Petition

A committee of eight professors-including two Harvard Faculty members-formed several months ago to increase American awareness of actions by the Israeli government which they claim constitute "suppression of the academic freedom" of Palestinian universities protested such activities in a full-page advertisement in last Friday's New York Times.

The Ad Hoc Committee for Academic Freedom, whose members include Professor of biology Ruth Hubbard, Mary L Gray, in structor in obstetrics and gynecology, and MIT and Brandeis University faculty members collected more than 600 signatures for the petition in the advertisement.

Sixteen Harvard professors, including John Womack Jr. Bliss Professor of Latin American History, were among the academic from the United States and Canada who endorsed the protest.

Citing a 1974 UNESCO charge that Israeli policy and actions concerning education were "paralyzing Palestinian culture," the petition stated that "military control over Palestinian education is totally incompatible with academic freedom."

It specifically condemned and Israeli military proposition which grants the government powers that include the right to censor reading materials control hiring and dismissal of teachers, and require a loyalty once of those applying for work permits.

"I feel very, very critical of the current Israeli government and its treatment of the West Bank peoples." said Fairchild Professor of Law Emeritus John P. Dawson, who signed the petition.

Dawson and several other Faculty members who also signed the petition said yesterday that they had no further involvement with the committee.

"The primary aim of the ad was awareness," said committee member Robert Lange, a Brandeis physics professor. He added that there are many stories about the harassment of institutions in the Israeli press, but very little gets into the American press."

Committee member Noam Chormsky, a linguistics professor at MIT, cited an incident in which a proposed feminist journal--originated by an Arab-Israeli woman--was denied the necessary "government stamp." Although the case was taken to Israel's highest court, there was no American reaction to the refusal.

"If someone tried to start a Yiddish journal in Moscow" and was refused permission, Chomsky added, "people would be screaming their heads off."

Members of the committee said the group plans no further action on his issue.