Thank you Geoff for this interesting document. It is of course a matter of
opinion whether an academic boycott of Israeli university should be supported
or not, but to accuse its promoters of antisemitism is as ridiculous as it is
unsurprising. It is an old trick of many power structures to claim that if you
are against their views you are also against their people - in other words, you
are branded to be enemy of the nation, or, worse, a racist. This strategy has
recently also been widely used (and not just by Americans) towards anybody
criticising the actions of the present American government. The British prime
minister regularly brands as 'antiamerican' any activity which is opposed to
the actions of Bush's government.
There is an even darker side of this strategy. Antisemitism is not a figment of
the imagination, but a real, disturbing phenomenon, with its own long history
and it own sad present. To regard as antisemitic any criticism of the Israeli
government means also to divert the attention away from the real racial abuses
and discriminations. Whether this is deliberate or not is a question on which I
will not elaborate further here, but let me just say that it disturbs me to
realise that at the fore front of the 'friends of Israel' pact there are often
political groups which can trace their own origins in antisemitic and generally
racist views.
The issue of the Israeli academic boycott is very relevant to archaeology,
partly for historical reasons (the parallel with the southafrican boycott, as
Reuben mentioned, obviously comes to mind) but also because Israel is a country
which is archaeologically both very rich and very active. Many archaeological
international missions indeed operate in Israel. I have my own doubts about the
boycott, which perhaps there will the opportunity to discuss in the future on
this list, but, in view of the Israeli illegal occupation of the Palestinian
territories, I certainly would not work in Israel. For the same reasons I would
not work in northern Cyprus or Iraq, two other illegally occupied countries. By
restricting my own freedom at least nobody can accuse me of restricting that of
others.
Cheers,
Umberto
--
Umberto Albarella
Department of Archaeology
University of Sheffield
Northgate House
West Street
Sheffield S1 4ET
United Kingdom
Telephone: (+) 44 (0) 114 22 22 943
Fax: (+) 44 (0) 114 27 22 563
http://www.shef.ac.uk/archaeology/staff/albarella.html
For Archaeologists for Global Justice (AGJ) see:
http://www.shef.ac.uk/archaeology/global-justice.html
"There is no way to peace. Peace IS the way".
Quoting geoff carver <[log in to unmask]>:
> statements from the heads of a few american universities:
>
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/06/19/universities-condemn-professors-israel-boycott/
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