Scholars for Peace in the Middle East

Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) is an independent non-profit international community network of academic scholars.

According to the SPME's Web site, the organization's goal is to seek peace in, "the Middle East is consistent both with Israel's right to exist as a sovereign Jewish state within safe and secure borders, and with the rights and legitimate aspirations of her neighbors". [http://www.spme.net/aboutus.html "About SPME,"] online posting, official website of SPME.]

The stated mission of the organization is to, "inform, motivate, and encourage faculty to use their academic skills and disciplines on campus, in classrooms, and in academic publications to develop effective responses to the ideological distortions, including anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist slanders, that poison debate and work against peace. SPME welcomes scholars from all disciplines, faiths groups and nationalities who share our desire for peace and our commitment to academic integrity and honest debate"

The organization was founded in 2002 by Dr. Edward Beck , Dr. Judith Jacobson, Columbia University and Dr. Ruth Contreras of Vienna Austria. Members of the Board of Directors have included:Matthias Küntzel, Ernest Sternberg, Laurie Zoloth, Gerald Steinberg, Efraim Karsh, Daniel Pipes, Peter Haas, Stanley Dubinsky, John R. Cohn, Rev. India E. Garnett, G. Don Morris, Leila Beckwith, Philip Carl Salzman, Donna Robinson Divine and many others. The organization states that it has nearly 20,000 members from 1500 campuses worldwide. Its network includes college and university presidents and Nobel Laureates.

SPME's task forces examine issues of 1) antisemitic or anti-Israel biases in the mandatory multicultural religious and ethnic teachings on campus and in the community, 2) working to maintain "intimidation free" campuses, 3) dealing with academic integrity with respect to fabricating and falsifying data when discussing the Middle East, and 4) Responding to anti-Israel and antisemitic incidents on campus as they arise, especially in classrooms and university sponsored events.

This year, SPME in partnership with Jewish National Fund. MediaWatch International, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University, Bar-Ilan University , Technion, Ben Gurion University and University of Haifa initiated the Faculty Fellowship to Israel Summer Institute.

SPME publishes the SPME Faculty Forum weekly during the academic year and once a month during the summer months and breaks.

Views on anti-Israel sentiment and antisemitism

Regarding anti-Israel and antisemitism on college campuses, the organization states, that they, "do not contribute to peace for anyone affected." The organization states that they agree with Thomas L. Friedman's comment that, "Criticizing Israel is not anti-Semitic, and saying so is vile. But singling out Israel for opprobrium and international sanction out of all proportion to any other party in the Middle East is anti-Semitic, and not saying so is dishonest."cite news
title = 'WE'RE ALL ISRAELI ACADEMICS':non-Israeli academics vow to 'decline any activity from which Israelis are excluded'
author = Yaakov Lappin
date = June 13, 2007]

Academic boycott against Israeli academics

In response to Britain's University and College Union's resolution calling on its members to "consider the moral implications of links with Israeli academic institutions," SPME started an online petition signed by thousands of non-Israeli academics stating, "We all agree that singling out Israelis for an academic boycott is wrong. To show our solidarity with our Israeli academics in this matter, we, the undersigned, hereby declare ourselves to be Israeli academics for purposes of any academic boycott. We will regard ourselves as Israeli academics and decline to participate in any activity from which Israeli academics are excluded," Michael Yudkin of Oxford University, a SPME member, debated John Chalcraft of London School of Economics on the issue of boycotts against Israeli academics [cite news
title = CHALCRAFT VS. YUDKIN: SHOULD WE VOTE FOR A BOYCOTT? BRITISH ACADEMICS DEBATE BREAKING LINKS WITH ISRAELI COLLEAGUES
author = John Chalcraft and Michael Yudkin
publication = The Guardian
date = May 30, 2007]

Notes

External links

* [http://www.spme.net Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) Web site]
* [http://www.jnf.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ffsi_home Faculty Fellowship to Israel Summer Institute Web site]