We Will Not Be Silenced: The Academic Repression of Israel's Critics

As criticism continues to mount over Israel's violation of Palestinian human rights and of international law, campaigns to silence and repress those who speak out against Israeli apartheid have grown alarmingly. College and university campuses across the United States now find themselves centre stage in this conflict over free speech: targeted by the Israel 'lobby' for the critical content of their scholarship, academics have been turned away from jobs, denied tenure and promotion, rejected for funding, and even expelled from institutions, while student groups like the 'Irvine 11' have faced harassment and sanctions. From establishment figures like Richard Falk and former US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, to professors, postgraduates and activist alumni, We Will Not Be Silenced contains thirteen testimonials from those whose struggle to defend their academic freedom has garnered widespread public and international attention.

Table of Contents:
Foreword by Cynthia McKinney Preface by Richard A. Falk Introduction: Academic Repression on US University Campuses - William I. Robinson and Maryam S. Griffin 1. The Trial of Israel’s Campus Critics - David Theo Goldberg and Saree Makdisi 2. They Shoot Tenure, Don’t They?: How I Crossed the Borders of Acceptable Academic Discourse on Holocaust Film and the Question of Palestine, and Never Came Back - Terri Ginsberg 3. My Ordeal with the Israel Lobby and the University of California - William I. Robinson 4. The Irvine 11: Power, Punishment, and Perseverance - Taher Herzallah with Osama Shabaik 5. A Problem Grows in Brooklyn - Kristofer J. Petersen-Overton 6. Speaking Truth to Power: Advocating for Justice in/for Palestine - Rabab Ibrahim Abdulhadi 7. Hanlon’s Razor Cuts Both Ways - David Delgado Shorter 8. The Intolerability of Intolerance - Persis Karim 9. Responding to Columbia University’s McCarthyism: Excerpts of Statement on March 14, 2005 to Columbia University Ad Hoc Grievance Committee - Joseph Massad 10. A Multiyear Zionist Censorship Campaign - David Klein 11. Some Thoughts on Facts, Politics, and Tenure - Nadia Abu El-Haj 12. Censoring and Sanctioning Students for Justice in Palestine - Max Geller 13. A So-called Self-hating, Anti-Semitic Jew Speaks Out - Lisa Rofel 14. Interrupted Destinies: Before and After and Forthwith - Steven Salaita List of Resources Notes on Contributors Index

About the Author :
William I. Robinson is Professor of Sociology, Global Studies, and Latin American Studies, at the University of California-Santa Barbara. Among his many award-winning books are Global Capitalism and the Crisis of Humanity (CUP, 2014) and We Will Not Be Silenced (Pluto, 2017). Maryam S. Griffin is a University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Davis. She holds a J.D. from the UCLA School of Law and a Ph.D. in Sociology from UC Santa Barbara. She is a co-editor of We Will Not Be Silenced (Pluto, 2017). Cynthia McKinney served six terms in the United States Congress between 1993-2007, as the first black woman to represent the state of Georgia in the House of Representatives. Since leaving Congress she has been a tireless champion of numerous peace and social justice struggles around the world. She is a contributor to We Will Not Be Silenced (Pluto, 2017). Richard Falk is Emeritus Professor of International Law at Princeton University in the United States. He served as UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 from 2008-2012, and is currently Chair of the Gaza Tribunal. He is a prolific writer on international law and global politics; his most recent publication is Genocide in Gaza: Global Voices of Conscience (co-editor with Ahmet Davutoğlu).

Review :
'These testimonials provide a stunning and all too familiar portrait of the extent to which the forces that suppress free speech and academic freedom are at work in the U.S. university system' 'It is perhaps no surprise that as Israel drifts towards repression and reaction within, and becomes increasingly isolated internationally as a result of the harsh and criminal occupation, its informal lobby in the US becomes more desperate to stifle free and open discussion of the state they seek to protect. Efforts of the kind sampled here, targeting the academic world, are as deplorable as they are predictable, and should be dismissed with contempt, and strongly opposed.' 'The insightful and captivating testimonials in this book are ... not just about challenging the 'Israel exception to free speech'; they are also about protecting civil liberties and democratic rights at large against the ominous rise of McCarthyism 2.0'