What's her opinion about extremist BGU professors like Gordon and Berkowitz who are opposed to academic freedom and call for a worldwide boycott of BGU - while collecting their salary thanks to donors like Leaf. How many papers would BGU publish if the radical professors got their way and BGU was boycotted along with every other academic institution in Israel?

Jane Leaf is, of course, allowed her opinions. However the number of publications a university has doesn't reflect the quality of education. In fact, large publication numbers often mean the top professors have minimal student contact. Ms. Leaf calls Im Tirtuzu 'hooligans" She questions respect for other's opinions. Funny.... the left wing professors that Im Tirtuzu is opposing have no respect or tolerance for anyone with an opinion other than their own. One can't even handle a student in uniform! --Double Standards--If the left would allow they right what they demand for themselves there would be real freedom of thought in Israel.

...left wing movement. It is a Zionist movement that includes among its members and supporters people from the left, right and center, mostly university students in their 20s and 30s who care about classic political Zionism, the nation-state of the Jewish people, Israel, and Israel Defense Forces (IDF). To refer to such people who care about the Jewish people, its homeland, its civilization and its defense forces as hooligans is pathetic to say the least and it reflects on the people who utter such statements more than on anyone else. It is time Jews from abroad learned about Israel, its society and history before telling us, Israelis, who we are and how we must conduct our affairs. Not doing this amount to arrogance, and just as anyone else does not appreciate arrogance, neither Israelis citizens...!!

These goons remind me of certain people after WWI

Ynet bias.

What are Mrs. Leaf credentials to criticize Im Tirtzu and enter Israeli politics? The fact that she has money? That is the reason her opinion is important? She also helps NIF, so why should it sound strange that she defends people like Neve Gordon? Time has come to kick out of all universities people who declare that they are against Israel! Also, anybody who feels offended for a student wearing his IDF uniform should not be considered apt to teach!

Its time the students of Israel fix things themselves. DO NOT ASK US TO STOP OUR DONATIONS, nor will you tell us to change the banking details to some law firm! For this money is none of your business. Sort out your own mess, and let the financial aid continue, for we don’t care what your internal problems are, we just care about your bank balance. You want change? Then go on a peaceful march through campus. I agree with your struggle, and the fact that some of the lectures are becoming a problem, however asking us to rethink donations – is not right. Lastly, G-D blessed many of us in the Diaspora with success, I believe to be able to indirectly help Israel, this bond (the only one we have with Israel) is not for you (students) to temper with.

She ,obviously supports the extreme left professors in Israel,but she is only one and the graet majority of the American jewery leans to the right .

will end, and free thinking people will enter the universities.

Donors should be asked to continue donnate but rather fund a new university with academic freedom. One that respects the 4,000 year old land of Israel, one that will not preach self-destruction. This university would be immensely popular with students. Also, students minds would not be warped by internal anti-semetic bias. The New Israel Fund, that Leaf donates to (though is sounds positive is Orwellian in apellation) funds any small group of Jews or Jews and Arabs that are anti-Israel and fight against ISrael's 4,000 year old right to its land. It fights for Arab settlers to continue to occupay the land and to annihilate Israel. Look it up. I only ever facts and not fantasy like the radical extreme leftists on here.

The donor says it all : "According to Leaf, who donates both to Ben-Gurion University and to the New Israel Fund" Yes, the same New Israel Fund which is behind most of "facts" of Goldstone. How surprising that a far-left activist support far-left ideologist of BGU, and that he hates Im Tirzu... What a new.

What is this donor meaning by "internal political problems regarding academia"? No, it is not internal political problems when facing anti and post-zionism in a respected university sponsored by public funds. I am also surprised to read "hooliganism" from a person close to academia. Is freedom of speech only one-way? Old USSR tactics.

on who's payroll those Diaspora do-gooders are themselves?

#8 Israeli's appreciate you donation but don't you care where your money is going to? Don't just sign a check to feel good and clear your conscience. Maybe you should be more involved and demand your money go to specific interests or fields of study. Don't just sign a blank check to the University. #9 - No, most American Jewry leans to the left. Just look at the 2008 election.

What can be expected from a Dingbat in Tennessee who does not know anything aboiut Israel?

