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| organization_logo =
| organization_logo =
| organization_motto =
| organization_motto =
| organization_type = [[Israel lobby in the United States|Pro-Israel]], [[neoconservative]]<ref>[http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1510]</ref><ref>[http://hnn.us/articles/1001.html]</ref><ref>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3860/is_200305/ai_n9256579] </ref><ref>[http://www.thenation.com/doc/20040510/press Neo-con Man]</ref>[[think tank]]
| organization_type = [[Israel lobby in the United States|Pro-Israel]], [[neoconservative]]<ref>[http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1510]</ref><ref>[http://hnn.us/articles/1001.html]</ref><ref>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3860/is_200305/ai_n9256579] </ref><ref>[http://www.thenation.com/doc/20040510/press Neo-con Man]</ref><ref>[http://www.lrb.co.uk/v26/n07/print/roy_01_.html Short Cuts by Sara Roy]</ref>[[think tank]]
| founded = 2002 by [[Daniel Pipes]]
| founded = 2002 by [[Daniel Pipes]]
| location = [[Philadelphia]], [[Pennsylvania]], [[United States|U.S.]]
| location = [[Philadelphia]], [[Pennsylvania]], [[United States|U.S.]]

Revision as of 04:46, 4 March 2008

Campus Watch
Founded2002 by Daniel Pipes
TypePro-Israel, neoconservative[1][2][3][4][5]think tank
Location
Key people
Winfield Myers, Director
WebsiteCampus-Watch.org

Campus Watch is a project of the Middle East Forum, an American pro-Israel neoconservative think tank that reviews and critiques Middle East studies in North American college campuses. It was founded by Daniel Pipes and the current director is Winfield Myers. The organization is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. and was founded in 2002.[6]

According to Campus Watch, the organization "reviews and critiques Middle East studies in North America with an aim to improving them." The organization further states, "it fully respects the freedom of speech of those it debates while insisting on its own freedom to comment on their words and deeds."[7]

Daniel Pipes, the founder of Campus Watch, explained he believes Campus Watch critiquing professors is important because in his opinion, "Students suppress their views to protect their careers; peers are reluctant to criticize each other, lest they in turn suffer attacks; and laymen lack the competence to judge arcane scholarship."[8]

History

In 2002, the Middle East Forum initiated Campus Watch and identified what they believe to be five problems in the teaching of Middle Eastern studies at American universities, "analytical failures, the mixing of politics with scholarship, intolerance of alternative views, apologetics, and the abuse of power over students."[9]

Initially, Campus Watch encouraged students to submit reports regarding teachers, books, and curricula, which led some professors to accuse Campus Watch of "McCarthyesque" intimidation; in protest, more than 100 other academics asked to be listed.[10] Subsequently, Campus Watch removed the list from its website.[11][12]

Campus Watch has reviews and critiques Middle East studies in North America "with an aim to improving them. The project mainly addresses five problems: analytical failures, the mixing of politics with scholarship, intolerance of alternative views, apologetics, and the abuse of power over students. Campus Watch fully respects the freedom of speech of those it debates while insisting on its own freedom to comment on their words and deeds."[13] According to Professor Miriam Cook, Duke University, Campus Watch has been effective in "changing the rules of the game not only in Middle East studies but also in the US University as a whole." [14]

Since the sole activity of Campus Watch is to spotlight and critique the published work of academics teaching and researching in the field of Middle East Studies, observers have pointed out that critiques of the website appear to be demanding "Immunity from criticism,"[15]

Criticism

Opponents of Campus Watch describe it as an attempt to stifle any criticism of Israel in American academia.[6][16][17][18]. Rashid Khalidi, a Director of the Middle East Institute at Columbia University and a target of Campus Watch, stated "This noxious campaign is intended to silence such perfectly legitimate criticism, by tarring it with the brush of anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism, truly loathsome charges. They reveal the lengths that these people apparently feel impelled to go to in order to silence a true debate on campus."[19]

Joel Beinin, then Professor of Middle East History at Stanford University, now Director of the Middle East Studies Department at the American University in Cairo, said:[20] "Campus Watch [..] compiles dossiers on professors and universities that do not meet its standard of uncritical support for the policies of George Bush and Ariel Sharon. Among other things, this may be Pipes' way of taking revenge on the scholarly community after failing in his own pursuit of an academic career in Middle East studies.[....]."

