Sussex University’s Propaganda Chair in Israel Studies

Michael Farthing - willing to sell Sussex's reputation for a bit more than his name

Saif Islam Ghaddaffi -  bought the LSE for a few million

Sussex University's Press Release Sings the Praise of a Love of Money

Lord Weidenfeld - Bought Sussex University's Academic Reputation 4 a Song

Jewish Chronicle Article Gives the Game Away

 Eat Your Heart Out Saif Islam Ghaddaffi

Sussex University has long been known as a pioneering, radical university.  It would appear that with the new Chair in Modern Israel Studies it is likely to be known as Britain’s LSE by the Sea.  A corrupt little backwater on the Sussex Downs where you can buy a Professorship and a Chair with the money from a gaoled right-wing businessman (Gerald Ronson) and a right-wing publisher (Lord Weidenfeld).

For those with short memories, you will remember that for the sake of a few million pounds, Col. Ghaddaffi’s favourite son, Saif Islam, was introduced as an honoured guest by one Professor David Held, handed a ghost-written Ph D.  on the Role of Civil Society in the Democratisation of Governance Institutions. 

LSE’s Vice-Chancellor was forced to resign as the institution was seen to be little more than an academic prostitute, handing out degrees for cash.  It would seem that Sussex University wishes to add to Brighton’s reputation as another example of the academic harlot.  Below is a Press Release  from the University of Sussex, with VC Michael Farthing wittering on about nothing in particular.  What is really involved is the creation of a new Chair in Modern Israeli Propaganda masquerading as an academic programme.

It is not surprising that the new Chair will be named after the infamous captain of the Exodus, a ship whose passengers would have preferred, like most European Jewish refugees after the war, to have gone to the United States.   Unfortunately the US’s racist immigration laws, which the Zionist movement supported 100%, refused them entrance and they were forced to go to what became Israel and participate in the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians.  No doubt there are some forms of history that won’t be taught on the new course, such as the Nakba.

But the game was given away by an article ‘Vital’ new Chair for students’ in the pro-Zionist Jewish Chronicle.  One of those providing the finance, publisher Lord Weidenfeld didn’t beat about the bush.  The new chair wasn’t about promoting research and understanding etc., perish the thought.  No it was ‘vital in the fight against anti-Zionism and antisemitism’.  And we all know what Weidenfeld and company mean by ‘anti-Semitism’ – it’s not anti-Jewish hatred but support for the Palestinians and opposition to Zionism.

The new proposed Chair, although financially attractive, is a nakedly political post having nothing to do with academia.  Nor is the Sussex Chair the first. In an article on the activities of a particularly virulent Zionist specimen of an academic, one Rossman-Benjamin, who spent her time trying to stop Israeli academic and Exeter University Professor  Ilan Pappe from touring University of California campuses, I noted that Yale University had closed down a similar programme the ‘Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism’ last year.

As Zionism’s worthless holocaust historian, Deborah Lipstadt, whose only claim to fame is that David Irving sued her and Penguin (the latter paid the money and Lipstadt kept her mouth shut in return) wrote in the Jewish Daily Forward of 24.6.11. How To Study Anti-Semitism  that  the closure of Yale’s IISA ‘also demonstrates the necessity of differentiating between those who do advocacy and those who do scholarship.’  In short IISA was a propaganda Institute masquerading as academia.

That is not only what Sussex’s endeavour is about but one of its key sponsors actually boasts that its purpose is primarily propagandistic.  Neither the Court nor the Senate or Council of Sussex University have approved Michael Farthing's naked bid to exchange Sussex’s academic reputation for the cash of fraudsters and Zionist publishers.  If this is true then it is about time they did their duty.

By Deborah Lipstadt

'Vital' new Chair for students

March 1, 2012

Veteran publisher, Lord Weidenfeld, has described a new chair in Israel studies at Sussex University as vital in the fight against anti-Zionism and antisemitism.

