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University dismisses lecturer over anti-gay remark
Ilana Curiel
Published: 04.07.10, 12:28
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1. So freedom of speech has limits?
vernonmarriot ,   tel aviv   (07.04.10)
In Israeli academia you can argue for a boycott of your country; but you can't offend students or say that certain activities may lead to certain consqueneces. There's something not right here...
2. Well i guess that means us
Gay father of two ,   Tel Aviv   (07.04.10)
If he means "normal" in the fact that we didnt abuse our children, torture them according to some rabbi , deny them a proper education then i guess we didnt. My daughters have grown up to be caring decent human beings, one is a doctor the other a lawyer with famailies of their own. Both served in the army and contribute to the state through various voluntary work. Proud of my children , damm right i am , and apparently they are damm proud of me to.
3. Oh wow! Gay slur crosses the line!
Bartley Kulp ,   Afulla, Israel   (07.04.10)
But processors from that same university that publicly call for boycotts overseas from that same university keep their tenors.
4. He's a professor of Stupidity for sure
Talula ,   Israel   (07.04.10)
But then again, what can you expect from a religious nutter who lives in the west bank. If the professor is so concerned with ‘ethics’, shouldn't he concentrate on something closer to home, such as the ethical treatment of our soldiers? Why doesn’t he practice what he preaches and teach the rowdy above-the-law settlers who think it’s OK to attack our boys. I hope he was kicked out of Ben Gurion university altogether, and not just dismissed from lecturing this class. He clearly knows nothing about anything, his own personal opinions don’t have any place in the classroom – I guess he missed his ethics basic training classes.
5. He should have criticised Zionists.
Terry ,   Eilat - Israel   (07.04.10)
Or attacked Haredim, or said that Israel had no right to exist, was an apartheid state. Then, he would never be fired. Anyway, it looks like nothing but ignorance on all sides, not a glimmer of rational analysis on either side.
6. Thought tyranny!
Rafael ,   Yerushalayim, Israel   (07.04.10)
The thought police strike again! If a professor can't voice his own opinion in an ethics class, then whose opinions is he supposed to voice? Those handed down from on high? Who is the politically correct thought czar in Israel? Ben Gurion U. is apparently not an institution of higher learning, but a group of clerics belonging to the Church of the Politically Correct. Galileo is rolling over in his grave. Thought tyranny!
7. About the "New Historians"...
FO ,   BELGIUM   (07.04.10)
I fully agree with the sanction against Dr. Yeruham Leavitt, but why no sanctions against lecturers at the same and other universities who brainwash their students with false history of their own country and deligimate the very existence of the State of Israel?
8. #2 Avi and #4 Talula
Israel Israeli ,   Tel Aviv   (07.04.10)
There is no doubt that the professor's words are offensive, but that is not the issue. Should academics be allowed to say things that are offensive? Especially when what they say is relevant to their field of research? You may disagree, but I believe that the answer is yes, and the only response should be that he proves what he says, or his opponents disprove it. That said, I was surprised that you two wrote. What you two write here about Haredim and "Settlers" is far more offensive than what he said. Should you lose your jobs?
9. BGU has lost its way.
Reuven ,   Petach Tikvah IL   (07.04.10)
I can see nothing offensive in the statements of Dr. Leavitt . Why do we have to tread such a careful path when the subject of homosexuality comes up. For certain it would be much better if homosexuals just got on with their own lives and stopped parading around demonstrating what they call 'gay pride'. As a hetrosexual married man with children and grandchildren I dont go marching around the world celebrating my sexual preference. One can still be tolerant and liberal, while at the same time regarding all forms of homosexuality and same-sex marriages as abnormal. Professor Agbaria does a great disservice to a great institution like Ben Gurion University. Nobody has ever demonstrated to me the eficacy of bringing up a child with same sex parents over and above the same child being brought up in a conventional household. Maybe I should not call a married man and woman as constituting a conventional household in case I offend somebody.
10. Dr. Leavitt: YOU ARE NOT ALONE!
Israeli 2   (07.04.10)
Not many people liked "The Pedophile Sham -Undermining the Torah Matrix" either. There is a tendency for universities to think ultra liberal in order to be good. How sad this is indeed.
11. #2 I'm proud of you to!!!
Talula ,   Israel   (07.04.10)
You achieved more than any Haredi family could ever hope to dream of. I'm sorry that you have to continually speak up to justify how you live (not just because of this but on a daily basis). It shouldn't be questioned and you shouldn't have to. Only the lowest most ignorant form of life thinks that being gay is something one can catch. Pitiful ignorance.
12. It's not normal to have 2 wives or 2 husbands for parents
dave ,   uk   (07.04.10)
13. Doh! What a two-faced decision by BGU!
Brian Cohen ,   Judean Peoples Front   (07.04.10)
Let me see, Neve Gordon supports terrorist attacks against Israel and housed a convicted Fatah instigator in his home, calling the guy an "example" for his kids. Gordon is known for calling for a total boycott of BGU as well as a total boycott of Israel, and is universally seen as one of the most rabid, anti-Israel academics in the country. Yet the president of BGU wouldn't touch him due to "academic freedom". Yet
14. isn't that a tad extreme,
ghostq   (07.04.10)
to fire someone with out give him to redeme himself, that is no way of an institute to manage his proffesorse after all this might open new topic for discution, sometimes proffesors like to say provoctive lines just for the sake of arguments, that is how academic people usually work, sound like the administration fire him over this as excuse they got other person for this job.
