Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: McGraw-Hill

Showing posts with label McGraw-Hill. Show all posts

Thursday, April 14, 2016

A useful list of academic frauds who demand textbooks publish lying anti-Israel propaganda

The "Jewish Voice for Peace" group seems very upset that McGraw-Hill removed a textbook from circulation after I showed that it included a false piece of anti-Israel propaganda.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 12, 2016

Dozens of Prominent Academics Urge McGraw-Hill Education to Reverse Decision to Censor Palestinian Loss of Land Maps

Last month, publishing giant McGraw-Hill Education withdrew and destroyed copies of a US college level textbook because of complaints from supporters of Israel over a series of maps showing loss of Palestinian land from 1946, shortly before Israel was established, to 2000.

In response to this shocking and outrageous act of censorship of the Palestinian narrative from US schoolbooks, dozens of respected Palestinian, Israeli, and American academics have signed onto the enclosed open letter calling on McGraw-Hill Education to reverse its decision. Signatories include Rashid Khalidi, Noura Erakat, Noam Chomsky, Judith Butler, Sarah Schulman, Avi Shlaim, Ilan Pappé, and Angela Davis.

Here is the letter they signed. Keep in mind that these people are considered "academics."

Academics Urge McGraw-Hill Education to Reverse Decision to Destroy Textbook

We, the undersigned, urge McGraw-Hill Education to reverse its recent decision to withdraw and destroy the US college level textbook, “Global Politics: Engaging a Complex World”, which was made following complaints about a series of maps showing loss of Palestinian land from 1946 to 2000.

This blatant act of censorship, in response to complaints from those who seek to suppress a free exchange of knowledge and ideas about Israel and Palestine, is shocking and unacceptable.

The maps in question are historically accurate and vividly illustrate Israel’s dispossession of the Palestinian people and appropriation of their land, which is why the Israeli government and its supporters wish to suppress them. If there were in fact any minor errors with the maps they should have been corrected rather than removed altogether. Last year, in a similar act of censorship, the cable news network MSNBC apologized for airing a similar series of maps and retracted them.

It is imperative that students be able to visualize history, including through the use of maps, in order to learn how to analyze and understand it. Further, it is essential that faculty and students have access to educational materials that speak to the dispossession Palestinians have experienced, and continue to experience today. We cannot have a truly comprehensive understanding of Palestine or Israel without this information.

We urge McGraw-Hill Education to reverse its decision and reinstate the maps and textbooks in question.

First these academics say that the maps are historically accurate, but they they admit that the maps may have "minor errors" that "should have been corrected." Which is it?

It is neither. The maps are lies from beginning to end, both individually as well as in the way they are presented as a series. But you wont find any of these "academics" actually answering the proofs that they are propaganda. If they were true academics, who wouldn't lower themselves to answer my proofs, they should answer the objections of Yaacov Lozowick, who really is a historian unlike virtually all of the signatories.

If you need more proof that these "academics" are academic frauds, think about this: I am willing to bet that not one of them has actually seen a copy of this textbook. They are defending this propaganda map without knowing if it even fits in with what the text is saying! They argue that "it is essential that faculty and students have access to educational materials that speak to the dispossession Palestinians have experienced" but without reading the book, how can they know that this is appropriate in this case?

Here are the facts, since I've seen the full context and they haven't. The section of the book on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is less than two pages. The text mentions the separation fence and refers to the series of maps as showing where the fence is - but the maps don't show that.

I don't know whether it is the authors or copy-editors of the book who are to blame, but the reference the book gives for the Map that Lies is an obscure article, written in Arabic, that was published in a now defunct website. It was not published as an academic paper anywhere as far as I can tell.

Furthermore, the map was not created by the author of that paper; it was grabbed from some propaganda site and thrown in by the webmaster just to add an illustration. The paper was about possible security-specific solutions between Israel and a Palestinian state and had nothing to do with supposed land loss.

In short, there is no academic source for this series of maps. It was placed in the textbook even though it had nothing to do with the text, referencing a paper that had no relationship with the map to give it academic cover. There was some effort involved on the part of someone to include this piece of propaganda and to hide its origins from anti-Israel hate groups.