The Yossi Harel Chair in Modern Israel Studies, named after the renowned captain of the Exodus ship that transported Jews to Palestine in 1947, would, claimed Lord Weidenfeld, "provide a rallying point not only for teaching but general information and support of students. It is very important to have in some key universities, particularly those with an anti-Israel or antisemitic presence, a solid intellectual base with a good professor who will be able to support students through seminars or meetings."

Lord Weidenfeld hoped that the new chair, along with another that was established last year at Oxford University, would be the first in a network around the country.

He said: "We have appointed Professor Derek Penslar from Toronto to the chair at Oxford. He is an international authority and I believe he will work wonders. Now my endeavour is to establish something similar at a Scottish university and one in the north of England."

Benefactors boost Middle East studies at Sussex with funding for research in Israeli history
 
A new Chair in Modern Israel Studies has been created at the University of Sussex, with generous support from major philanthropists.

With this first professorial appointment based in its School of History, Art History and Philosophy, the University of Sussex is developing its research base in modern Middle Eastern history.
University of Sussex Vice-Chancellor Professor Michael Farthing says: “In this period of huge social and political change in the wider region, the development of our research in this area is timely.  We hope to play our part in aiding understanding and scholarship. As an academic development at Sussex, it is part of our tradition of engaging with urgent and complex issues, in this case with a focus on the modern history of the region.”

Support for the new Professorship comes from leading philanthropic individuals and trusts including The R and S Cohen Foundation, the Blavatnik Family Foundation, the Atkin Foundation, the Pears Foundation, the Gerald Ronson Foundation and Lord Weidenfeld, who took the initiative in the establishment of the Chair.

Professor Matthew Cragoe, head of the School History, Art History and Philosophy says:
“We are particularly pleased to welcome the support for this chair from such a distinguished group, with an outstanding commitment to scholarship and education. Their involvement and support is a clear signal of the important role which we believe Sussex can play in this field.”

The Chair will be named after Yossi Harel, a founding figure in the history of modern Israel.  Harel, who died in 2008 aged 90, commanded the ship Exodus 1947, which carried more than 4,500 displaced European Jews to Palestine.  The 1947 blockade of the vessel by Britain prompted the United Nations to vote in favour of the creation of the state of Israel.

The Chair will contribute to the Middle East studies programme of the University. Its remit will embrace teaching and research in all aspects of Modern Israel Studies, with particular reference to the politics, history and society of contemporary Israel and the Middle East. The Chair will also promote and develop links between Middle Eastern and British academics.

Along with the Chair appointment, two further lecturer posts are proposed, dealing with the history and culture of the Middle East more broadly.

The University of Sussex already has leading research in closely related areas within the School, such as within the Centre for German-Jewish Studies, and in related fields across other schools in the University. 

Notes for Editors
Yossi Harel’s story was told in Leon Uris's best-selling novel Exodus, then in the Otto Preminger film Exodus, which starred Paul Newman as Yossi Harel.

Blavatnik Family Foundation
The Blavatnik Family Foundation (the “Foundation”) is an active supporter of many leading educational, scientific, cultural and charitable institutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel and throughout the world.  Recipients of Foundation support include Oxford University, Harvard University, Tel Aviv University, The Royal Opera House, The Hermitage, The National Portrait Gallery, The British Museum, The National Gallery of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The New York Academy of Science, The White Nights Foundation, numerous Jewish charitable organisations and countless other philanthropic institutions.

The Foundation is headed by Len Blavatnik, an American industrialist.  Mr. Blavatnik is the founder and Chairman of Access Industries, a privately-held U.S. industrial group with global interests in natural resources and chemicals, media and telecommunications, and real estate.
Pears Foundation

Pears Foundation is a British family foundation rooted in Jewish values. Its work is concerned with positive identity and citizenship. Pears Foundation is building the capacity of Israel Studies as an academic discipline in British and continental European Universities. Pears Foundation currently supports Higher Education posts in Israel Studies at Manchester University, Leeds University, SOAS and the University of Sussex as well as providing start-up funding and support to the European Association of Israel Studies. 

For further information, please see www.pearsfoundation.org.uk

University of Sussex Press office
Email: press@sussex.ac.uk
3rd May 2012