From censor@eesrv.ee.bgu.ac.il Thu Jan 11 19:11:11 2001 Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2001 11:00:05 +0200 From: dani censor To: ACADEMIA@TECHUNIX.TECHNION.AC.IL Subject: more whitewash =======> Posted to "Academia" =======> An unedited free subscription list =======> Caveat lector &&&&> ISRAELI UNIVERSITIES PLAN TO GO ON STRIKE! &&&&> NO UNDERGRADUATE CLASSES as of SUNDAY DEC. 31 below is the ascii-text of ben-zeev's letter, without any editing. the hebrew text seems identical, although i have not compared it carefully. my comment: more whitewash. rubber-flexible backbones. cowardice. choose your favorite invective. thanks to Daphna Erdinast-Vulcan for her couragious words, and micha leshem for forwarding the messages to the "academia" list. is daphna related to the lawyer erdinast? if so, this must be declared upfront, for integrity. jonathan berg, the attached document mentioned by daphna, is this the same as the lawyers document already published on our list? if not please forward it to me for pdf formatting, so our international colleagues can read it too. i call on the council of higher education to intervene in this sordid affair, on behalf of all honest academics in israel. dani ... starting below--ben-zeev's text: Academic Thesis Ends in a Court Compromise-Or Does It? HAIFA. January 1-A Master's degree thesis that helped earn a University of Haifa student his M.A. degree may be the subject of an Israeli Supreme Court battle. Sued for libel for implicating Israel's 1948 Alexandroni Brigade in an alleged massacre in the coastal village of Tantura, south of Haifa, during Israel's War of Independence, Mr. Theodore (Teddy) Katz acceded to an agreement worked out in the Tel Aviv District Court. He signed a letter of apology to the former fighters. The apology contained the admission that "it is clear to me beyond any doubt that there is no basis for the claim that a murder of [innocent] people was committed at Tantura after the surrender of the village." After signing the apology, Katz retracted and announced his intention to appeal the court's verdict-in effect, the apology-to the Supreme Court. University of Haifa authorities decided in view of this suit to set up a special committee to review procedures and regulations for checking Master's degree and doctoral theses. In the district court, charges had been made that Katz's work had falsified data and oral testimonies that the author had recorded. There were those who refuted these charges on the University's intra-net faculty discussion site. The University had also intended to investigate Katz's thesis. In light of the appeal, however, it decided to put academic investigation processes on hold until the legal situation became clear. The School of History at the University, it was announced, plans to deal with the problem of the use of oral documentation by convening a special conference. This gathering will take up the question of current history and the problematics of oral documentation in historical research. At this point, University of Haifa authorities are unwilling to state whether or not falsification was involved in Katz's work. At the time, Katz's thesis, written for the Dept. of Middle East History, received a grade in the high 90s, and he was awarded the M.A. degree. "This issue will be investigated," a University statement said, adding: "We are sure that justice will come to light. In view of the recent chain of events, it is even more clear that the University of Haifa acted properly in the dispute about the legal process." The statement continued: "The University's positions were and remain as follows: (a) academic argument needs to be resolved in academic bodies, not in the courts; (b) charges of systematic falsifications of data do not on the surface fall within the province of academic debate, and need to be decided on in disciplinary and referee committees; (c) the responsibility of the falsifier, if fraud were involved, does not all equate to the responsibility of the adviser who did not manage to uncover the falsification." =======> You are kindly requested to comply with "Academia" =======> guidelines: READ THIS *CAREFULLY* BEFORE POSTING =======> AVOID LONG QUOTES AND RAW FORWARDS =======> NO VIRUS ALERTS AND CHAIN LETTERS =======> NO SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE REQUESTS =======> REQUESTS? QUESTIONS? DOUBTS? =======> please e-mail everything to censor@ee.bgu.ac.il