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THE EMAIL HEARD ROUND THE WORLD:
Dear Amit Duvshani,
Thank you for contacting me, but I don't think this would work. I have a huge problem with the way that the Israelis take the moral high ground from their appalling treatment in the Holocaust, and then inflict gross human rights abuses on the Palestinians because the (the Palestinians) wish to live in their own country.
I am sure that you are perfectly nice at a personal level, but no way would I take on somebody who had served in the Israeli army. As you may be aware, I am not the only UK scientist with these views but I'm sure you will find another suitable lab if you look around.
Yours sincerely,
Andrew Wilkie
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"... I hope a little good has come of it -- both for others to understand I'm not the nazi monster that they think and for me to learn more about the situation ..."
-- Professor Andrew Wilkie to Jewsweek |
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As well, Duvshani told Jewsweek that Wilkie had sent him an additional, more personal, apology via e-mail in which the professor proclaimed that some of his "best friends are Jewish".
But it could be a case of too little too late. As this issue of Jewsweek went to press, administrators at Oxford were still debating Wilkie's future employment at the university. An immediate investigation of the matter is now being carried out in accordance with the University's procedures and a report will be presented to the Vice-Chancellor next week.
For his part, Wilkie is desperately trying to keep his job and do damage control, despite efforts by the school to keep him quiet. "I have to say that it has been very interesting and educational," Wilkie told Jewsweek via e-mail. "I hope a little good has come of it -- both for others to understand I'm not the nazi monster that they think and for me to learn more about the situation."
 Wilkie says he has gotten more than 3,000 e-mails in response to his comments. "The power of the Internet is awesome!" he told Jewsweek.
One of those e-mails came from novelist Jack Englehard. "High-minded German professors, as you know, were the first to backstab their Jewish students and fellow Jewish scholars," he wrote. "Thank God Einstein got out in time -- though we'll never know how many other Einsteins (perhaps with the cure for cancer) never made it out of the death camps because they were doomed by their own university elite."
Andrew McMichael, the director of the Weaterhall Institute of Molecular Medicine at Oxford University and Wilkie's direct supervisor, said his division does not discriminate and houses more than 350 scientists from more than 30 countries, including Israel. "We foster a strongly interactive scientific environment and are proud of our international links," he told Jewsweek. "I am deeply distressed by this affair."
Surprise, surprise?
Nationally syndicated radio host and author Rabbi Shmuley Boteach spent 11 years as the campus rabbi at Oxford University. "I wasn't surprised at all," he told Jewsweek by phone. "People were surprised at my nonchalance." Indeed, Boteach has seen this before. In 1994, he wrote a 900-page book entitled Moses at Oxford about this very topic. In it, he discloses his struggles to curb the anti-Israel sentiment at the university. "This is par for the course. What cannot be debated is that Israel is loathed and hated in the highest echelons in British academia."
Boteach went on to point out that the Arab community wields incredible influence at British universities, and at Oxford in particular. The Said Business School at Oxford University was funded by an initial grant of nearly $25 million by the billionaire Syrian arms brokers Wafic Rida Said.
Most in Britain's Jewish community are not surprised by Wilkie's anti-Israel comment. "Professor Wilkie's original statement was a prime example of Judeophobia," says Paul Iganski, co-editor of the newly-published A New Anti-Semitism? Debating Judeophobia in 21st Century Britain. "His prejudice is clearly politically motivated, but he goes beyond acceptable criticism. Using the Holocaust as a justification, he holds Israel to a higher than normal ethical standard so that he can discriminate against Israelis."
Static at the BBC
If only the problem ended there. British academia is not the only place taking international heat for its apparent anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic viewpoints. Earlier this week, the Israeli government officially severed ties with the influential British Broadcasting Corporation. The move came at the end of last week following the airing of Israel's Secret Weapon, a BBC documentary that focused on "Israel's nuclear, biological and chemical capabilities" as well as "Israel's wall of silence" on the subject.
The documentary originally aired in March, but was rebroadcast despite Israeli protests this weekend. In it, Israel is portrayed as a nuclear threat akin to Iraq that goes uninspected due to an American double-standard. What apparently pushed the Israeli government to take action were claims that the IDF uses nerve gas against the Palestinians.
