CAMERA calls for Brandeis to investigate professor

The Jewish Advocate
February 17, 2006
Pro-Israel media watchdog wants college to look into Professor Khalil Shikaki

By Shayndi Raice

From The Jewish Advocate, February 17, 2006

Brandeis professor Khalil Shikaki lost points this week in the Boston Jewish community.

After the Zionist Organization of America urged donors to stop giving money to Brandeis University because of possible connections between Shikaki and the terrorist organization Palestinian Islamic Jihad, numerous Jewish organizations in the Greater Boston area have stood firmly behind Brandeis in support of the professor.

However, this week Andrea Levin, director of CAMERA, a pro-Israel media watchdog group, has publicly called upon Brandeis to launch an investigation into Shikaki’s association with PIJ, marking the first local organization to question the university’s handling of the recent accusations.

“I think it’s worth making their own independent analysis of the situation,” Levin told the Jewish Advocate, referring to Brandeis’s decision to refrain from conducting any independent investigation into the credibility of the accusations leveled against Shikaki. Levin insisted that she is not calling for a boycott of the school. Rather, she feels that Brandeis should launch and independent investigation to maintain its reputation. “To clear the air, it would seem obvious,” she said.” Just look at it closely and make an independent judgment.”

Brandeis spokesman Dennis Nealon said on Tuesday: “Brandeis has nothing else to add. We think the university’s position is very clear on this.”

After government documents from a December 2005 case revealed that Shikaki was suspected of links to PIJ, a debate erupted as to whether someone with possible ties to terrorism should be affiliated with a Jewish institution such as Brandeis.

Shikaki is a senior fellow at Brandeis’s Crown Center for Middle East Studies and taught a course at the college on the Middle East with an Israeli and Egyptian professor in the fall of 2005. He has denied he distributed funds for PIJ, despite

government wiretappings which alleged that he did in a case against another Palestinian academic, Sami Al-Arian. The government lost its case against Al-Arian.

Morton Klein, executive director of ZOA, called for Brandeis to investigate the matter and urged donors to stop giving to the college until they responded appropriately. Jehuda Reinhartz, president of Brandeis, defended Shikaki, insisting that he was innocent until proven guilty and that the university would not take any action.

After Reinhartz’s response, the Anti-Defamation League, Americans for Peace Now and Brit Tzedek v’Shalom voiced public support for both Brandeis and Shikaki.