Exclusive MIT interview Palestine linguistics course reflects political pressure on academic freedom By Sahar Dadjoo Linguist Michel de Graff tells The Tehran Times that MIT rejected his course on language and liberation in Haiti, Palestine and Israel due to political pressure, not academic concerns. According to him, his colleagues claimed that he "lacked expertise" in Palestine - an argument he calls racist, since expanding linguistic analysis across contexts is the core work of the field. Emails link the refusal to congressional pressure. MIT Open Learning later admitted that it was promoting its videos to avoid political backlash and loss of federal funding. De Graffen warns about the "Palestine letter" that silences knowledge.

Exclusive MIT interview Palestine linguistics course reflects political pressure on academic freedom By Sahar Dadjoo Linguist Michel de Graff tells The Tehran Times that MIT rejected his course on language and liberation in Haiti, Palestine and Israel due to political pressure, not academic concerns. According to him, his colleagues claimed that he "lacked expertise" in Palestine - an argument he calls racist, since expanding linguistic analysis across contexts is the core work of the field. Emails link the refusal to congressional pressure. MIT Open Learning later admitted that it was promoting its videos to avoid political backlash and loss of federal funding. De Graffen warns about the "Palestine letter" that silences knowledge.