STANDWITHUS WELCOMES U OF MICHIGAN DECISION TO REJECT ANTI-SEMITIC BOOKS

Los Angeles — StandWithUs [SWU] welcomes the positive outcome of its efforts to have the University of Michigan Press [UM Press] reassess its contract with the London-based Pluto Press. The 2004 agreement had established UM Press as the exclusive American distributor of Pluto publications, which include anti-Western, anti-Israel and anti-Semitic books.

This week, UM Press notified Pluto that it will terminate the contract on Dec. 31, 2008, because "Pluto Press mission and procedures…do not meet [UM Press] requirements," according to Kelly Cunningham, the University of Michigan's Director of Public Affairs.

"This is a victory for all well-meaning people who want to see informed, fact-based debate replace the factual distortions and polemics that have tragically plagued discussions about

Israel

," said Roz Rothstein, SWU International Director.

SWU brought the issue to the UM Press board's attention last year when it questioned why the Press was distributing Joel Kovel's Overcoming Zionism and giving his polemical work the status of a UM Press-approved, academic study. The book is a "reckless, vicious and unmodulated attack on Zionism and all Zionists," according to an email UM Press Director Phil Pochoda sent to Kovel.

"We discovered that Pluto boasts it is 'one of the world's leading radical book publishers,' and its stated mission is to advance a radical political agenda. We also learned that Pluto books did not go through peer review, which is required for all other UM Press titles and for most books published by university presses. An unsuspecting reader would just assume that Pluto titles meet high academic standards, when in fact, many are simply political tracts that were never peer reviewed," explained SWU Michigan director Jonathan Harris, who spearheaded the high profile expose of UM Press relationship with Pluto.

Harris joined with other Detroit organizations, including Bnai Brith, the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Community Relations Council, and the Zionist Organization of America, that all shared SWU's concerns. They presented their findings about Pluto Press and the contract to University of Michigan administrators, including President Sue Coleman.

"Without the impetus and leadership from Jonathan Harris from StandWithUs, this often anti-Israel and anti-Semitic press may have gone on blithely spewing their hate-filled, politically agendized rhetoric," said Betsy Kellerman, Regional Director of the ADL in Michigan.

SWU stresses that free speech is not at issue. "SWU unequivocally supports freedom of the press, and Pluto has the right to publish whatever it wishes, however reprehensible its works may seem to others. The question is whether UM Press should distribute and, in effect, promote titles that do not meet elementary scholarly standards and that incite prejudice," stated SWU International President Esther Renzer.

An even graver problem was that the bulk of UM Press offerings on the Middle East were from the anti-Israel Pluto Press. Anyone looking for another point of view about Israel or a balanced study could not find them on the UM Press lists, according to Harris.

"The contract had made UM Press one of America's major distributors of anti-Israel, anti-Semitic texts and gave these titles apparent legitimacy. The UM Press' decision will help turn back the rise of anti-Israel polemics masquerading as scholarship," predicted Rothstein.

"The decision reinforces SWU's founding belief that education is crucial," Rothstein declared. "Once it was made fully aware of the nature of Pluto titles and of the automatic approval given to Pluto books, UM Press made the right choice and renewed its commitment to academic integrity. SWU will remain vigilant in its widespread effort to educate and to ensure that facts and balance triumph over the polemics of prejudice."

StandWithUs, an international, non-profit Israel education organization hosts speakers and conferences, offers website resources and creates brochures and materials widely distributed in universities, libraries, high schools, churches and communities that teach about Israel's current struggles. Based in Los Angeles, the organization has chapter and offices in New York, Buffalo, Michigan, Seattle, Chicago, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Orange County (CA), Davis, Israel and the UK.

SWU was founded in 2001 in response to the second Intifada and the misunderstandings about the challenges that Israel faces.

StandWithUs Campus helps college students fight anti-Semitism and anti-Israel bias on campuses. www.standwithuscampus.com

Stand4Facts is a password accessible site that is a database of information on anti-Israel speakers. www.stand4facts.com

The Library Project brings balanced information on Israel to libraries nationwide: www.learnisrael.org

for teachers and librarians to access free teaching materials and tools; www.librariansforfairness.org

for activist librarians who want to mobilize their colleagues and communities to work for balance at their local libraries. www.standwithus.com