Boycott Of Israeli Academia

[mike435]

Do you belive that boycoting academia is a legitimate form of protest?

Do you think it should be allowed for people to youse acedemia as a way to achive or push for political gain?

Like the case with britan boycotting israeli Acedemia

[mike435]

I think this is disgusting, shameful and selfish act. This boycott carries nothing with it but to make a cheap political statement at hte cost of advancement in research. Sadly this kind of irresponsible act will have repercussions for those who are not even involved.

[mike435]

i also personally think that this is only an act to go after israel in prejudice and unfair way
if israel a country with such open system of education and so much contribution to the world academia is slammed with this stuff what about other countries
like
syria
china
russia
the list goes on all those other countries also involved with occupation but no one says anything to theme

what about iran when iran is constantly harassing its accademia and silencing theme and violates human right why do they get to go free?

[IQ]

man too baagh nistam.

what is going on and why is this going on? I don't know much about it !

[mike435]

The whole story of Boycott

U.K. union backs calls for boycott of Israel academe

By Assaf Uni, Haaretz Correspondent

Britain's University and College Union (UCU) voted on Wednesday to promote a boycott of Israeli academic institutions, protesting Israel's policy on the Palestinians. Jewish and Israeli officials in the U.K. and Israel reacted with outrage to the motion which, for the most part, is a rhetorical move.

The motion was approved by a 158 to 99 vote, and called for freezing European funding for Israeli academic institutions, while condemning "Israeli academia's cooperation with the occupation."

In addition, the UCU decided to bring the question of whether to boycott Israel up for discussion by all the union's members, numbering about 120,000. The discussions are scheduled to take place over the next 12 months. The motion encouraged union members to "consider the moral implications of conducting ties with Israeli academic institutions."

The vote was preceded by a heated discussion in which Israel was repeatedly referred to as an apartheid state, engaging in crimes against humanity in the occupied territories. The union representatives adopted two separate resolutions promoting an academic boycott against Israel. They said the situation in the territories did not allow spectators to stand idly by.

In addition, the union congress pledged to advertise the Palestinians' request for a boycott against Israel in all the union's offices, and to arrange for academics from the Palestinian Authority to attend delegations to the U.K. The union's representatives also decided to establish direct contact with Palestinian workers' organizations.

The union will also act toward halting academic cooperation with Israel, which is currently conducted through the European Union. The motion called for freezing all EU funding for Israeli academic institutions until Israel will "comply with the United Nation's resolutions."

Ronnie Fraser, who heads the British group Academic Friends of Israel, said that "the vote proved that nothing has changed within the ranks of the U.K.'s academic unions. This is another boycott."

In 2005, Fraser acted to overturn another boycott against Israel, which had been approved by the Association of University Teachers (AUT.) That decision was overturned a month after it was passed. In 2006, the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE) also moved to boycott Israel, but its decision became invalid shortly thereafter when NATFHE and AUT merged to form the UCU.

UCU's general secretary, Sally Hunt, also opposes the motion. "I do not believe a boycott is supported by the majority of UCU members, nor do I believe that members see it is a priority for the union," she said. "Now, the union's branches will consult their members to form a stance on the boycott. Any decision to actually impose a boycott will have to overcome serious stipulations."

Israel's ambassador to Britain, Zvi Hefetz, responded by saying that the resolution was offensive to Britain's Jewish community. "Its slanted phrasing reeks of ignorance," he added. Adrian Fronda, a senior mathematics lecturer who had joined the union solely to vote against the boycott, was less diplomatic. "I came here to oppose the prevalent anti-Semitism we see all around us here," he said.

Education Minister Yuli Tamir condemned the British union's decision, saying she would address the British education minister on the matter.

The chairman of the Committee of University Heads, Professor Moshe Kaveh, called on British scientists to continue conducting joint projects with Israeli scientists. Tamara Traubmann contributed reporting.

[mike435]

Boycotting Israel as moral masturbation

By Bradley Burston


Just for the sake of argument, let's suppose that you're a British academic. You believe strongly that the occupation must end, that the Palestinians should have an independent state, that Israel's military and diplomatic policies are wrongheaded to the point of immorality.

What to do? Simple. Find the one group within Israeli society which has consistently, vigorously and courageously campaigned against the occupation since its inception.

Then attack them.

Single them out for professional ruin. Do your best to get as many of their colleagues around the world to shun them. Yes, just as if you were in seventh grade and had decided to alleviate your own feelings of insecurity, inadequacy, panic and lack of requisite cool by cutting another victim from the middle school herd and lobbying your equally insecure colleagues to abuse the chosen victim.

