thanks for this, Stuart. it is good to know who stands for what and on 
what side. according to the article below, we might as well embrace an 
academic institution irrespective of its structural racism, since there 
are exceptions to the institutional rules (what a novel finding!). i 
find that rather lacking in terms of constructive propositions (never 
mind the figment of pro-Palestinian bias in the EU; that is a first for 
me!), and it flies in the face of what has already been stated by Rita 
earlier. One can certainly strive to provide the conditions for greater 
understanding, and that is commendable. But as long as one of the two 
academic world is being squashed by state institutions from another 
side, the understanding brings only superficial or palliative results. 
Material conditions do matter, crucially. So the strategy espoused below 
is to me unacceptable, as are the unsupported assumptions and outright 
fictions.

I fail to see what is so controversial about boycotting an apartheid 
regime. Ultimately, there cannot be a even a liberal democracy in 
conjunction with a mono-ethnic state, and the past ethnic cleansing 
behind the current situation cannot be brushed aside. This basic 
internal ideological contradiction within Jewish nationalism (zionism) 
is being reproduced in academia, apparently, and in full force even 
outside of Israel. Why should Palestinians and Israelis continue to pay 
(in heavily disproportionate ways), often with their lives, for this 
nonsense? Is not this the larger picture being lost in this discussion 
on the boycott?

