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Center for Monitoring Impact of Peace: Rejoinder

 

On 29 January 2002, the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace issued a detailed critique of my work on Palestinian textbooks and curriculum writing.  CMIP responded to my rejoinder with a short statement:

CMIP notes with regret the lack of substance in Professor Brown’s rejoinders to its “Anti-Peace Orientation of PA Textbooks”. Professor Brown has chosen to ignore the main issue, namely the actual content of the present PA textbooks.

While Prof. Brown relies mainly on his paraphrasing of the material in the textbooks, CMIP brings the actual quotes to the attention of the public. Although the interpretations may differ, by his own admission, Prof. Brown cannot contest the accuracy of these quotes.

For the record, and notwithstanding Prof. Brown’s assertion to the contrary, the founding Chairman of CMIP is Mr. Andre Marcus, businessman and philanthropist, who founded CMIP in 1997.

This response is inaccurate on several levels:

§         In my response above, I have shown numerous occasions where the CMIP has attributed things to me I did not say, claimed I did not say things that I actually did, misquoted its own reports, made significant errors of fact, omitted critical information, and consistently and severely misled its readers.  CMIP responds to none of this but merely characterizes my response as lacking in substance.  I think anyone who has waded through the exchange would be stunned by such a characterization.

§         The charge that I ignore the main issue of the “actual content of the present PA textbooks” is not only demonstrably false; it is also hypocritical.  One of my major criticisms of the CMIP is that it has consistently obscured the difference between the old and the new books.  It is the CMIP which—until its most recent report—obscured the significant changes of content in the PA-authored books.

§         I do not contest the accuracy of most of the CMIP translations because I have not checked all of them.  I do point out above how one translation is misleading.  The dispute is not primarily related to translation—CMIP has not challenged the accuracy of my translations either.  But merely ascribing our differences to one of “interpretation” is problematic: the fact is that CMIP chooses not to interpret or even mention evidence that does not demonstrate its point.  To reiterate an example one more time: every single book published since 2000 includes the description of the West Bank and Gaza as “the two parts of the homeland.”  Nowhere does the CMIP mention this, presumably because it directly contradicts the claim that the textbooks are predicated on the desire to replace the state of Israel with the state of Palestine.

§         The final statement once again misleads the reader.  It simply states that Andre Marcus was the founding chairman of CMIP, that the founding was in 1997, and that this is contrary to what I wrote.  It actually directly contradicts me only on the date: I state (above) that CMIP was founded in 1998.  What CMIP fails to mention is that this is the date mentioned in its own website: “The Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace, (CMIP) is a non-governmental, not-for-profit organization established in 1998 under the Not-For-Profit Corporation Law of the State of New York.”  In its October 2001 newsletter, CMIP claims to be three years old.  If the 1998 date is incorrect, CMIP should correct its own website, not me.

§         With regard to the identity of the founding chairman, I never named anyone for that role.  Andre Marcus seems indeed to have helped found the organization.  What seems to bother CMIP is that I name Itamar Marcus as the first director of CMIP.  And here I was correct and CMIP—by taking issue with this characterization—is being less than honest.  For reasons I do not understand, CMIP now seems to want to erase Itamar Marcus from its own history.  That is an untenable project.  A review of the earliest documents produced by CMIP shows that it names Itamar Marcus as its director.  He was continuously identified by that title until quite recently. Published journalistic accounts—often based on interviews with Itamar Marcus himself—not only identify him with founding the center but also portray CMIP as closely related (and sometimes identical to) another organization he founded, Palestinian Media Watch.   He authored the CMIP reports on Palestinian textbooks except for the one issued last autumn.  He publicly spoke in the name of CMIP until last year (the last mention I can find was in Moment magazine in April 2001).   As I pointed out above, he continues to rely on CMIP reports up to the present.  His organization’s website (http://www.pmw.org.il/news-021101.html) continues to claim the credit for CMIP’s work, stating: “The report on Palestinian school textbooks written by PMW staff for CMIP continues to have significant influence on international policy toward the PA.” 

§         From its side, CMIP continues to distribute the reports that Itamar Marcus wrote and directed.  And yet it carried out an odd act of deception.  The report on the 2000 books first listed Itamar Marcus as its author.  Then the report was posted again with some very minor changes except that the man identified as author of the first edition has his name completely removed.  Finally, CMIP removed all links to the report altogether.  (As of this writing, CMIP continues to make a major error in its attempt to erase Itamar Marcus: it removed the links to the two editions of the report but neglected to remove the files from its website.  Here is the link to the first with Itamar Marcus listed as author; here is the link to the second with Itamar Marcus removed.)  CMIP correctly notes that a Palestinian textbooks doctors a Mandate-era stamp (as did I in a report written prior to the CMIP’s), but seems to have engaged in a similar practice with Itamar Marcus.  The only statement from CMIP on the subject was given earlier this year when—suddenly and without elaboration—its newsletter announced: “Itamar Marcus is no longer associated with CMIP and has not been for some considerable time.”  My original statements are therefore fair and accurate.  The same can not be said for CMIP’s vague and misleading description of Itamar Marcus as merely once having been “a researcher employed” by CMIP and its attempt to erase his role in the organization.

§         CMIP has apparently misled journalists on the sources of its funding and for no apparent reason.  In January 2002, the Forward published an article on the controversy.  CMIP told the journalist writing the article that Andre Marcus paid for “its $100,000 annual budget almost entirely by himself.”  Yet the Jewish Communal Fund states in its 2001 report that it donated $25,000 (i.e., one-quarter of CMIP’s budget) in the year ending June 30, 2001.  As the former president of an institution receiving Jewish community support, I have to say that I am disturbed not simply by CMIP’s dishonesty but also its ingratitude.  The organization I headed indicated the support it received on all of its stationery and public documents.

§         These issues are at best tangential; I have no explanation for the odd lengths the CMIP has gone in trying to minimize the role Itamar Marcus played in founding the organization, directing it, supplying its staff, speaking for it, and writing its reports.  Nor do I understand why the organization would conceal the sources of its funding.  But I do have to add that the misleading statements CMIP makes—and its unsupportable criticism of those people who reject such statements—only undermine the organization’s credibility.