The academics who signed this don't give a damn about truth. They are saying that anti-Israel lies must be inserted in every possible medium and venue. In this sense they are echoing what professor Amy Kaplan said at a BDS conference on how to try to incorporate anti-Israel propaganda in courses that have little to do with the topic.

McGraw Hill did the right thing because the maps are filled with lies, the source for the maps was falsified (or laundered, if you prefer,) , and the graphics had nothing to do with the actual text. The Isrsel-haters know that the maps are a great propaganda tool and they cannot stand the fact that its lies have been exposed so publicly, both in this case and by MSNBC last year.

There are 37 signatories of this absurd letter. Being a signatory of this letter defending the indefensible is a very good indicator that these "academics" are simply frauds who are willing to sacrifice the truth in their hatred for Israel.

So here is the list of these academic frauds, courtesy of JVP. I include links where I previously showed them to be liars and deceptive (or quoted others who did.) Note also that there is at least one prominent J-Street member, Rebecca Alpert.

Nadia Abu-El-Haj, Professor at Barnard College and Columbia University

Rebecca Alpert, Professor of Religion, Temple University

Sofya Aptekar, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Massachusetts Boston

Sa’ed Atshan, Visiting Assistant Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies, Swarthmore College

Elsa Auerbach, Professor Emerita, University of Massachusetts Boston

Daniel Boyarin, Hermann P. and Sophia Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture, Departments of Near Eastern Studies and Rhetoric, University of California at Berkeley

George Bisharat, Emeritus Professor of Law, UC Hastings College of the Law, San Francisco

Judith Butler, Maxine Elliot Professor in the Department of Comparative Literature and the Program of Critical Theory at the University of California, Berkeley

Noam Chomsky, Institute Professor & Professor of Linguistics (Emeritus), Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Omar Dajani, Professor of Law at the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law

Angela Davis, Author and activist

Estelle Disch, Ph.D., Professor Emerita of Sociology, University of Massachusetts Boston

Lisa Duggan, Professor of Social & Cultural Analysis, New York University

Nada Elia, Program Manager, Global Cultures Program, Northwest Language Academy

Noura Erakat, Assistant Professor at George Mason University

Andrés Fabián Henao Castro, Political Science Department, University of Massachusetts Boston

Margaret Ferguson, Distinguished Professor of English at the University of California, Davis

Katherine Franke, Sulzbacher Professor of Law, Director of the Open University Project, and member of the steering committee of the Center for Palestine Studies at Columbia University

Marilyn Frankenstein, Professor of Media and Society, University of Massachusetts Boston

Randa Jarrar, President of Radius of Arab American Writers

Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies, Columbia University

Martha London, University of Massachusetts Boston

David Lloyd, Distinguished Professor of English, University of California, Riverside

Saree Makdisi, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, UCLA

Ussama S. Makdisi, Professor of History and Arab-American Educational Foundation Chair of Arab Studies, Rice University

Bill V. Mullen, Professor of American Studies, Purdue University

Nadine Naber, Associate Professor, Gender & Women’s Studies and Asian American Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago

David Palumbo-Liu, Louise Hewlett Nixon Professor, and Professor of Comparative Literature, Stanford University

Ilan Pappé, Professor with the College of Social Sciences and International Studies at the University of Exeter, director of the university’s European Centre for Palestine Studies, and co-director of the Exeter Centre for Ethno-Political Studies

Rachel Rubin, University of Massachusetts Boston

Sarah Schulman, Distinguished Professor of the Humanities, City University of New York, College of Staten Island

Avi Shlaim, Emeritus Professor of International Relations, St. Antony’s College, Oxford

C. Heike Schotten, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Massachusetts Boston

Jack Shaheen, Distinguished Visiting Scholar at New York University’s Asian/Pacific/American Institute and The Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies

Simona Sharoni, Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh

Barry Trachtenberg, Director, Judaic Studies Program, University at Albany – SUNY

Judith E. Tucker, Professor of History, Georgetown University

This is a very useful list - a list of so-called academics who act in opposition of what academia is supposed to stand for. Anyone who attends any of their schools - or pays tuition for someone who does - should really ask their deans whether they are proud to have educators who explicitly favor hate and lies over the truth.