Maybe Mrs Leaf did not realise that Palestinians are asking every country to boycott Israeli Universities. Or she realised it but couldn't care less, because she thinks Palestinians have every right to do so, while she will deny Im Tirtzu to act in the same way to support their own values. But this would look like double standards, the same kind some BGU professors are applying. The question is: are all valuable professors radical left-wingers or is the University choosing only its professors among the radical left-wingers?

Obviously this woman is using her cry for pluralism as a fig "Leaf "like all the extreme left to cover up their own left wing bigotry.Time to stand up and fight the "Fig Leafs" of this world. Exposee them for the hypocrites that they are, Let them keep their tainted donations well survive very nicely without them. Leftist tyranny in academia must end !!

My question exactly! Why is academia controlled by Leftist dictators who try to suppress the Rights thoughts and opinions?

A group of people(Im Tirtzu) have become prominent in Israel with a sick and insidious campaign aimed at weakening democracy and paralysing free speech. Using paradoxically the slogan of Herzl,billboards in arabic in highly populated jewish areas are sending out ominous messages of hatred.Investigations into sources of funding for NGO"s with whom they do not agree are all dangerous trends. Firstly we need to know who is funding IM TIRTZU?

if, as ms leaf says, "the Beersheba university's donors [don't] care about internal political problems when it comes to the academia", then what's this article about? clearly, she does care, and equally clearly, she would prefer one group of academics over another, since im tirtzu is only advocating for a balance of views within the faculty, and not the stifling of dissenting opinions. the irony of im tirtzu suggesting that donors stop funding some of the same people who advocate divestment against the state of israel (while collecting their salaries from the state), seems to be lost on the far left, whose self-righteousness is boundless and unreasonable. the fact is that not all philanthropy is equally helpful (otherwise maimonides wouldn't have had to classify it into different categories), and perhaps ms leaf (along with the rest of the american jewish community) needs to rethink where her donations are going, and what, if any, control those donations entitle her to.

Ms. Leaf and her minion of left-wingers have an obsession with the "who is funding?" demands of Im Tirzu.Every time they find groups opposed to their pro-Hamas leanings, that is their immediate response. Yet, why are they so openly opposed to identifying who is funding the New Israel Fund or other Anti-Israel "NGOs?" Why do they oppose the bill in front of the Knesset calling for transparency in donations lists? Quite simply, according to Ms. Leaf and her ilk, freedom of speech and assembly is required, required that is as long as you agree with them. Obamaism and Leninism at its core.

Left donate to extreme organizations. Why not to give money for building houses, food?

Why? Will you support the a Knesset bill demanding that all groups become more transparent as to their donation sources? Interesting that the left went screaming in opposition to that bill, yet demand that those that disagree with them say where their funding comes from. This is symptomatic of the TA lefties: what's the lefties' right (freedom of speech) does not apply to those that disagree with them. Zelda's version of "freedoms" exist in places like Cuba, Venezuela, China, and BHO's White House.

This dude cant argue with Im Tirtzu reports so he calls them every name in the book. Just like the Left. Freedom for everyone who is Left, everyone else can sit in an socialized prison

Jane Leaf is entitled to free speech. Yet the true huligans are Neve Gordon and cronnies who systematically destroy their universities aiming the destruction of Israel herself. She is giving free speech to the enemies of Israel, but wants to deprive free speech to Im Tirzu calling them Huligans etc. We will decrease our donations to BGU in Detroit if Jane Leaf will increase her donations to BGU.

I am a former student of BGU of a department in the Faculty of Natural Sciences. I received a first-rate education there which stressed scientific and academic excellence, and without the influence of politics. I owe a good deal to their commitment to science and research in my current job as a scientist. Just because a small minority of professors behave in an irresponsible and shameful manner is not justification for withholding donations- I agree with Ms. Leaf and her position on the matter, and the vast majority of BGU researchers are top-notch scientists who make the State of Israel great. If anything, this article has reminded me that I have been remiss in making donations to my old school.

Why do leftists hate freedom of speech? They claim to demand it yet anybody that disagrees with them are to silenced. I wonder why. Why do leftists think that foreign governments should be allowed to fund political action committees in total anonymity? Why do leftists think that they have a right to keep anybody that disagrees with their policies from either teaching or in our judicial system? In short why do leftists insist that we become a dictatorship of the left? Why do they hate democracy so much?