saed

Stuart Elden wrote:
>
> This may be of interest.
>
>  
>
> *Opinion: *
>
> *Academics Who Want to Promote Peace Have Better Options Than Boycotts *
>
> By DAVID NEWMAN
>
> *//*
>
> */Chronicle of Higher Education, week of October 5th. /*
>
> I am sitting in a conference room, observing a group of 36 
> participants in a discussion. It is intense, and one can see the care 
> with which the speakers choose their words. For this is no normal 
> gathering. It involves two groups of teachers--one Israeli and the 
> other Palestinian--who, meeting each other for the first time, are not 
> normally prepared to recognize even the basic legitimacy of each 
> other's claims.
>
> We are in the neutral city of Istanbul during the first days of the 
> Lebanon war. It took months of preparation to get the logistics 
> right[--]to enable the Palestinian participants from the West Bank who 
> did not have the permits to travel through Israel to leave via Jordan, 
> for instance, and to arrange for kosher food for the religious Israeli 
> participants. Then, right before they were all due to depart, 
> hostilities broke out in southern Lebanon, Hezbollah fired the first 
> Katyusha rockets into Haifa, and it looked as though all those 
> preparations would count for nothing. But, with one exception, every 
> participant has arrived.
>
> The sort of dialogue that occurred in this meeting[--]which took place 
> in July 2006[--]is a fundamental reason why a British faculty union's 
> decision last week to abandon a proposed academic boycott of Israeli 
> universities is such a fortunate turn of events. In the false name of 
> liberalism, human rights, and academic freedom, the boycott would have 
> destroyed all the progress toward mutual understanding that this and 
> other programs like it have brought about, further alienating Israelis 
> and Palestinians from each other.
>
> The two groups that met in the conference room in Istanbul had worked 
> separately for a year as part of a project supported by the European 
> Union Partnership for Peace Programme. The teacher participants on the 
> Israeli side had attended weekly meetings at Ben-Gurion University of 
> the Negev to learn about the Middle East, Islam, and conflict 
> resolution. They also took field trips to Arab and Bedouin 
> settlements, places they had never previously visited despite living 
> nearby.
>
> They were initially suspicious of participating in such a program at a 
> university that was known for its liberal pro-peace faculty members or 
> a program that was supported by the European Union, due to its 
> perceived pro-Palestinian bias. They made it clear that they had come 
> only to learn about the "other," not to have their political opinions 
> changed[--]a
>
> statement they reasserted at every possible opportunity throughout the 
> year.
>
> But they finally admitted that their understanding of the "other" 
> changed. They recognized that violence and victimization had occurred 
> on both sides of the conflict. Some of the braver ones even invited 
> teachers from the other group to come to their schools and speak to 
> their students
>
> .
>
> Now in its third year, the project is just one example of many 
> collaborative Israeli-Palestinian programs being carried out at 
> Israeli universities. Some programs focus on pure research, especially 
> in the fields of medicine, biotechnology, and water research. Others 
> work to educate the two sides about one another, to encourage dialogue 
> and education about the social, cultural, and religious norms of 
> people who have been perceived only as enemies.
>
> Last spring, however, the union that represents 120,000 British 
> academics, the University and College Union, voted to consider a 
> boycott of Israeli academics as a way to condemn "the complicity of 
> Israeli academia in the occupation" of Palestinian lands.The 
> relatively small group of political activists who championed the 
> boycott saw only one side to the conflict. To them, Israel was the 
> sole perpetrator of injustice[--]the only country where the denial of 
> human rights, accompanied by violence and insecurity, persists. The 
> boycott became a crusade to single out Israel and its academics as the 
> lepers of world society. The boycotters live in denial of China, 
> Burma, Zimbabwe, and a host of other countries with which Britain has 
> academic and scientific links.
>
> The fact that open debate, academic freedom, and criticism of the 
> state are daily occurrences at Israeli universities was simply 
> ignored. Yet if there is a liberal space within Israel where the two 
> sides can meet and cooperate, even in these most difficult times, it 
> is within institutions of higher education. More often than not, 
> Israeli academics are among the first to sign petitions and raise a 
> cry when the rights of Palestinians are jeopardized[--]not only the 
> rights of Palestinian academics for academic freedom and free speech, 
> but the rights of all those who are subject to Israel's problematic 
> occupation of the West Bank. Despite the continuing conflict, people 
> speak out critically of the government and its policies[--]even about 
> issues of state security.
>
> When this latest boycott (the third attempt in as many years) was 
> proposed, it was, of course, all too easy for those who are Israeli or 
> Jewish to respond to pro-boycott union members with counter 
> accusations of anti-Semitism. But the anti-Semitism counter argument 
> was too simplistic; not everyone associated with the pro-boycott 
> campaign was anti-Semitic. Some of them are liberal academics who will 
> stand up and defend the rights of any student or professor who 
> believes that his or her rights have been infringed because of their 
> religious or ethnic affiliations[--]be they Jewish, Muslim, Hindu or 
> anything else.
>
> At the same time, however, those involved in the potential boycott 
> must recognize
>
> the growing anti-Semitism that has visited England and its 
> universities in recent years, which they, even if unwittingly, have 
> encouraged. A recent All-Party Parliamentary report on anti-Semitism[ 
> (the authors of which did not include a single Jewish member of 
> Parliament so as not to be accused of bias) increasing incidents of 
> anti-Semitic behavior at British universities.
>
> For my part, when I, an Israeli professor, lecture at seminars and 
> workshops in Britain, I am made to feel at home amongst my peers. But 
> I am always approached afterward by Jewish students[--]rational, 
> intelligent, non-hysterical young adults[--]who tell me how 
> uncomfortable university life is becoming for them, especially if they 
> display outward signs of their Jewishness or take part in events 
> organized by the local Jewish or Israeli societies.
>
> At first, I thought they were slightly paranoid, overreacting to a 
> difficult political atmosphere that is highly critical of Israel. But 
> now that group after group has approached me during the past few 
> years, I can no longer deny that a definite change has occurred on 
> campuses[--]a change that, in many ways, is a result of the singling 
> out of Israel by some of my academic peers.
>
> The proposed boycott faced formidable opposition. The heads of British 
> universities as well as many of the union members[--]who were annoyed 
> that their representatives spend their time vilifying Israel instead 
> of dealing with their pensions, wages, and other employment 
> conditions[--]came out strongly against any notion of a boycott. So 
> did the news media, not always known for its support of Israel's 
> positions, and so did the British government, with clear statements by 
> former prime minister Tony Blair, the conservative leader David 
> Cameron, and the higher-education minister, Bill Rammell. In the end, 
> the union abandoned the proposed boycott because, according to it 
> lawyers, such an action would breach antidiscrimination laws[--]not, 
> unfortunately, because they recognized the basic immorality and ethnic 
> selection that was an integral part of the boycott attempt.
>
> Yet the fact that the boycott did not occur does not alter the fact 
> that, at the end of the day, the union has been instrumental in 
> creating an image of British universities around the world that is not 
> sympathetic. In North America and much of Europe, they are often now 
> perceived as places that deny academic freedom and liberal discourse.
>
> My own experience, both as a student 30 years ago and as a visiting 
> scholar today, is that British universities remain places for open 
> debate and freedom of expression. But the attempt to boycott a 
> specific group of scholars and deny them basic rights, even if it is 
> led by a small, vociferous minority, has damaged the global reputation 
> of those fine universities, threatening their very integrity as places 
> of balance and neutrality.
>
> Even if that image softens with the abandonment of the boycott, much
>
> more remains at stake. Those who promoted the idea of a boycott should 
> take a harder look at programs like the one sponsored by the EU 
> Partnership for Peace. How many of the pro-boycott activists have 
> actively engaged in the sort of research or dialogue that actually 
> benefits the two peoples or the wider Middle East? If they want to 
> contribute to peace, cooperation, and reconciliation in the Middle 
> East, that is the approach they should take.
>
> They can start by taking part in collaborative research and 
> conferences with both their Israeli and Palestinian counterparts. They 
> can visit the region and its universities, on both sides of the 
> divide, to have a closer, and more balanced, understanding of the 
> contested national narratives. And they can provide welcoming neutral 
> spaces of open dialogue where both Israeli and Palestinian scholars 
> can come together and pursue research for which universities exist in 
> the first place[--]the enhancement of scholarship and the welfare of 
> humankind.
>
> *//*
>
> */David Newman is a professor of political geography at Ben-Gurion 
> University of the Negev in Israel, and is currently editor of the 
> journal Geopolitics. He is now on sabbatical as a visiting scholar in 
> Great Britain, and the UK representative of the IAB (International 
> Advisory Board) on Academic Freedom. /*
>

-- 
Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro
Department of Geography, SUNY New Paltz
1 Hawk Drive, New Paltz, NY 12561
tel: 1/845/2572991, fax: 1/845/2572992
e-mail: [log in to unmask]

Senior Editor
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