Are professors in our colleges suppressing freedoms?

An article by Cary Nelson in today’s Wall Street Journal highlights the disturbingly biased, anti-Israeli views of many of today’s elitist (as they no doubt hold themselves to be) educators. How, as the author implicitly questions, can Rima Najjar Merriman, a professor supporting a resolution urging the US to contest Israel’s denials of entry to Gaza and the West Bank be so ignorant of sovereign rights as to claim that “ . . . it was a violation of her ‘rights as an American citizen’ to be denied access to the West Bank.”? Well perhaps Ms. Merriman is not so ignorant as she is duplicitous. Turns out she labels herself (LinkedIn) as a professor at the Arab American University of Jenin (a city in the West Bank) working out of Bloomington, Indiana. She claims to be a “Palestinian American” and has written extensively regarding what she sees as Israeli abuses of Palestinians. Perhaps the Modern Language Association, which is considering the subject resolution, should ask whether it is being duped by those with a political agenda. Perhaps institutions of higher learning should ask whether groups such as the MLA are duping them. Lastly, perhaps Americans should ask whether Ms. Merriman is duping us all by calling herself a citizen of our country.

Another Anti-Israel Vote Comes to Academia