On the 20th April the council of the Association of University Teachers is
set to debate a motion proposed by Sue Blackwell of Birmingham AUT that
calls for a 'selective' boycott of Israeli academics. This motion is
supported by, amongst others, the President elect of the AUT, Gargi
Bhattacharyya. Below is a collective statement against this proposed
boycott. We would welcome colleagues to add their name to this, and to
contribute to a bulletin debating the nuances of a possible 'two states'
solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict (to be distributed at the event
on the 20th).
A STATEMENT AGAINST THE PROPOSED ACADEMIC BOYCOTT OF ISRAELI ACADEMIC
INSTITUTIONS
Signed by (all in a personal capacity): Robert Fine (Warwick University),
David Hirsh (Goldsmiths College London), Alan Johnson (Edge Hill College
of Higher Education), Jon Pike (Open University), Phil Semp (University of
Teesside) and Camila Bassi (Sheffield Hallam University)
As democrats, socialists, advocates of Israeli withdrawal from the
Occupied Territories, and supporters of the right of the Palestinian
people to an independent state of their own, alongside Israel, we call on
British academics to reject the moves for a renewed academic boycott of
Israel due to be debated at the council of the Association of University
Teachers on 20 April.
We urge them to consider the arguments against the boycott from Israeli
academics who criticise and oppose Israeli government policy.
Neve Gordon of Ben-Gurion University, for example, has pointed out the
inconsistent standards in singling out Israeli universities for boycott.
"Some of the boycotters come from countries that are also responsible for
much oppression and suffering... [and] Israel could not carry out its
policies without the ongoing support of the United States..."
Should we boycott US universities too? Why is Israel singled out? The new
moves for a boycott attempt to refine it, proposing boycott of only three
of Israel's eight universities. But boycotts do not make good precision
tactics, and in this case can only feed into the long-standing and high-
profile campaigns for a general boycott of all Israelis and all Israeli
goods.
Neve Gordon also points out: "Israeli universities have been under an
unprecedented assault by the Sharon government... An academic boycott will
only strengthen [the Israeli right], and in this way assist the
destruction of academic freedom in Israel".
Gordon himself has been denounced by the Israeli right as "a fanatic anti-
Semite from the monochromatic (Red) Department of Politics at Ben-Gurion
University."
To the argument that it is the "institution that will be punished for not
taking an institutional stand on the illegality of the occupation", Gordon
replies: "It is precisely the institution that enables Israeli professors -
regardless of their political affiliation - to voice their views,
suggesting that an assault on the university is in fact an assault on its
faculty...
"To fight the anti-intellectual atmosphere within Israel, local academics
need as much support as they can get from their colleagues abroad. A
boycott will only weaken the elements within Israeli society that are
struggling against the assault on the universities..."
Far from helping the Palestinians, a boycott will hinder the democratic
dialogue and accommodation on which prospects for a free and independent
Palestinian state alongside Israel depend.
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