CAMERA: Gale’s Encyclopedia of Race and Racism Deletes Biased Zionism" Entry

Just over a year ago, we brought to your attention an article about Zionism published in The Encyclopedia of Race and Racism. The article was written by Noel Ignatiev, a radical professor and activist whose "credentials" on the topic included polemics posted on fringe Web sites describing Palestinians who murder Jews as "patriots," calling Israel "Hitlerite" and insisting that Zionism is racist and Israel should be eliminated.

It turns out that it’s Ignatiev’s article that’s being eliminated – and that’s good news for anyone who cares about factual accuracy, scholarship and defending Israel against defamation.

It was outrageous, we noted in our December 2, 2009 Alert, that an anti-Zionist extremist would be chosen by a respected publisher — Gale, a Cengage Learning company — to teach students, educators and the rest of the world about Zionism and Israeli history. And it was inevitable that the resulting article would be marred, from start to finish, by egregious errors and inflammatory distortions.
Exacerbating the problem was the fact that the encyclopedia singled out Zionism, the national movement of the Jewish people, as the only form of nationalism highlighted (and attacked) in a stand-alone article.

For CAMERA’s detailed article on the issue and rebuttal of Ignatiev’s article, clickhere.

The Re-Evaluation

Two weeks after we sent our Alert on the subject, as CAMERA was corresponding with Gale executives and after many of you sent thoughtful and compelling letters to the publisher making clear that the its reputation depends on the integrity and accuracy of its publications, there was more news to report. In a follow up Alert, we informed you that Gale announced  it was commissioning an independent board to examine "the factual accuracy, scholarly basis, coverage, scope, and balance of every article" in the encyclopedia in order to address concerns about the Zionism article.
The ResultsWe are now happy to share with you the results of Gale’s review. CAMERA was informed that the newly assigned independent editorial board responsible for The Encyclopedia of Race and Racism, which includes historians, economists, sociologists, cultural anthropologists and biologists from academic institutions in the U.S. and abroad, decided to make several key changes following its review of the original edition, including to eliminate Ignatiev’s propagandistic article.

The publisher notes that:

Per Gale’s instruction, the [new editorial] board has produced an independent review of the original edition. In general, it has recommended an expansion of the work in terms of the geographic regions and time periods covered. It has determined to exclude a number of articles that do not meet this broadened scope, and has named new topics to be covered in completely new material, as well in as revisions to some existing articles. Among its recommendations is to eliminate the Ignatiev piece from the new edition and retain the 10-part composite commissioned by Gale, with perhaps some updates to the bibliography of the latter. Commissioning of revisions and new articles is underway and we anticipate publication of the new edition in 2012. Owing to the broader scope, the new work will be 4 vs. 3 volumes.