Choose your victim with care. Select the one group in Israel which has taken substantive physical, professional, legal and personal risks, which has defied the spirit of Israeli nationalism and the letter of Israeli law, in order to seek out Palestinians to search for equitable solutions.

Select the one group which has, from the very beginning, spoken out eloquently for the rights of the Palestinians to self-determination, to freedom from Israeli domination, to freedom from disproportionate and often indiscriminate use of force, to freedom from social injustice.

Then denounce them.

Decide that your moral vision fully empowers you to declare Israeli professors and other university and college faculty to be unworthy of practicing their calling. All of them.

That is, perhaps, the real beauty of the British campaign to declare a quarantine over Israeli academics.

You really must envy the U.K. far-left for its blindness. Its consummate inability to see more than one side, which is to say, its demonstrated refusal to see Jews as fellow human beings, is only exceeded by its exquisite sense of timing.

No matter that in the whole of the 1991 Gulf war, Saddam Hussein managed to hit all of Israel with a total of 39 missiles, and that two weeks ago, Hamas sent 40 rockets into the Sderot area in the space of a single day.

No matter that Sapir College, Israel's largest public college, has for years been a primary target of Qassam crews.

No matter that in boycotting all Israeli academics on the basis of their being Israelis, the measure is patently racist, a grotesque reprise of the history of curbing academic freedom.

No matter that Israeli Arab academics who are staunchly opposed to the occupation are vehement opponents of the boycott as well.

No matter, even, that opposition to the boycott runs strong within the British University and College Union itself. In fact, all the more reason to press on.

For the genuine elitist, the unpopularity of an opinion is the best assurance of its real value.

Perhaps this is why the whole boycott campaign smacks of a uniquely far-left British brand of moral masturbation, a desperate, delusional, sterile, supremely self-contained form of non-activism that risks nothing even as it changes nothing.

There must be some reason why no one in this world does condescension better than the British far-left. There must be some reason why the British far-left manages to satisfy itself with a uniquely public, uniquely self-congratulatory form of ideological self-abuse.

Leftists abroad would do well to respect their Israeli counterparts for defying societal norms to work for the rights of people with whom their nation is at war. Perhaps the Israeli left deserves respect, as well, for having to do this while enduring the racist abuse of leftists abroad.

[mike435]

U.K. minister slams British boycott of Israeli academic institutions

By Haaretz Staff

A British minister slammed his country's lecturers union for boycotting Israeli academe on Thursday, saying the decision "does nothing to promote the Middle East peace process."

"The U.K. government fully supports academic freedom and is firmly against any academic boycotts of Israel or Israeli academics," said Minister of State for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education Bill Rammell. "Whilst I appreciate the independence of the UCU, I am very disappointed that the union has decided to pass a motion which encourages its members to consider boycotting Israeli academics and education institutions."

The vote was passed by 158 votes to 99 at the University and College Union (UCU) conference in Bournemouth on Wednesday.

Professor Uriel Reichman, President of the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, said Thursday night that the British boycott is "a modern reformulation of Judenreine" a German expression used by the Nazis meaning "Jew free," describing areas they had
emptied of a Jewish presence.

The professor called on Anglo-Jewry to send their children to learn in Israel "instead of sending them to institutions where there exists one-sided preaching for the elimination of the Jewish State."

Reichman made these comments at a ceremony for graduates of the college.

Cabinet minister Yitzhak Herzog, responsible for the government's handling of issues related to anti-Semitism, denounced Thursday as "scandalous, discriminatory and one-sided" a British lecturers' union decision.

Herzog has spoken with British Ambassdor to Israel Tom Phillips to convey Israel's condemnation of the move.

It is especially troubling, Herzog told Israel Radio, that "the decision was taken in a nation which is considered friendly to Israel."

The decision "necessates soul-searching on that part of all citizens of Britain," he said.

The motion passed Wednesday says that the UCU will present the question of a boycott on Israel's academics for discussion by all its members. According to the motion, congress much send "the full text of the Palestinian boycott call to all branches for information and discussion."

Among the amendments added to the proposal and approved by the union was a clause pledging the group to campaign for "a moratorium on research and cultural collaborations with Israel via EU and European Science Foundation funding until Israel abides by UN resolutions."

The discussions are scheduled to take place over the next 12 months. The motion encouraged union members to "consider the moral implications of conducting ties with Israeli academic institutions."

