israeli theatre controversy

[Don Rubin]

dear candrama people:

last year, the theatre company at the university of haifa -- a company
made up of both arab and israeli students -- was closed down by the
university administration there and its dean yossi ben-artzi. at the
same time, the company's director, avraham oz, was relieved of various
and sundry academic duties.

since that time, ben artzi has been moving up in academic circles while
continuing to put various kinds of pressures on oz and others who are
fighting for a more pluralistic university (and society).

i recently received an e-mail further examining the situation from
someone named sarah fine (sfine8 at hotmail.com). i do not know her but
mostly she was forwarding an article about it all that had appeared in
the haifa paper. i think what is happening at a major israeli university
in the area of theatre is worth keeping an eye on and i pass it on to
you  for information only.  if anyone wants to pursue it further, please
feel free.

best to all,

don rubin

 From Sarah Fine:

Attached to this message is an article published on Friday, 29th October
2004, in KOLBO, the Haifa local weekly paper affiliated to Ha'aretz. Its
investigating reporter describes the case which stirs the minds of many
in the city, far beyond the academic circles: the awkward procedures, to
say the least, leading to the recent election of Professor Yossi
Ben-Artzi, a controversial figure in town, to the position of Rector of
the University of Haifa, which even by the scale of familiar university
politics makes many raise a brow.

Ben-Artzi's name hit the academic world channels more than once, but not
in the context of academic excellence. Two years ago, he demanded the
tenure of Dr Ilan Pappe to be taken off. Earlier the same year, he was
the major agent behind the scenes in removing Teddy Katz's cum laude MA
thesis from the shelves: In his dissertation, Katz argued that a
massacre of Palestinians was perpetrated in the village of Tantura back
in 1948. Katz's dissertaion was not put to question via any academic
procedure, but following a lawsuit by those remaining of the division
responsible for the massacre. Ben-Artzi had the thesis reviewed by a
second, anonymous committee and that procedure led, predictably, to the
academic disqualification of the formerly cum laude thesis. Last year
Ben-Artzi hit the news again, when he closed the Haifa University
Theatre which became Jewish-Arab focused, fired all major faculty of the
Department of Theatre, removed it tenured founder, Professor Avraham Oz,
to another Department, appointed, against the university procedures, a
historian as its chair, and when the same historian was elected Dean of
Humanities as a sole candidate (needless to say, run by Ben-Artzi
himself to replace him in office), appointed a guy lacking any academic
record to the job of Chair of Theatre, without a bid or any other proper
procedure. The new Chair, how surprising, did not reopen the closed
university theatre. With Oz deposed by Ben-Artzi, the single professor
at the Department remains Martin Orkin, who served as the chief
instrument whereby Ben-Artzi has rearranged the Department and got rid
of those who opposed him. Orkin tried hard to persuade all academics who
protested against Ben-Artzi's intervention in the academic freedom of
the Department, that Ben-Artzi was a charming, liberal, and very popular
Dean, much devoted to the welfare of the Department. Please read the
enclosed article for some different views.

The paper's article covers much, but not all. It omits, to cite but one
instance, the background of Ben-Artzi's leaving the "Peace Now"
movement, following his opposition to the movement's coming out to the
streets and demonstrating against Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon,
administered by the then Minister of Defence Ariel Sharon; Oz, on the
other hand, moderated the first mass ralley against the invasion. Sharon
may have forgiven Oz over the years; Ben-Artzi obviously didn't.

Pappe is now marginalized by the new administration of the University;
Oz is hitting a similar path. Their publications are not mentioned, let
alone celebrated, on the university circuits (as is the custom with
publications by members of the university) regardless of their
international standing. Oz and the fired group of theatre faculty are
still in a tortuous process of litigation in State Court against the
university. They were all very careful, while the trial is on, not to
get involved in the distribution of information about the "democratic"
procedures at the University of Haifa. They turned down any approaches
by the media to get interviewed about the matter. But the paper's
article is public domain. Please read it, feel free to distribute it.
and learn some lesson about academic freedom in "the only democracy in
the Middle East."

Sincerely
SF
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