Joan Scott is a US academic and former chair of the American Association of University Professors' academic freedom committee.

Engage readers will know her for her response to the AAUP's recent decision to cancel their planned conference with supporters of an academic boycott of Israel, reported in Inside Higher Ed. Her comment at the bottom of this report contains the following piece of crass anti-Zionist conspiracy thorising:

... The conference was not called off because of the inadvertent inclusion of an anti-Semitic article in a packet of reading materials.

That was the last straw in a carefully orchestrated campaign to abort the conference by a lobby of people (pro-Israel occupation)who believe that any representation of a point of view other than theirs is ananthema; indeed they claim that academic freedom is the freedom to listen only to those who agree with them (for an example of this reasoning see E. Hirsch comment above).

...They did not protest quietly, but alerted entire list serves of lobbyists who began to campaign for closing down the conference.

[Mr Jaschik, the reporter for Inside Higher Ed] fails to identify the "critics" as lobbyists on behalf of the current Israeli regime (or fellow travellers of those lobbyists) and it is important to know that to understand their criticism.

It is worth looking at the other comments that respond to Scott's allegations on the Inside Higher Ed piece.

In January, "Americans for Middle East Understanding" published an extensive paper written by Joan Scott entitled "Middle East Studies Under Siege". Scott argues that, particularly since September 11, there has been a McCarthyite witch-hunt of academics, particularly in Middle East Studies, particularly those that criticise Israel. This, allied with the Bush regime and the Israeli state, she sees as the most significant threat to academic freedom in the USA.

Phyllis Chesler, with colleages from "Scholars for Peace in the Middle East" has written this reply. She argues that "Scott�s pronouncements are manifestoes in the culture war now paralyzing serious intellectual work on the problems that face democratic societies in the 21st century."