ABSTRACT
The relationship of academic publishing on Israel to an increasingly politicised ‘anti-Zionist’ academy is examined through a representative case study. Trends in the lists of some university presses that are held by Cary Nelson to be worrying include an indifference to evidence; contempt for conversation; a relentless repetition of a rebarbative language recycling key terms and phrases that are placed beyond critical reach; the redefinition of academic freedom so as to undermine that freedom; as well as the jettisoning of some traditional academic norms long held to be valuable. The violated norms include those for writers, including the effort to seriously engage with contrary scholarship and to document one’s claims, and for publishers, including the necessity of a properly executed peer review and editorial process, drawing upon perspectives beyond an anti-Zionist echo chamber. These concerning trends and violated norms are predicted to have a deleterious impact upon classroom and campus.
