Global Journal of Human Social Science, G: Linguistics and Education, Volume 21 Issue 14

There is a power attributed to the right words in the right order or captured at the right angle for YouTube. If the narrative amplifies sentiments in American culture that foster sympathy with the poor and powerless, it is accepted turning unverified pronouncements into unverified reports that ignore or omit the dynamics explaining the vector of developments. Echoes of pain and loss can carry a narrative across oceans and continents drawing false analogies between disparate groups or movements or histories that may expand allies but do nothing to deepen understanding of what caused their suffering and dislocation. The acrobatic logic interweaves fact and fiction spinning elaborate associative webs that deploy metaphors to fashion linkages between people, politics, and history with nothing in common except their calls for a reckoning with the powers presumably denying them justice. III. P etition The Petition sent to the AIS Board offers the clearest illustration of the overwrought and incoherent reaction to Word Crimes . Drafted by Yair Wallach, Pears Lecturer in Israeli Studies, at SOAS, University of London, the Petition objects to the title and to the Introduction’s vocabulary alleging both are designed to shut down debate by ‘criminalizing’ it. Mistakenly declaring the As soc iation for Israel Studies to be the Journal’s sponsor, 10 the Petition calls on the Association to recommit to the principle of intellectual diversity. This presumed peril to intellectual diversity is compounded, according to press interviews, by my serving simultan eou sly as an editor of Word Crimes and as AIS President. 11 An impressive 200 people signed the Petition addressed to AIS. Interestingly, most are not AIS members – nor is Dr. Wallach–and many are well-known proponents of a boycott of Israeli educational institutions. But among the AIS members who signed the Petition concerned with a commitment to intellectual diversity were scholars who had served on the Association’s Board–or even as its officers–or who were invited to join the Board or to become an officer. Some had won AIS awards for their work, and a large number had received grants enabling them to participate in national conferences. The 2019 Conference Programme provided further evidence of the diversity of perspectives on almost every one of its pages, and it is one that I not only applaud, it is also one that I actively encouraged as co-chair of the Conference and President of AIS. It is difficult to imagine stronger proof of an unshakeable AIS commitment to intellectual diversity. Torn between readily available ‘evidence’ and ‘outrage,’ Petition supporters appear to have rejected the easily substantiated former in order to manufacture a rage around the latter falsehood that the publication of Word Crimes jeopardised the core academic ideal of intellectual diversity in AIS and in Israel Studies . It is striking to have to remind established scholars that protecting intellectual diversity also demands shielding minority views – or what might be called fresh perspectives–from being trampled by majorities or by those, however small in number, who consider themselves entitled to define the borders of acceptable discourse. The Petition directed to AIS is riddled with errors but none so glaring as the meaning attributed to the title and to some of the words in the Introduction. No less an authority than Merriam-Webster lists ‘mistake’ as one of the definitions for ‘crime’ and suggests ‘sanity’ – another word flagged in the Petition–as a synonym for ‘rationality’ and ‘balance’. Just as an aside, Merriam- Webster won its status in the nineteenth century in what a recently published book by Princeton University Press calls Dictionary War s . 12 T he English language has much more depth and flexibility than is acknowledged in the Petition. The notion that as AIS President, I should not have published something as controversial as Word Crimes deserves added comment because it echoes statements from AIS colleagues who did not put their words into print. Let me begin by stating the obvious; namely, that I did not identify myself as AIS President in the publication but rather as Professor Emerita of Smith College. But if Association officers cannot compartmentalise their activities, it is necessary to ask how an injunction against publishing something that sparks controversy might be enforced? I was surprised by the reactions to the Special Issue since I have published articles and books for the past forty years without triggering much notice let alone dissent. Moreover, if officers are not allowed to publish during their terms of service, doesn’t such a ban compromise their academic freedom or even their fundamental rights? Is there any credible academic association that imposes such stringent rules on its officers? It stretches the term irony beyond recognition to point out that the very people asking for assurances critical discussions will continue both in the Association for Israel Studies and between the covers of Israel Studies are the very people refusing to engage in an intellectual exchange with the arguments set out in Word Crimes . Instead, they have sought to ‘deplatform’ or ‘cancel’ people associated with the Special Issue from conferences, doubling down on the insidious and untrue accusations originally served up on various listservs. Of course, given the times and the circumstances, it was also inevitable that the people who wrote and circulated the petition ramped up their smears on social media until Word Crimes was brought into the orbit of racism and of the so-called unprecedented dangers to democracy unfolding in the last decades in Israel and the United States. Any literate person – let alone © 2021 Global Journals Volume XXI Issue XIV Version I 41 ( G ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2021 The Gatekeepers platitudes, produce a script rather than an analysis.