British boycott backlash builds
By Israel Insider staff
June 8, 2007
UK academics faced an unprecedented backlash this week as a threatened boycott of Israeli universities raised the spectre of international sanctions against British goods and research, the Times of London reported.
The Israeli Government, an American research foundation and lawyers on both sides of the Atlantic are lined up to sink any boycott of Israeli academe stemming from a motion passed at the inaugural congress of the University and College Union.
While the global backlash gained momentum, UCU officials seemed unable to clarify exactly what implications, if any, the 158 to 99 vote in favour of a boycott motion at last week's congress would have for UK universities and academics. It may even turn out that a boycott will fail to materialize.
On Monday, the Knesset, Israel's parliament, began debating a draft law that could see British imports labeled,
A top British lawyer, Anthony Julius, said he had teamed up with top American lawyer Alan Dershowitz to fight the proposed boycott.
Speaking exclusively to The Times Higher, Mr Julius, who is also a visiting professor at Birkbeck, University of London, said:
Professor Dershowitz, Felix Frankfurter professor of law at Harvard University, has promised to visit financial and legal ruin on any UK academic supporting a boycott. Speaking in this week's Times Higher, Professor Dershowitz likened the boycott to the treatment of Jewish students and faculty in Nazi Germany. He promised "extraordinarily punitive" sanctions against those involved in boycotting, the Times reported.
But Tom Hickey, chair of Brighton University's UCU branch and proposer of the boycott motion, was unrepentant, saying that supporters were using "our scholarly judgment to improve the world," he told The Times. Ian McDonald, a senior lecturer from Brighton and a boycott supporter, said: "We have to challenge the notion that to be anti-Zionist is to be anti-Semitic."
Howard Jacobson: it's anti-Semitism
British author Howard Jacobson, however, said the boycott was anti-Semitic. Writing in the Independent, Jacobson slammed the academics who called for a boycott, wondering why they want to silence ther Jews: "Whether it's in the best of taste to like Jews better when they're in concentration camps than when they're in their own country I leave to less interested parties to decide. But this, I think, is obvious: you cannot proudly present one clean hand and not expect people to wonder what you're hiding in the other. A person cleared of anti-Semitism might still be guilty of something else. If anti-Semitism is repugnant to humanity, then it is no less repugnant to humanity to single out one country for your hatred, to hate it beyond reason and against evidence, to pluck it from the complex contextuality of history as though it authored its own misfortunes and misdeeds as the devil authored evil, to deny it any understanding (which is not the same as sympathy or succour), and -- most odious of all -- to seek to silence its voices."
"Will someone, in the light of that, explain to me what universities are for? Is not scholarship meant to constitute a sacred bond, an implicit assurance that here at least, in the free academy of the mind, the conversation will always go on no matter how bitter the disagreement, no matter how unorthodox or incorrect or even offensive the views expressed? Can that person be fit to teach, I ask, who closes his intelligence to such an exchange, who seeks to silence opinions he does not share, and who believes the only truth is his?"
House may condemn Brit boycotters
Meanwhile, the JTA reports, The U.S. House of Representatives is considering a resolution condemning Britain's University and College Union for their boycott of Israeli academic institutions.
The non-binding resolution, introduced this week by Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Pa.) and co-sponsored by a bipartisan slate of at least 30 lawmakers, calls on the international scholarly community, the European Union and individual governments to reject the boycott. UCU general members are also urged to reject their leadership's position on the boycott, the JTA said.
"We have no greater ally in the Middle East than the State of Israel and they deserve the support of this nation and full participation in the global academic community," Murphy said in a statement. "This boycott is unacceptable and I am glad so many of my colleagues from both sides of the aisle stand with me in opposing it."
UK Education Minister Israel-bound due to boycott uproar
England's Higher Education Minister Bill Rammell is visiting Israel, supposedly to strengthen educational links, but in fact to do some damage control. Rammell said he was accepting a long-standing invitation, but did not deny he would need to deal with the proposed academic boycott with both Israelis and Palestinians. Both the Israeli and British governments, including Rammell, have condemned it.
The Israeli foreign minister Tsipi Livni, said Rammell was summoned for an "emergency" meeting due to the boycott, which threatens to spread to a large British Labor union in the coming weeks.
Again it says ...the Times of London reported.
This is a lie. It is ...
which is a long way from the Times of London
http://www.thes.co.uk/current_edition/story.aspx?story_id=2036994
The Israeli Government, an American research foundation and lawyers on both sides of the Atlantic are lined up to sink any boycott of Israeli academe stemming from a motion passed at the inaugural congress of the University and College Union.
While the global backlash gained momentum, UCU officials seemed unable to clarify exactly what implications, if any, the 158 to 99 vote in favour of a boycott motion at last week's congress would have for UK universities and academics. It may even turn out that a boycott will fail to materialize.