(h/t Alyssa)

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

Use the BDS tools against them! Thank McGraw Hill for withdrawing the textbook with The Map That Lies

The BDS crowd was taken by surprise by how fast McGraw-Hill acted after I reported that one of their textbooks included the famous Map That Lies. McGraw-Hill properly withdrew the book from circulation and said it would destroy all copies of the textbook, offering refunds.

Now they are trying to pressure McGraw-Hill executives to change their minds. The Israel-haters set up a page to automatically write letters to McGraw-Hill executives and to tweet what they've done.

Luckily, that page can also be used to email the executives a thank you for how well they responded to the discovery of lying, anti-Israel propaganda in their textbook,

Click on their page and write a letter of appreciation to McGraw-Hill using the BDSers' own tools.

The chances of McGraw Hill changing their minds is essentially zero, but supporting them in their decision can create positive dividends in the future. And it won't take too many "thank yous" to counter the dozens of insulting anti-Israel letters they are receiving. People like to hear compliments, after all, and McGraw-Hill acted like a company that cares about the truth in their textbooks - a very admirable trait indeed.

So take the three minutes to write the letter and thank them. The BDSers set the page up, the least you can do to thank them would be to use it.

The BDSers have a lot of other letter writing campaigns as well, especially to state legislators who are considering bills to condemn or outlaw boycotts of Israel. Those same tools can be used to counter their lies and tell the legislators the truth. So click away!

(h/t YMedad)

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

Electronic Intifada is really scared of the all-powerful Israel Lobby - meaning, me

It took a week, but the Electronic Intifada hate site finally found out about the McGraw-Hill textbook story and went nuts.

Rania Khalek, a self-styled "journalist" whose Twitter autobiography used to say "objectivity is bullshit," uses the usual EI playbook to paint anyone who is pro-Israel as ethnic cleansers, racists and - in my case - even worse.

Here is what they said about the publications that republished my scoop:

The first criticisms of the textbook came from the virulently anti-Palestinian and pro-settlement blogger Elder of Ziyon.

Within hours, the post was republished by The Tower, a self-styled Israel and Middle East-focused magazine and website run by The Israel Project.

TIP is a right-wing pro-Israel lobbying outfit that specializes in crafting and supplying anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim propaganda to journalists and policy makers.

TIP receives funding from major bankrollers of the Islamophobia industry and is headed by Josh Block, former spokesperson for the powerful Israel lobby group AIPAC.

Many of the EI articles I've seen - no matter who the writer - spends an inordinate amount of time attacking any pro-Israel voices by whom they have associated with, accepted funding from, partnered with, spoke at the same conference as, or whatever they can throw to distract from the actual things that these people say. Because EI knows it is intellectually bankrupt and its only tool is the smear tactic.

So how did Rania attempt to smear me?

Inspired by anti-Muslim hate group leaders like Robert Spencer, Elder of Ziyon is dedicated to demonizing Palestinians and Muslims, and even argued that the paranoid manifesto of Anders Behring Breivik is “not all crazy sounding - it is scary how sane much of the document seems to be.”

“Some of [Breivik’s] political analysis is actually on target,” Elder of Ziyon stated after Breivik massacred 77 people in Norway, supposedly in an attempt to rescue Europe from what he viewed as the dark forces of Islam and Marxism.

Breivik drew inspiration for his violent ideology from the US Islamophobia industry of which Elder of Ziyon is a part.

She actually attempts to link me with a mass murderer, by referring to an article (which she knows her readers won't bother to read) where I condemn him in no uncertain terms!

Khalek even retweeted Max Blumenthal's description of me as having praised the disgusting mass murderer:

She knows very well I did no such thing. I said that the fact that his manifesto has some correct information is what makes it so scary - how any ideology, including right-wing, can be twisted into unimaginable evil.

I was saying that the devil can quote Scripture for his purposes. Khalek's logic is that this is simply proof that the Pope must be a Satan-worshiper.

Why do Rania Khalek and Electronic Intifada spend so much time trying to smear their ideological opponents? Because they have no facts on their side!

