You deserve our appreciation for publishing Elia Zureik's article "Palestinian Education in Disarray." By allowing his dissenting voice to be heard, I am sure you will have upset the gatekeepers of orthodoxy on the Palestine Israel question.

Their resort to moral blackmail to protect Israeli tribal privileges has silenced heterodox discussion in the past, even within academic institutions nominally committed to open discourse. Their orthodoxy is long past needing exposure to the educational process, i.e., a good shaking up.

We need to remind ourselves of this, and other matters, that the infusion of universalist, humanist and democratic values is what distinguishes our endeavors from the inculcation of dogma. Palestinians are everyone's equals and the demonstrable denial of their right to equality by Israel's imposition of various colonial structures needs to be challenged intellectually and politically.

Mordecai Briemberg
Student Development, Douglas College, British Columbia