美国国家公共电台 NPR--Kenneth Roth had a Harvard fellowship offer. Was it rejected for his view on Israel?

Kenneth Roth had a Harvard fellowship offer. Was it rejected for his view on Israel?

Transcript¹

NPR's Leila Fadel talks to Kenneth Roth, former head of Human Rights Watch, about Harvard University's decision not to offer him a fellowship. Roth says it was because of his criticism of Israel.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Kenneth Roth was executive director of Human Rights Watch for almost three decades. His job called for him to document human rights violations³ around the world. When he left that job last year, he says he received a call from the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

KENNETH ROTH: And they wanted to know would I like to come there as a senior fellow to work on a book that I'm writing. And we talked about it back and forth⁴. And within a month or so, I agreed that that would be a nice thing to do.

INSKEEP: Then something went wrong. Roth says he lost the fellowship because he criticized human rights violations in Israel. Leila Fadel spoke⁵ with Roth about what happened.

ROTH: We still needed the dean of the Kennedy School to sign off on this. But we thought it would be a mere⁶ formality. And, indeed, I was so, you know, certain that I was going to be coming that I actually reached out to the dean to say, look; I'm going to be there in September. Let's get to know each other. And we arranged a Zoom⁷ conversation in July and chatted for half an hour. And it was a perfectly⁸ pleasant conversation until right at the end. He asked this weird⁹ question. He said, do you have any enemies? Now, I mean, that's hard because I have tons of enemies.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Yeah. Your whole job is to criticize very powerful states.

ROTH: Precisely¹⁰. And they don't like that. So you know, I explained that both the Chinese government and the Russian government had personally sanctioned me. The Saudi government doesn't like me. The Rwandan government doesn't like me. But, you know, I had an inkling what he was driving at. So I said, and also, the Israeli government doesn't like me. And that turned out to be the kiss of death because two weeks later, the Carr Center called me up and sheepishly had to admit that the dean had vetoed my fellowship because of my criticism of Israel.

FADEL: Why did that happen? And did it surprise you?

ROTH: It surprised me because I thought, this is the Kennedy School. I mean, this is the place where domestic policy, foreign policy is taught. You get into all the big issues. And obviously, Israel is a major policy issue. And I thought, being the Kennedy School, being Harvard, that they would allow a broad array of views. So I was pretty shocked that the dean would penalize¹¹ me because of my commentary on Israel.

FADEL: Have you run into pushback like this before over your criticism of human rights issues in Israel?

ROTH: Well, at Human Rights Watch, you know, I regularly received pushback because of what we said about this or that government. And I would say that Israel was at the top of the list. And it was because, you know, many progressive donors¹³ also were supporters of Israel. And so I was challenged on this. But I got used to the idea that, you know, it was fair for people to ask me to be fair and fact-based on Israel. And I accepted that as just normal.

But no one would ever say, you've got to exempt¹⁴ Israel from your scrutiny¹⁵. You can't criticize Israel. You know, that would be a violation² of the standards that Human Rights Watch abides¹⁶ by, where we, you know, apply international human rights law evenhandedly to some hundred countries around the world. Evidently, in this case - I mean, here, we just don't know exactly what happened. But apparently¹⁷, what they objected to in my case was that I'm not partial. I'm an impartial¹⁸ critic of Israeli repression¹⁹. And that seems to have been the stigma²⁰ that the Israeli government didn't like, that its supporters didn't like. And that was why my fellowship was vetoed.

FADEL: What does this say about freedom of academic expression on campus? This is an Ivy²¹ League campus in the United States.

ROTH: This would suggest that Harvard is allowing donors to compromise intellectual independence at the university. And I understand how, you know? Any institution needs funds. But if there is a university any place in the world that could resist this kind of donor¹² pressure, it's Harvard. And so this is, you know, about far more than just my fellowship. I mean, I've been the director of Human Rights Watch for 30 years. This is not going to impede²² my future. But what I worry about are younger academics who take from this the lesson that if you dare to criticize Israel, your career could be compromised. And so, you know, I've been appealing to the president of Harvard, Lawrence Bacow, to clarify, where does Harvard stand on this? And this is an opportunity to say that Harvard will not allow donors to compromise academic freedom.

