a sovereign country. There is an Arab party as part of the governing coalition. There are territories governed by the PA and Gaza was taken over by Hamas. It is the responsibility of professors to teach accurate history and not propaganda. Third, Israel ceded Gaza to the PA and it became an armed camp. It was Arafat, not Israel, who said no to Bill Clinton's plan to create a Palestinian state and the two-state solution. And Arafat's "reason" leads us to the fourth point. Arafat and subsequent negotiators demanded the "right of return." But it is inaccurate and disingenuous as a matter of academic scholarship to teach material about displacement of Palestinians without also teaching the history of the displacement of Jews from Arab countries in the Middle East. In summary, this issue is one of the responsibility of professors to engage in accuracy and not fall prey to propaganda.

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