MESA Condemns Blacklisting

MESA's criticism, contained in a resolution approved by voice-vote and without dissent at its recent annual meeting in San Francisco, was directed at the New England Regional Office of the ADL for circulating on college campuses a document "listing factually inaccurate and unsubstantiated assertions that defame specific students, teachers, and researchers as 'pro-Arab propagandists.'" AIPAC was criticized for collecting "unbalanced information on students, faculty, and other parties..." through the use of surveys. The AIPAC survey was first brought to MESA's attention at last year's annual meeting, when members brought forth copies of a 12-page questionnaire that had been distributed by AIPAC to sympathetic faculty members and students at universities nationwide. The questionnaire - which offered no definitions for phrases used - asked recipients to identify pro- and anti-Israel faculty members, students and organizations on campus, and, among other things, to "name any individual faculty who assists anti-Israeli groups." Recipients were asked to specify how this assistance was offered, and, if there were a Middle East studies center on campus, "to elaborate on its impact." Similar information was solicited on persons involved in student government and the student newspaper, including guest columnists and those who had written letters to the editor. Recipients also were urged to suggest ways in which "anti-Israeli" activities could be countered.