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tried to cancel his recantation. The judge refused to continue the trial. Between the months of April and June 2001, a committee of four university lecturers in Haifa University was appointed by the Rector to examine the quality of Katz's thesis. After examing alleged discrepencies between tape transcripts of the veterans statements and what Katz wrote in his thesis, the committee stated that there were grave problems and fallacies in the thesis In November 2001, the council for Advanced Studies of Haifa University decided on the basis of the committee's recommendations to disqualify Teddy Katz's thesis.
Dr. Pappe maintains that there was only one completely wrong quotation in the thesis out of hundreds with complete accuracy. He says that "Katz's thesis is a solid and convincing piece of work."
Dr. Pappe wrote a series of emails complaining about the treatment of Katz over the period January through November of 2001. He also also published an open letter accusing the university of moral cowardice. Dr. Pappe writes that the aborted Katz trial was "the only case so far in the history of Israel in which the Nakba has been discussed in court. By not allowing the trial to continue, the judge prevented Palestinian survivors from telling their story in court."
Now six months later Professor Ben Artzi, the Dean of Humanities, raises the charges against Pappe. Dr. Pappe believes the reason for acting against him now has to do with his "intent to teach a course on the Nakbah next year and my support for boycott on Israel has led the university to the conclusion that I can only be stopped by expulsion"
On May 19, the Presiding Officer of the Academic Disciplinary Court ruled that he would not convene the court because the complaint included charges of libel and slander on which the court could not rule. He did say, however, that the court could rule on the charges of "deviation from ethics, such as appealing to organizations abroad, insulting colleagues, and damaging their academic
integrity" if Ben Artzi rewrote and resubmitted his complaint.
If Dr. Pappe is fired it would throw a further chill over an Israeli academic community that is already very reluctant to criticize government action.
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