On Wed, 22 Oct 2003, Ran HaCohen wrote:
> sorry to spoil the party, but I think this has been taken way out of
> proportion. I deeply respect Baruch Kimmerling, and I am aware of his
> opposition to what is misleadingly called "boycott of Israeli academics and
> academy". Kimmerling's position is legitimate, just as Hilary Rose's, and
> they have both been holding and debating them long before Tsadka's article.
Dear Ran, my friend:
Let me tell you that from my point of view any ANY restrictions imposed on
the academic world (call it as you wish) is not legitimate. Academy must
be an open space for cooperation, research, teaching and exchange of ideas
of any kind without any kind of external intervention. Hilary's position
is a boomerang. She and her supporters called for ACTION (and was not just
an opinion) that basically contradicts the very idea of academic freedom
and call to open the door for many versions of ulterior and extra-academic
considerations. From your point of view you, Hilary and others grant
"legitimacy" to the infamous CampusWatch initiative, that called the US
students to report about any "anti-American" (that is anti-war)and
anti-Semitic (read, critic of Israeli policy) expressions of their
teachers, and to establish on the web a black-list of professors who
should be boycotted by the "patriotic" students. Can you find the differences?
And yes, the (anarchistic?) academic freedom have its own prices. We have
to accept and tolerate many ideas and activities which we don't like or
support, but it is a part of the idea.
I was deeply moved by Paul Reyndols call for "some moderation of the idea
of the boycott" and his suggestion for selective support for the "good
guys" in the Israeli academy. I'm just wondering how this suggestion is
applicable. Do you want, dear Paul, to establish committees of inquire to
select who fit or doesn't fit your creteria of political correctness? What
should be such criteria and what about academe who never expressed their
political opinions (the majority, by the way)? Do you want to establish a
police of ideas.
Hello, there - before you're suggesting ridiculous ideas, please think one
step forward.
And finally, Paul and Hilary, how about to boycott the British academy
and academe because the criminal invasion of Iraq alongside with the
Americans. Or perhaps to establish a list of professors who supported,
were against or didn't expressed any opinion on this matter? Isn't the
British institutions a part and parcel of the British political system?...
By the way, by and larged this boycott has failed. I don't intended to
return to this subject anymore. Please accept this post just as a post
script. Now we all have to face more formidable challanges.
All the best,
Baruch Kimmerling.
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