Khalek pretends that there is no possible logical reason for McGraw Hill (and, last year, MSNBC) to denounce the maps as false propaganda.

Her conclusion is very revealing:

Asked who carried out the review of the book, [McGraw-Hill's] Mathis told The Electronic Intifada that it “was conducted by independent academics who determined that the maps were not accurate.”

Mathis did not respond to a follow-up query seeking more details about who carried out the review and how they reached such a conclusion.

As for who pressured McGraw-Hill about the maps, Mathis would only say, “We heard about this from multiple sources.”

Given the highly politicized nature of all discussion related to Palestine in the United States, the definition of who is an “independent academic” would vary widely depending on the perspective of who is making the assessment. And if the “experts” are indeed independent, they should be willing to provide an explanation of how and why they deemed the maps to be inaccurate.

The only way that McGraw-Hill’s credibility can be assessed is with some transparency about the groups or “experts” who made this recommendation.

Otherwise, we are left to assume that McGraw-Hill is effectively burning books to placate the censorship demands of right-wing anti-Palestinian bigots.

But the propaganda Map The Lies has been thoroughly debunked by many people, myself included, even within my original post about the textbook. There is no reason for McGraw-Hill to explain itself further to a group of people who defend lies.

Here is a very abridged debunking:

Khalek and her mud-throwing, hateful pals do not attempt to defend the maps based on actual criticism - because they have no defense. Instead, they use misdirection by saying (in this case) that since McGraw Hill didn't answer their insipid questions, then this major textbook publisher must be controlled by me and my fellow pro-Israel bloggers.

Think about this for a second. The idea that MSNBC and McGraw Hill, two media giants, saw very quickly that the maps have no factual basis does not - and cannot - enter the discussion. Rania Khalek and Electronic Intifada and the thousands of haters know that they are an effective propaganda tool for their lies and they must do everything they can to minimize the possibility that their cherished propaganda is debunked. But they cannot argue against the debunkings - because of those pesky things known as "facts." And, after all, in Khalek's world, objectivity is bullshit and lying propaganda is the truth. Hand waving, misdirection, labeling their opponents as evil incarnate is their stock in trade, but the truth must be avoided at all costs.

So the only alternative explanation that the haters can accept as and tell each other to explain why media companies retract the maps is that there is a shadowy group of ~~Jews~~ Zionists who effectively control the media and textbook industries.

Elder of Ziyon is, according to Rania Khalek, one of the real Elders of Zion.

Thanks, Rania, for thinking that I have so much power. You must be very frightened of me.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

FULL VICTORY: McGraw-Hill rules politics textbook is wrong, will destroy all copies and issue refunds

Last week I exposed a college textbook, "Global Politics: Engaging a Complex World", that included The Map That Lies anti-Israel propaganda picture.

A number of people wrote to complain to the publisher, McGraw Hill, and to its credit, within a day the company said that they put all sales on hold pending review.

That review has apparently been completed over the weekend, and the book is being pulled from distribution and existing copies destroyed.. Mark Jacobs received this reply from the company on Sunday evening:

Thank you for your query about the map in Global Politics: Engaging a Complex World. As soon as we learned about the concerns with it, we placed sales of the book on hold and immediately initiated an academic review. The review determined that the map did not meet our academic standards. We have informed the authors and we are no longer selling the book. All existing inventory will be destroyed. We apologize and will refund payment to anyone who returns the book.

Kind Regards,
Paula O | Customer Service Representative | Customer Service
School Education, Higher Education, Professional
McGraw-Hill Education | 860 Taylor Station Road Blacklick, OH 43004

At the moment, the book is still on sale at many textbook and bookseller sites, although it was pulled immediately from the McGraw-Hill website. But I assume that is an issue of logistics.

Kudos to McGraw-Hill for working to resolve this quickly and professionally. They took this very seriously and really went above and beyond to reach an accurate conclusion and make this decision - on a weekend!

Send your thanks to McGraw-Hill customer service hep_customer-service@mheducation.com and to their Twitter account @mhhighered and @mheducation.