Daniel Seaman, director of Israel's Government Press Office, said "the attitude of the BBC is more than a pure journalistic matter; it is dangerous to the existence of the State of Israel because it demonizes the Israelis and gives our terrorist enemies reasons to attack us."
Israel is reported to have made repeated requests that the BBC not rebroadcast the documentary but to no avail. Adding to the controversy was a visit to Britain by Gideon Meir, deputy director-general for the Israeli Foreign Ministry. During that visit, Jewish leaders apparently cited the BBC as a source of increased anti-Semitism in the country.
Seaman picked up on that bias in his explanation for the Israeli moves. "The questions about nuclear weapons asked by the BBC are never directed against the U.S. or Britain," he said. "Mr. Sharon is never mentioned without some critical reference to his alleged right-wing tendencies or military past, while Islamic terrorists are politely referred to as 'militants' out of a reluctance by the BBC to upset Muslims by telling the truth."
The move has prompted some criticism from those who say it will only hamper Israel's ability to get its message out via the BBC. Meir dismissed such criticism saying he did not want to allow the BBC to "hide behind the fig leaf of objectivity," by giving token coverage to Israeli officials.
Meanwhile, much of the coverage coming from the Arab and Muslim world is focusing on the issue of Israeli nuclear weapons, rather than the nerve gas accusation. Reports on the UK-based Islam Online as well as the Palestine Chronicle emphasized the Israeli nuclear program and framed the debate as one of Israel attempting to squelch inquiry into its nuclear arsenal.
The full implication of the Israeli decision is uncertain. Israeli officials will no longer appear on the BBC and the government will no longer assist BBC reporters in obtaining access or getting around checkpoints. More stinging, BBC reporters are likely to face visa restrictions that can hamper their ability to operate in the country for long periods of time. Just how extensive the new restrictions will be is yet to be seen, as the BBC staff in Israel is saying they've not yet been informed of any specific measures by the government. BBC news director, Richard Sambrook is meanwhile standing behind the program.
"We regret that the Israelis felt the need to take this action but we stand behind the veracity of the film," he said.
I've got the whole world...
All of this comes on the heels of last month's first-ever international government-sponsored conference on anti-Semitism in Europe. Held in Vienna in late June, the two-day event consisted of 400 delegates from 55 nations belonging to the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe).
Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani headed the delegation from the United States and marveled at the unfortunate necessity of such a conference. "It is very, very strange for me to be standing here, discussing anti-Semitism, a few hundred yards away from where Hitler announced his annexation of Austria," he told conference attendees. "It's very, very strange because it's very hard to believe that we're really discussing this topic so many years later and after so many lessons of history that have not been learned; and I am very, very hopeful that rather than just discussing anti-Semitism, we are actually going to do something about it, and take action, rather than just words, because if action had been taken in the 1930s, then millions and millions of people would have lived. Words didn't suffice to save their lives, and words aren't going to suffice to turn the tide of anti-Semitism, which is once again growing in Europe and in other parts of the world."
The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, which tracks anti-Semitic behavior, reports that attacks against European Jews have climbed to their highest level since World War II, when six million Jews perished in Hitler's Holocaust.
At the end of his speech, Giuliani recommended that each country attending the conference implement an eight-point plan to help keep hate crime statistics. "It is the only way in which you're going to be able to figure out where you have to combat prejudice, where you have to combat crime, and where ultimately the educational efforts are necessary to turn this around," Giuliani said.
As for Duvshani, the incident with Professor Wilkie has got him thinking about hopping across the pond and getting his Ph.D. at an American college instead of in England. "I'm not sure I want to go Oxford," he told Jewsweek. "Wilkie is not the only scientist in the world. I'm considering possibilities in the States."
Even if Duvshani does not attend Oxford, the international furor that followed his rejection has, in his mind, accomplished some good. "This is a positive experience," he said. "Here you have clear-cut proof people in important places have anti-Semitic views. Many Jewish students who came to England, and Oxford in particular, were feeling that they were not too much welcome over there, but they didn't have any proof. What this letter has done is give clear-cut proof to this."
Jewsweek's Bradford R. Pilcher contributed to this report. |