In March 2006, political scientists John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt wrote in The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, that Campus Watch was founded by "two passionately pro-Israel neoconservatives" with the intention of "encourag[ing] students to report comments or behavior that might be considered hostile to Israel" and that it was a "transparent attempt to blacklist and intimidate scholars."[21] In response to a brief version of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy published in London Review of Books, Daniel Pipes, the founder of Campus Watch, stated, "This account is inaccurate in several ways," referring to Martin Kramer's involvement in Campus Watch and references to the Jewish lobby's influence on Campus Watch.[22]

In an article entitled "The War on Academic Freedom," The Nation discusses Campus Watch, likening its activities to those of AIPAC and the Anti-Defamation League. AIPAC has a history of naming the names of academics critical of Israeli policy spanning more than two decades. In 1979 the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) formed its Political Leadership Development Program, which "educates and trains young leaders in pro-Israel political advocacy," enlisting hundreds of college students to collect information on pro-Palestinian professors and student organizations. By 1983 the program had attracted more than 5,000 students on 350 campuses in all fifty states. [23]

See also

References

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ [2]
  3. ^ [3]
  4. ^ Neo-con Man
  5. ^ Short Cuts by Sara Roy
  6. ^ a b McNeil, Kristine. "The War on Academic Freedom". The Nation (2002-11-11). Retrieved on 2007-10-21.
  7. ^ CampusWatch.org. Retrieved on 2007-10-20.
  8. ^ Pipes, Daniel. "Five Years of Campus Watch" The Jerusalem Post (2007-09-19). Retrieved on 2007-12-05.
  9. ^ Qtd. from "Mission Statement" in "About Campus Watch". Campus Watch. Retrieved on 2007-11-28.
  10. ^ Tanya Schevitz. "Professors Want Own Names Put on Mideast Blacklist". San Francisco Chronicle (2002-09-08). Retrieved on 2007-11-28.
  11. ^ Tanya Schevitz. "'Dossiers' Dropped from Web Blacklist". San Francisco Chronicle (2002-10-03) Retrieved on 2007-11-28.
  12. ^ Hussam, Ayloush. "Column a Slur on Muslim Community". Orange County Register (2002-12-01). Retrieved on 2007-11-28.
  13. ^ http://www.campus-watch.org/about.php
  14. ^ http://www.danielpipes.org/article/4961
  15. ^ http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDIxYzAwMzU4NjY2NDI5NzQzOGFlMzQ4YmMzZGQyZWQ=
  16. ^ Green, David. "Zionism vs. Intellectual Freedoms on American College Campuses". ZNet (2005-05-15). Retrieved on 2007-11-12.
  17. ^ Roy, Sara. "Short Cuts". London Review of Books (2005-04-01). Retrieved on 2007-11-12.
  18. ^ Strindberg, Anders. "The New Commissars". The American Conservative (2004-02-02). Retrieved on 2007-11-12.
  19. ^ "ADC Denounces New Efforts to Chill Academic Freedom" (Press Release). Arab Americans Anti-Discrimination Committee (2002-09-26). Retrieved on 2007-11-12.
  20. ^ [4]
  21. ^ Mesarsheimer, John; Walt, Stephen (August 27, 2007). The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 0374177724.
  22. ^ Pipes, Daniel. "Is Campus Watch Part of a Conspiracy?". FrontPage Magazine (2006-05-12)
  23. ^ "The War on Academic Freedom". The Nation. November 11, 2002.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Campus_Watch&oldid=195732336"