Controversy over a Book on the Middle East is Settled

A controversy which developed when a university press stopped publication of a book on the Middle East because, according to an official of an American-Arab group, it was “racist,” has been settled by. Assemblyman Alan Hevesi, president of the National Association of Jewish Legislators.

Hevesi said John Zogby, field representative of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, who made the racism charge, refused a request to submit evidence of his charge.

The State of New York University (SUNY) Press discontinued publication of “The United States and the Middle East,” by Philip Groisser because of what SUNY called “disappointing sales,” Hevesi said.

Zogby then publicly claimed publication was halted because of his committee’s pressure on the SUNY press to stop printing the high school textbook which he said the Committee considered “a racist attempt to introduce propaganda into the classroom.”

Hevesi, a Democrat who represents Forest Hills, N. Y., said he held separate meetings with SUNY Press representatives and with Dr. Seymour Lachman, consulting editor for the book and chairman of the National Committee for Middle East Studies.

After those meetings, Hevesi said he had been able to get from the SUNY Press “a commitment to republish an updated manuscript, directed toward the college level student, subject to the review and possible recommendations for revisions by the (SUNY) editorial board.” Hevesi said that arrangement had been accepted by Lachman.

CONCERNED ABOUT SUNY PRESS DECISION

Hevesi said he had become involved initially in the matter because of his concern that the SUNY Press “was making a publishing decision based on outside pressures from a special interest group which, if true, represents a direct threat to the principle of academic freedom.”

He noted that SUNY officials had asserted that the decision to halt publication of the book “was based solely on economic considerations and not on any charges of bias or racism as claimed” by the American-Arab committee.

Hevesi said that if the SUNY assertion was correct, then SUNY was “extraordinarily insensitive in announcing its decision to discontinue publication within a few weeks of Mr. Zogby’s initial attacks on the book, and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee’s continued claim of a great victory are false.”

Hevesi said that on November 10, he invited Zogby “to submit a detailed memorandum to the authors of the new manuscript so that they could consider the charges of bias and racism” made by the American-Arab committee.

Hevesi reported that in a letter to him dated November 18, Zogby “declined to do so and stated” ‘I was told months ago by SUNY Press that they had no plans to publish any more textbooks. I find that policy much more acceptable than any attempt under pressure to publish a racist one’.”

The Assemblyman commented “Obviously, Mr. Zogby is more interested in propaganda victories than in having input into the revision of the original text.”