FADEL: Kenneth Roth, thank you so much for your time.

ROTH: Thank you very much.

INSKEEP: Now, we reached out to Harvard for comment. And Kennedy School media relations director James Smith said the decision not to offer Roth a fellowship was based on an evaluation²³ of his potential contributions to the school. Smith also said the school does not engage with donors or funders in our deliberations or decisions related to fellowship appointments.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 violation   

n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯

参考例句：

• He roared that was a violation of the rules.他大声说，那是违反规则的。
• He was fined 200 dollars for violation of traffic regulation.他因违反交通规则被罚款200美元。

3 violations   

违反( violation的名词复数 )； 冒犯； 违反（行为、事例）； 强奸

参考例句：

• This is one of the commonest traffic violations. 这是常见的违反交通规则之例。
• These violations of the code must cease forthwith. 这些违犯法规的行为必须立即停止。

4 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

5 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

6 mere   

adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过

参考例句：

• That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
• It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。

7 zoom   

n.急速上升；v.突然扩大，急速上升

参考例句：

• The airplane's zoom carried it above the clouds.飞机的陡直上升使它飞到云层之上。
• I live near an airport and the zoom of passing planes can be heard night and day.我住在一个飞机场附近，昼夜都能听到飞机飞过的嗡嗡声。

8 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

9 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

10 precisely   

adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地

参考例句：

• It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
• The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。

11 penalize   

vt.对…处以刑罚，宣告…有罪；处罚

参考例句：

• It would be unfair to penalize those without a job.失业人员待遇低下是不公平的。
• The association decided not to penalize you for the race.赛马协会决定对你不予处罚。

12 donor   

n.捐献者；赠送人；(组织、器官等的)供体

参考例句：

• In these cases,the recipient usually takes care of the donor afterwards.在这类情况下，接受捐献者以后通常会照顾捐赠者。
• The Doctor transplanted the donor's heart to Mike's chest cavity.医生将捐赠者的心脏移植进麦克的胸腔。

13 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 exempt   

adj.免除的；v.使免除；n.免税者，被免除义务者

参考例句：

• These goods are exempt from customs duties.这些货物免征关税。
• He is exempt from punishment about this thing.关于此事对他已免于处分。

15 scrutiny   

n.详细检查，仔细观察

参考例句：

• His work looks all right,but it will not bear scrutiny.他的工作似乎很好，但是经不起仔细检查。
• Few wives in their forties can weather such a scrutiny.很少年过四十的妻子经得起这么仔细的观察。

16 abides   

容忍( abide的第三人称单数 )； 等候； 逗留； 停留

参考例句：

• He abides by his friends. 他忠于朋友。
• He always abides by the law. 他素来守法。

17 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

18 impartial   

adj.(in,to)公正的，无偏见的

参考例句：

• He gave an impartial view of the state of affairs in Ireland.他对爱尔兰的事态发表了公正的看法。
• Careers officers offer impartial advice to all pupils.就业指导员向所有学生提供公正无私的建议。

19 repression   

n.镇压，抑制，抑压

参考例句：

• The repression of your true feelings is harmful to your health.压抑你的真实感情有害健康。
• This touched off a new storm against violent repression.这引起了反对暴力镇压的新风暴。

20 stigma   

n.耻辱，污名；(花的)柱头

参考例句：

• Being an unmarried mother used to carry a social stigma.做未婚母亲在社会上曾是不光彩的事。
• The stigma of losing weighed heavily on the team.失败的耻辱让整个队伍压力沉重。

21 ivy   

n.常青藤，常春藤

参考例句：

• Her wedding bouquet consisted of roses and ivy.她的婚礼花篮包括玫瑰和长春藤。
• The wall is covered all over with ivy.墙上爬满了常春藤。

22 impede   

v.妨碍，阻碍，阻止

参考例句：

• One shouldn't impede other's progress.一个人不应该妨碍他人进步。
• The muddy roads impede our journey.我们的旅游被泥泞的道路阻挠了。

23 evaluation   

n.估价，评价；赋值

参考例句：

• I attempted an honest evaluation of my own life.我试图如实地评价我自己的一生。
• The new scheme is still under evaluation.新方案还在评估阶段。