I am very happy that this blog was able to make a difference. If only all media would be as responsive as McGraw-Hill has been to being shown that they are disseminating inaccurate anti-Israel information.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

Elder gets results! McGraw-Hill halts sales of textbook after EoZ expose

Yesterday I reported that a college textbook called "Global Politics: Engaging a Complex World" included the infamous "Map that Lies" propaganda poster as fact.

Sharona Schwartz of The Blaze contacted the company:

The McGraw-Hill Education book publisher said Wednesday that it would temporarily stop selling one of its college world politics textbooks so that it could review a previously discredited series of maps about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that was included in its pages.

In October, MSNBC apologized for airing the nearly identical four-map graphic, which it later called “completely wrong.”

The publisher’s decision came after pro-Israel blogger Elder of Ziyon reported Tuesday that the map series appeared on page 123 of McGraw-Hill’s college textbook “Global Politics: Engaging a Complex World.”

The graphic purports to show how Israel has taken Palestinian land over five decades.

“Pending a review, we are placing a hold on sales of the book,” Catherine Mathis, chief communications officer for McGraw-Hill Education, told TheBlaze via email in response to a request for comment.

I am quoted in the article.

“I was shocked and astonished to see this deceptive and false graphic being used in the textbook. Up until now, it had only been used in anti-Israel propaganda,” blogger Elder of Ziyon told TheBlaze via email. “The authors edited the graphic to make it even worse, referring to each successive panel as a ‘stage’ as if the Jews have been planning to dispossess Arabs for over seventy years.”

A search of college syllabi online shows that the book has been used in courses at Northwestern Oklahoma State University, University of Indianapolis, Western Illinois University, George Washington University School of Business and Marshall University.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

McGraw-Hill college textbook includes "The Map That Lies" (updated)

This is the cover of the McGraw Hill textbook "Global Politics: Engaging a Complex World"

Here is a scan of page 123. The book republished the propaganda poster of The Map That Lies!

The same lies are repeated here. To recap:

Map 1: calling public lands that made up far more than half the total land "Palestinian land" while Jewish lands are only the privately owned Jewish lands. "Palestine" was the entire British mandate, no one called the Arabs "Palestinians."

Map 2: A partition plan that never materialized because Arabs tried to throw the Jews into the sea. Again, no one called the Arabs "Palestinians" so the failed partition was not between Jewish land and "Palestinian" land.

Map 3: Land controlled by Egypt and Jordan, without any objection by the Arab residents, is falsely called "Palestinian land." No, it was Jordanian annexed and Egyptian controlled. (Of course, Arab communities in Israel are not called out.)

Map 4: The borders must be decided between the two sides, but even Israel's government doesn't call all the white areas "Israeli land." And the Palestinian land, is the first example of an autonomous area under Palestinian Arab control in history - something that Israel gave up for peace. The amount of "Palestinian land" hasn't shrunk - it was created for the first time ever.

Calling the four maps "stages" is even more offensive, as if this was a Jewish plot from the start to steal "Palestinian" land and force them out. Israel has given up land for peace since 1967, in the Sinai, Gaza, part of Judea and Samaria and southern Lebanon. Calling these four maps "stages" - especially when map 2 never existed in reality - is anti-Israel propaganda. And McGraw-Hill cannot blame the source for that - their stated source does not use the word "stages" in their version.

The text also refers to the security barrier as if its route is shown in the maps.

It isn't. The authors did zero fact checking. (The previous page says that the Six Day War forced a mass exodus of Palestinians, causing them to become a stateless nation. In fact, there was no forced expulsion in 1967 and the timeframes are completely wrong by any standard.)

I once made a more accurate map:

That shows how Israel keeps trying to give up real land for peace. And it has offered a great deal more for peace with the Palestinians. The book could have gone into why they continuously reject these peace offers...but it chose not to.

The textbook authors have taken a false narrative and are teaching it to students across the nation.

McGraw Hill must be held accountable for pushing such propaganda in college classrooms. The email address for their customer services is hep_customer-service@mheducation.com; let me know how they respond.

Hat tip to David Abrams of the Zionist Advocacy Center in New York (and who has been featured here before).

UPDATE: See here.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.