-------------->Date: Fri, 8 Mar 2002 17:40:44 +0200 From: dani censor Subject: forward from "alef" list To: ACADEMIA@TECHUNIX.TECHNION.AC.IL =======> "Academia", Communication tool of the past present and future =======> An unedited free subscription list =======> Copied to http://www.ee.bgu.ac.il/~academia =======> Caveat lector dear all this is a forward from "alef" list, posted by avi oz. although minister livnat is involved and mentioned, the matter is par exellence academic and non partisan, and involves freedom of speech in academia, which is part of academic freedom. dani ... >From avitaloz@research.haifa.ac.il Fri Mar 8 17:37:13 2002 Date: Fri, 5 Apr 2002 13:57:23 +0200 From: Avraham Oz To: Avraham Oz Cc: Avraham Oz Subject: ALEF: The Saga goes on... [ Part 1, Text/PLAIN (charset: ISO-8859-1 "Latin 1") 100 lines. ] [ Unable to print this part. ] [ The following text is in the "iso-8859-1" character set. ] [ Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set. ] [ Some characters may be displayed incorrectly. ] Dear friends, Some of you have received from me a narrowly-distributed report of a worrying incident, in which the Israeli Mini-stress of Education tried to interfere with the content of teaching in my survey course "Introduction to Drama and Theatre". For the benefit of those of you who haven't receive my former message, I will repeat its major points: that class is a freshmen course I have been giving for decades now, first at Tel Aviv University, and then at the University of Haifa. In the chapter devoted to tragedy I explain the obvious facts about that concept, as they appear in almost every textbook, that tragedy is no matter of black and white, but a choice between evils, and in the attempt to show the tragic as relevant to our age as well, I bring examples from various domains, from the politics of space race, genetic engineering, the military and the holocaust. I compare (for years now) Antigone to soldiers who wouldn't comply with an order which contradicts their conscience, although it is clear they are breaking the law, and therefore have to pay the price of their doing. And I refute the case of the tragic villain as evil incarnate, saying that tragedy suggests that everybody, including myself, has a little Iago, Edmund, or, yes, Eichmann in him/her (Arendt's the banality of evil in a capsule). I also reported how one student asked me, last semester, whether I suggested that the Israeli soldiers were nazis, and whether I mean that everyone in that room was a little Eichmann. I answered her if that was what she understood of what I said she either has shown a very poor understanding or twisted what I say deliberately. The class went on uninterrupted in front of the almost 300 students attending it, yet last week the Rector of the University of Haifa received a letter signed by Ms Limor Livnat, the Minister of Education, complaining on the incident which "has been brought to her attention." Before they could answer, her letter appeared word by word in the Haifa local paper KOLBO. I concluded by saying I received an absolute backing and full support from both Rector Ben-Zeev and Dean Yossi Ben-Artzi, who, apart from understanding the matter itself, were angry about a private letter addressed to the Rector suddenly reaching the paper: but I thought this incident should make all of us concerned about the direction the current government of Israel was taking. There was, however, a sequel to the incident. HAARETZ journalist and commentator Arieh Caspi has indirectly heard the story. He called me, and I referred him to the Rector and Dean, with whom he talked, and produced a brief report to HAARETZ's magazine. His story, I later heard, was severely modified by the editors, so much so that he refused to submit it in its revised form. So much for the most liberal daily paper in Israel. The weekend magazine came out, without the piece. But imagine how amazed I was to start getting responses from colleagues who read the non-existent report. What happened was that although in the Hebrew "hard copy" of the HAARETZ Magazine censored the piece, it was published in its original form in its On-Line English version, for the benefit of all readers. HAARETZ advertises itself as "the paper for thinking people"; apparently it is rather the paper for people thinking in English. Here is Caspi's piece, taken from the English edition of today's HAARETZ: Big Sister is watching Anyone who thinks that Education Minister Limor Livnat is resting on her laurels after neutralizing the Council for Higher Education is wrong. Among the themes taken up by Prof. Avraham Oz, from the Theater Department at Haifa University, are the source of tragedy and the banality of evil. He tells his students that every person has within him a little Eichmann or a little Iago. About 300 students attend Oz's lectures. In one of the lectures, he was asked by a student why he is likening Israelis to Nazis. Oz explained that he was not dealing with Israelis, but with human nature, and thought that that was the end of the matter. Not in Israel. These days, Big Sister is watching. A week ago, the rector of the university received a letter from Livnat, according to which Oz had compared certain operations of the Israeli army in the territories to the actions of the Nazis. She added, "If there is something to this, he should be placed on disciplinary trial or even suspended. Even freedom of expression has limits and we must deal with phenomena like these before they take root." The rector, Aharon Ben-Ze'ev, sent the letter to the dean so he could look into the matter, "since we check every complaint from every person." The university heads will probably protect Oz. We can only hope that they won't bother to reply to Livnat's letter. The very need to cope with such letters has an adverse effect on academic freedom. In the meantime, Livnat has given the Haifa University faculty a free lesson in the sources of tragedy and the banality of evil. (Arie Caspi) Best, A. Oz Professor Avraham Oz Department of Theatre University of Haifa Mount Carmel, 31905 Haifa, Israel Telefax: 972-3-5609627 Email: avitaloz@research.haifa.ac.il =======> Help/Info: http://www.ee.bgu.ac.il/~academia/Academia_List.txt =======> PLEASE AVOID LONG QUOTES AND RAW FORWARDS =======> CONSULT ME BEFORE POSTING VIRUS ALERTS OR CHAIN LETTERS =======> SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE REQUESTS ONLY TO =======> maintainer e-mail: