Harvard Divinity School Backs Away from Examination of Israel-South Africa Ties

By the Rev. L. Humphrey Walz

At the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, Veterans Day 1989 proved to be especially memorable for veterans of the struggle for human rights in South Africa and Israel. A forum on Apartheid's Arc and the Palestinian Uprising: Making the Connections was the main attraction. Its organizers, the Cambridge-based Middle East Justice Network, had initially hoped that 125 people would attend. Actually close to four times that number showed up for an exciting 10 hours of analysis and interpretation.

Firsthand reports by a who's who of human-rights authorities shed light on parallel and related violations by the two countries, and on their joint defiance of restrictions on nuclear proliferation.

Two fortuitous developments contributed to the large turnout. First of all, the Oct. 25 through 27 NBC Nightly News presented a three-part, CIA-documented series exposing Israel's cooperation with South Africa in building a nuclear-tipped missile in exchange for a steady supply of uranium.

"Israel, " the NBC report noted, "ignored Washington's discreet protest and appears to be expanding the secret relationship. " The NBC broadcast heightened interest in the questions in the conference's promotional brochure: "What is the nature of the connection between Israel and South Africa and why should it concern Americans? Why is it important for the anti-apartheid movement and the peace movement to address the issue? What are the implications for an effective sanctions program for the control of nuclear proliferation and for prospects of a just peace in the Middle East?"

Shortly thereafter, the Oct. 31 Harvard Crimson reported that, after agreeing to host the forum, the Harvard Divinity School had rescinded its agreement to host the event, forcing its transfer from its announced site on the Harvard campus. Ironically, the Harvard Crimson article was written by an Israeli student, Joshua A. Gerstein, who had become concerned about official secrecy under his country's present leadership, and its South Africa connections.

The registrar's office had "approved the conference and reserved space for it, " Gerstein wrote, but later "Dean Ronald Thiemann and Associate Dean for Finance and Development Timothy D. Cross cancelled the arrangement. " A conference with such a title, they had decided, "wasn't an appropriate event for them to have here."

Gerstein's attempts to get further clarification were fruitless, but he got a contrasting view of the event's appropriateness from its chief organizer, Nancy U. Murray, a church-minded Harvard alumna with extensive experience in Africa.

"The Divinity School," she told him, 'would have been a perfect forum because of recent statements about the South Africa-Israel link by the World Council of Churches and Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu, a rnember of one of Harvard's governing bodies. " That's why, she said, they had made arrangements quite early to meet there. The cancellation, she felt, "was a bit unfortunate," but at least the new host institution "doesn't seem to have the same kind of pushes and pulls" constraining Harvard.

Ivan J. Dominguez, president of the Harvard Israel Political Action Committee, however, applauded the Divinity School's rejection. By his criteria, it did not constitute an infringement of academic freedom. In the Nov. 2 Crimson, a reader, Lori E. Fein, echoed that sentiment.

"The sponsors of the forum are interested in more than a constructive discussion or aiding the victims of apartheid, " she wrote. "They also wish to deceive their audience and promote their own anti-Israel agenda. " To enforce her point, she cited just two of the conference's 23 speakers, both of them Jewish, one a faculty member of Haifa University and the other at Harvard, as unqualified.

Three long letters of reply—one from a professor, one from five Palestinian and South African students and one from Ms. Murray—appeared in the Nov, 8 Crimson and included the following points:

Ms. Fein's criteria for speakers (exclusive academic specialization in the field under discussion, precise balance of presentations, and absence of political agenda), if applied across the board, would eliminate most of Harvard's "rich array of forums, speeches and round tables. "
If Harvard is free to criticize South African detentions without trial, shooting of demonstrators and putting politically discriminatory racial/religious classifications on ID cards, why need it keep silent on Israel's violations of human rights or its parallels to and collusion with South Africa?
The questions raised in the forum and by the Divinity School's still inadequately explained action are long overdue for scrutiny in the "marketplace of ideas."

Audio and videotapes of excerpts from the conference's candid, authoritative examinations of frequently suppressed information were prepared for presentation in churches. They and copies of the sponsor's newsletter, Breaking the Siege, may be ordered from the Middle East Justice Network, PO Box 558, Cambridge, MA 02238; (617) 666-8061; FAX (617) 776-8926. If you keep back numbers of The Link, you'll find the thinking of three speakers dominating the issues noted below: Marquette Professor Robert B. Ashmore on "Israel and South Africa: A Natural Alliance" (Oct. 1988); Haifa University Professor Benjamin Beit Hallahmi on the "US-Israeli-Central American Connection" (Nov. 1985); and Israeli Foreign Affairs editor Jane Hunter on "The Israeli-South African-US Alliance" (March 1986).

The Reverend L. Humphrey Wa1z, D.D., retired associate executive of the Presbyterian Synod of the Northeast, is active in denominational and ecumenical peacemaking movements.