On Monday, the Knesset, Israel's parliament, began debating a draft law that could see British imports labeled,
"This country is involved in an anti-Israeli boycott".Elizabeth Goldhirsh of the US-based Goldhirsh Foundation, which funds research into brain cancer to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, said that the Foundation had been considering opening its grant applications to UK researchers but would not do so after the boycott vote.
A top British lawyer, Anthony Julius, said he had teamed up with top American lawyer Alan Dershowitz to fight the proposed boycott.
Speaking exclusively to The Times Higher, Mr Julius, who is also a visiting professor at Birkbeck, University of London, said:
"The vote has stimulated a great sense of solidarity among distinct constituencies. The overwhelming majority of Jews find the motion repellent, academics recoil from the double standards in the resolution and the threat to academic freedom, and people who are neither Jews nor academics see this activity for what it is: generated by malice and hatred for Israel."
Professor Dershowitz, Felix Frankfurter professor of law at Harvard University, has promised to visit financial and legal ruin on any UK academic supporting a boycott. Speaking in this week's Times Higher, Professor Dershowitz likened the boycott to the treatment of Jewish students and faculty in Nazi Germany. He promised "extraordinarily punitive" sanctions against those involved in boycotting, the Times reported.
But Tom Hickey, chair of Brighton University's UCU branch and proposer of the boycott motion, was unrepentant, saying that supporters were using "our scholarly judgment to improve the world," he told The Times. Ian McDonald, a senior lecturer from Brighton and a boycott supporter, said: "We have to challenge the notion that to be anti-Zionist is to be anti-Semitic."
Howard Jacobson: it's anti-Semitism
British author Howard Jacobson, however, said the boycott was anti-Semitic. Writing in the Independent, Jacobson slammed the academics who called for a boycott, wondering why they want to silence ther Jews: "Whether it's in the best of taste to like Jews better when they're in concentration camps than when they're in their own country I leave to less interested parties to decide. But this, I think, is obvious: you cannot proudly present one clean hand and not expect people to wonder what you're hiding in the other. A person cleared of anti-Semitism might still be guilty of something else. If anti-Semitism is repugnant to humanity, then it is no less repugnant to humanity to single out one country for your hatred, to hate it beyond reason and against evidence, to pluck it from the complex contextuality of history as though it authored its own misfortunes and misdeeds as the devil authored evil, to deny it any understanding (which is not the same as sympathy or succour), and -- most odious of all -- to seek to silence its voices."
"Will someone, in the light of that, explain to me what universities are for? Is not scholarship meant to constitute a sacred bond, an implicit assurance that here at least, in the free academy of the mind, the conversation will always go on no matter how bitter the disagreement, no matter how unorthodox or incorrect or even offensive the views expressed? Can that person be fit to teach, I ask, who closes his intelligence to such an exchange, who seeks to silence opinions he does not share, and who believes the only truth is his?"
House may condemn Brit boycotters
Meanwhile, the JTA reports, The U.S. House of Representatives is considering a resolution condemning Britain's University and College Union for their boycott of Israeli academic institutions.
The non-binding resolution, introduced this week by Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Pa.) and co-sponsored by a bipartisan slate of at least 30 lawmakers, calls on the international scholarly community, the European Union and individual governments to reject the boycott. UCU general members are also urged to reject their leadership's position on the boycott, the JTA said.
"We have no greater ally in the Middle East than the State of Israel and they deserve the support of this nation and full participation in the global academic community," Murphy said in a statement. "This boycott is unacceptable and I am glad so many of my colleagues from both sides of the aisle stand with me in opposing it."
UK Education Minister Israel-bound due to boycott uproar
England's Higher Education Minister Bill Rammell is visiting Israel, supposedly to strengthen educational links, but in fact to do some damage control. Rammell said he was accepting a long-standing invitation, but did not deny he would need to deal with the proposed academic boycott with both Israelis and Palestinians. Both the Israeli and British governments, including Rammell, have condemned it.
The Israeli foreign minister Tsipi Livni, said Rammell was summoned for an "emergency" meeting due to the boycott, which threatens to spread to a large British Labor union in the coming weeks.
"Whilst I appreciate the independence of the UCU, I am very disappointed that the union has decided to pass a motion which encourages its members to consider boycotting Israeli academics and education institutions, Rammell said. "I profoundly believe this does nothing to promote the Middle East peace process. In fact the reverse."
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Again it says ...the Times of London reported.
This is a lie. It is ...
which is a long way from the Times of London
http://www.thes.co.uk/current_edition/story.aspx?story_id=2036994
1 comment:
academic boycott of israel is something i cannot agree with because it will not put pressure in the right place. i mean what is point of boycotting professors and educators..it will be a setback to worldwide academic community, instead the politicians, decisions makers on those in the army should be boycotted. health and education should be kept away from all political wrangling
bhumika
middle east desk,the newsroom
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