That is a question that Bartram and others need to answer. I personally do
not feel that an institutional boycott of the British universities would be
an appropriate response to the war in iraq - although there may have been
other appropriate response - largely because it was a relatively short-lived
afair. Some of us have been actively opposed not only to this recent
intervention, but were opposed to the first intervention in 1990-1 and to
aspects of the sanctions regime throughout the last ten years. For general
lack of response to that decade-long situation, I would not have been
suprised at external criticism of the supine attitude of British academia. I
have myself often been publicly critical of the willingness of my colleagues
to go along with British policy in this regard - although there have been
those who have been stalwartly opposed.
Interestingly, I have seen no signs of any attempt by Israeli academics to
organise a critical response themselves to the war in Iraq - rather my
impression is that, if anything, they have supported it. Presumably they
were pleased to see their government's patrons and allies intervene to
effect 'regime change' in Iraq and are now encouraged by the significant
Israeli presence in the proposals for the so-called 'reconstruction
efforts' - which should prove lucrative and ensure a useful presence in a
neighbouring Arab country.
But this attempt to compare the intervention in iraq with Israeli occupation
of the West Bank and Gaza, and the appalling destruction that has been
caused there, over a period of a generation, is of course a masterful 'red
herring'. First cast out the beam in thine own eye.
david seddon
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Newsletter of the European Sociological Association (ESA)
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of David Bartram
> Sent: 23 October 2003 18:44
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [alef] Re: Another assult against the Israeli Academic
> Freedom
>
>
> Paul Reynolds and David Seddon did not respond to an element of a previous
> letter from Baruch Kimmerling - regarding whether we should
> boycott British
> and American universities because of the UK/USA invasion of Iraq. Baruch
> has presented another version of this question in his most recent message,
> and I would like to express my own interest in their answer to this
> question. Gentlemen: is there a reason you did not address that
> issue? Do
> you find yourselves able to do so now?
>
> David Bartram
>
> At 18:48 23/10/2003 +0200, you wrote:
> >d. Finally - no parody: I'll be very glad to hear what individual and
> >groups of British and American faculties are doing to express their views
> >against (or for?) the invasion of Iraq. Any of your publshed recentely a
> >whole polemnic book about Tony Blair as I did about Ariel Sharon?
> >Best, BK.
> >
> >
>
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