15. Kol haKavod
David ,   Jerusalem, Israel   (07.04.10)
I am proud that the university dismissed him. I am a student who is rarely proud of anything I see going on in the bureaucracy of academics, but this was the right decision. Freedom of speech is not freedom to teach stupidity and close-mindedness. Professors must be held accountable for disseminating harmful opinions. Comparing homosexuality to his own lustful urges for other women is despicable. Good riddance!
16. number 2
albert ,   uk   (07.04.10)
It makes no diff if the kid is a lawyer, doctor or garbage collector. Anyone who says a child who is not brought up by both a female mother and a male father is not missing out, obviously comes from a deprived home. My mother is the most incredible mother-yet she cannot give me what my father gives. My father is the most incredible father, yet he cannot give me what my mother does. To say a father can supplement a mother or vise versa goes beyond idiocy!!
17. prof levitt is correct but not politically so.
meyer ,   israel   (07.04.10)
so much for academic freedom at BGU. as a gay male i don't find the professors remarks offensive in the least. he's intitled to his opinion. isn't that what BGU is about.
18. Instead of firing that Arab Lecturer in Sapir College,
Hypocrites!!!   (07.04.10)
Nizar Hassan, who prohibited students from wearing the star of David and refused to teach reservists? Secular Israelis are at best Corrupt Fools!
19. According to the lecturer
Charles ,   Petach Tikva   (07.04.10)
sexual inclination can be choosen or controlled . That's not what serious studies have found , i think . Can he prove that children of homosexual parents are influenced by their parents ?
20. where does his right to dignity end and mine begin
gay israeli   (07.04.10)
If his right to dignity was compromised by not having free speech to say things he knows absoloutely nothing about (being gay), is it not my right to dignity not to hear such words? I don't agree with him being fired but it is interesting that he feels his rights were compromised yet mine weren't.
21. The hypocrisy of BGU - part 2
Brian Cohen ,   Judean Peoples Front   (07.04.10)
Here's what BGU had to say about Neve Gordon, a vile, anti-Israel pro-terrorism member of the BGU faculty: "The university … NEVER EVER threatened him with dismissal … as a tenured faculty member, his job is protected by law. … However, the University feels that a call for a boycott is not an issue of freedom of speech. [I]t is the equivalent of screaming fire in a crowded theater as an academic boycott undercuts every single value that the University stands for, and were such a boycott to succeed, it would cause great damage to both the University and to the State of Israel." Yet BGU easily dismissed Leavitt for a relatively mild comment about his opinion regarding same-sex parenting. This is from the same university that said "Ben-Gurion University sanctifies freedom of thought and expression, but the lecturer blatantly crossed the line." Wow. Talk about two-faced hypocritical policies!
22. Ben Gurion University
Df ,   Beer Sheva, Israel   (07.04.10)
The issue really is not whether Dr. Leavitt is right or wrong. It is the double standard of an academic institution in dealing with controversial issues, academic freedom, freedom of expression, etc. The so called post-zionists are allowed to say what they want, including promoting the end to the state of Israel as a Jewish state, promote a boycott of Israeli academic institutions, and other things aimed at delegitimizing the country. Students have complained against them, they have been humiliated by these lectures. However, the university has refrained from any steps against them on the basis of academic freedom, etc. And in this case, they say Dr. Leavitt has crossed the line ? The administration of the university has shown itself to be spineless, two faced and utterly biased. Nothing more, nothing less.
23. he was given a hearing and a chance to explain himself
zak   (07.04.10)
he swung his whole weight behind his statements and was subsequently dismissed and rightfully so. Homophobia doesn't have a place in Israel of 2010
24. Ben Gurion University is well known
Robert Haymond ,   Israel/Canada   (07.04.10)
nationally for its tenured professors whose major contributions appear to be vocal critics of Israeli society and politics if those same political and social institutions do not adhere to their (BGU professors) liberal leftist orientation. I refer the Reader to the following website: isracampus.org.il. The number of BGU professors and lecturers on this site is, unfortunately for BGU, overwhelming.
25. amen #13!!
(07.04.10)
26. BGU - Double standards
Jonathan ,   Jerusalem   (07.04.10)
So apparently there are criteria for 'non acceptable' free speech at BGU but anti-state, anti- zionist, pro-terrorist, pro-boycott statements do not fall into that catagory. Shame on you BGU for your intellectual dishonesty.
27. ...yet, when a professor at the same university calls for...
Ze'ev ,   Beer Sheva, Israel   (07.04.10)
...the boycotting of Israel by the international community, including the boycotting of Beer Sheva university, the university is silent under the principle of "academic freedom". What a pathetic state of affairs...!!
28. Hypocrisy
Arie ,   BaGolan   (07.04.10)
A professor attacking Gay couples is condemned and fired...and rightfully so. Yet it is still ok for lecturers in leftist pro-Hamas TA to attack soldiers who risk their lives for our safety
29. to # 15 David
Arn ,   Yehud, Israel   (07.04.10)
You wrote: " Freedom of speech is not freedom to teach stupidity and close-mindedness." I'm not sure a university education can repair so abject a deficiency as you demonstrate in your intellectual maturity. The issue the wise professor raised has everything to do with human psychology and child development, and nothing to do with freedom of speech and "harmful opinions." Plainly, your own thinking has been grossly muddied and polluted by whoever shouts the loudest at any given hour. That you would link the professor's remarks with an abuse of freedom of speech tells me that all your years at school have been for naught.
30. as i march for israel today at toronto gay pride
gays4israel ,   toronto   (07.04.10)
it will sadden me to know there are lots of homophobes in Israel I will continue to fight for Israel in the gay community and continue to fight for gay rights in the jewish community. FAR LEFT DISGUSTS ME--- FAR RIGHT DISGUSTS ME NOT SURE WHO IS WORSE VIVA ISRAEL
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