Well said Umberto!  I fail to see how criticism of the political regime can
be reasonably misconstrued as an attack on the religious beliefs of the
Israeli people.
Cheers,
Emily

--
Emily Forster

Palaeoecology of historical human impact in the Lake District, England.

School of Geography
University of Southampton
E-mail: [log in to unmask]




Quoting Umberto Albarella <[log in to unmask]>:

> 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/
>
>
>