On Mon, 31 Mar 2003, David Seddon wrote:
> In the meanwhile, I am saddened that Baruch Kimmerling - whom we know to be
> against the current academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions - is
> unable to distinguish between the two situations (despite some undoubted
> parallels). What is really horrific is the way in which the war in Iraq has
> effectively given the 'green light' to the Israeli government and military
> authorities to intensify their crimes against humanity in the Occupied
> Territories of Palestine.
Dear David at all:
I'm also horrified among the other horrifying things by the
implications of the Anglo-American colonial war on the legitimacy of what
the Sharonoids should do in the occupied territories. I'm also aware that
many of my American and British colleagues are highly active in the
anti-war movements (in the US they are called
"dessidents" - sic!) and I do highly appreciate they efforts.
However, this is prdciselly one of my points. The British and American
academe - just right the Israeli one - are weak and fragil stading against
the political system, most of the recruited mass media, and the majority
of the poblic opinion.
If the Israeli occupation and sbjugation of the Palestinians are only
increased and became monsterious it is preciselly because - among the
other factors - we are weak and fragil and not because we were not active
in anti-occupations moveents. On contrary - our resistance made us more
weak and even complitely excluded from the legitimate public discourse. 35
years I was a regular colomnist of Haaretz newspaper, about a year ago
after I published an article about the legitimacy of Palestinian
resistence (not terror against civilian populations) I found myself out
from Haaretz editorial pages...
That why and also because intrinsic reasons (booycott contradict any
notion of academic freedom!) I strongly oppose the idea of any academic
boycott. I hoped that British and American academics - finding themselves
in a similar situation - should finally better understand the Situation of
Israeli academy. And Sara Dayson, yes, we are talking SOCIOLOGY.
Yours, BK.
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