The Fanonite

Michigan University Press, the US distributors for Pluto Press, have been the target of an Israel Lobby campaign for a while now. Last year they tried to ban Joel Kovel’s book, Overcoming Zionism. This spawned a protest campaign that led to the University of Michigan reversing its decision and putting the book back on the shelf. Clearly the Zionuts were less than pleased with the decision. So now they return to what they know best: behind the scenes arm-twisting. Here is from the website of an Israel Lobby smearmongers collective.

Local representatives from Bnai Brith, American Jewish Committee, the Jewish Community Relations Council, and StandWithUs met with University President Mary Sue Coleman and University Provost Terry Sullivan, Tuesday, February 12. President Coleman and Provost Sullivan assured the assembled group that the Pluto Press contract and all distribution contracts are being reviewed under the new guidelines posted in January.

“The director of the Press has been charged with reviewing all the distribution contracts of the Press,” said Coleman. “That review is to determine if the existing contracts meet the new guidelines.” President Coleman said that a determination on Pluto Press was expected before the May 30th deadline for terminating or the contract.

Since 2004, the University of Michigan has been the sole distributor for London-based Pluto Press, which publishes some of the most anti-Israel, anti-Semitic and anti-American tracts available in the United States. More than a dozen of these books advocate for the destruction of the Jewish State, and any book dealing with Israel can be trusted to vilify Zionism. Neither UM Press nor Pluto Press offer any texts that present pro-Israel views. If left alone the contract will automatically renew for six months.

Our efforts exposing this arrangement have led to the UMP executive board creating guidelines for contractual distribution relationships with other publishers.

The guidelines now appear on the UM Press website, but there is no mention of the ongoing review process or the reasons for it. Pluto Press also remains listed as a distributed publisher, as does all the language used by Pluto Press to promote its books on its own site. The resulting image is that Pluto Press is in compliance with the new guidelines.

When pressed on this issue, President Coleman and Provost Sullivan stated that these concerns would be brought to the UM Press Board. Several days later, at the time of this writing, the misleading website endorsement of Pluto Press remains.

Throughout the meeting, President Coleman laid great stress on the necessity of this review process being allowed to play out. StandWithUs-Michigan accepts that President Coleman placing an emphasis on proper review procedure is important when dealing with long standing university contacts. We also understand her concerns over appearing heavy-handed regarding the policy of a faculty board that was empowered to do exactly the review requested in this case. We share her respect for free speech and academic freedom, and we thank her and Provost Sullivan for the efforts that have been made. We are pleased to hear that President Coleman will be travelling to Israel with several university presidents on a Project Interchange trip in June. These are all positive steps…

The anti-Israel group sponsoring this event had the support of Arab and Muslim groups, and anti-war groups, and of course Amnesty International. But these unscholarly, overtly political events also held the endorsement of several university departments, including the Program of American Culture and the Screen Arts and Culture Department.

The same group also brought radical anti-Israel Pluto Press author Joel Kovel to Michigan last semester, and has now invited “Israel Lobby” writers John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt to Michigan in March…

The guidelines appear on the UM Press website.

StandWithUs-Michigan is working closely with the local chapters of leading community organizations, namely Bnai Brith International, Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, and the Jewish Community Relations Council to build a broad coalition within the Jewish community, and to reach out to non-Jewish organizations on this issue.