The vote was preceded by a heated discussion in which Israel was repeatedly referred to as an apartheid state, engaging in crimes against humanity in the Palestinian territories. The union representatives said the situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip did not allow spectators to stand idly by.

As part of the motion, the congress will disseminate Palestinian trade unions' request for a boycott against Israel in all the union's offices.

The congress also said it would arrange for academics from the Palestinian Authority to attend delegations to the U.K. The union's representatives also decided to establish direct contact with Palestinian workers' organizations.

Ronnie Fraser, who heads the British group "Academic Friends of Israel," said that "the vote proved that nothing has changed within the ranks of the U.K.'s academic unions. This is another boycott."

In 2005, Fraser acted to overturn another boycott against Israel, which had been approved by the Association of University Teachers (AUT.) That decision was overturned a month after it was passed. In 2006, the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE) also moved to boycott Israel, but its decision became invalid shortly thereafter when NATFHE and AUT merged to form the UCU.

After the vote, the head of the UCU, Sally Hunt, reiterated her opposition to the motion.

'As I have made clear in the past, and as I reiterated on the floor of congress this morning, I do not believe a boycott is supported by the majority of UCU members, nor do I believe that members see it is a priority for the union," she said in a statement on the UCU Web site.

She said, however, that the 120,000 members of the union would now have a chance to express their opinions on a boycott, a move that she said she supported.

"Today's motion... means all branches now have a responsibility to consulate all of their members on the issue and I believe that every member should have the opportunity to have their say. The earlier motion means that any future calls for a boycott must pass key tests before a boycott can implemented."

Israeli Ambassador to the United Kingdon Zvi Hefetz called the resolution offensive to the British Jewish community, saying that, "Its slanted phrasing reeks of ignorance."

Adrian Fronda, a senior mathematics lecturer who had joined the union solely to vote against the boycott, was less diplomatic. "I came here to oppose the prevalent anti-Semitism we see all around us here," he said.

Education Minister Yuli Tamir condemned the union's decision, saying she would address British Education Secretary Alan Johnson on the matter.

[mike435]

In retaliation another sad turn of events

[mike435]

the RETALIATION

UK academic boycott of Israel prompts US-based Goldhirsh foundation to cancel plans to open grant application process for British research institutions. Immigration Minister Ze'ev Boim announces intention to propose counter-boycott
Hagit Klaiman

var agt=navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase();var is_major = parseInt(navigator.appVersion);var is_ie = ((agt.indexOf("msie") != -1) && (agt.indexOf("opera") == -1));var is_ie5 = (is_ie && (is_major == 4) && (agt.indexOf("msie 5.0")!=-1) ); function txt_link(type,url,urlAtts) { switch (type){ case 'external' : if( urlAtts != '' ) {var x = window.open(unescape(url),'newWin',urlAtts)} else {document.location = unescape(url);} break; case 'article' : urlStr = '/articles/0,7340,L-to_replace,00.html';url=urlStr.replace('to_replace ',url); if( urlAtts == '' || !urlAtts) {document.location = url;} else {var x = window.open(url,'newWin',urlAtts)} break; case 'yaan' : urlStr = '/yaan/0,7340,L-to_replace,00.html';url=urlStr.replace('to_replace ',url); if( urlAtts == '' || !urlAtts) {document.location = url;} else {var x = window.open(url,'newWin',urlAtts)} break; case 'category' : urlStr = '/home/0,7340,L-to_replace,00.html'; url=urlStr.replace('to_replace',url); if( urlAtts == '' || !urlAtts) {document.location = url;} else {var x = window.open(url,'newWin',urlAtts)} break; } } function setDbLinkCategory(url) {eval(unescape(url));}An American research foundation announced on Thursday that following the decision of the British University and College Union (UCU) to consider launching an academic boycott of Israel it has cancelled its plans to open a grant application process for UK researchers.

'Israel being ostracized' / Yaakov Lappin

The $150 million Goldhirsh foundation supports scientists around the world in the quest for a cure for brain cancer funds research.
In a letter to British academic institutions, foundation leader Elizabeth Goldhirsh writes: " As a director of a $150 million foundation that supports scientists around the world in the quest for a cure for brain cancer, I am profoundly disappointed in your union's decision to boycott Israel today.

"This action represents a severe setback for academic freedom and open discourse. Moreover, the decision to single out and demonize Israel above and beyond all other countries - remaining silent over Russia's brutal occupation in Chechnya, for example, or China's ongoing oppression of Tibet - is, at best, troubling. At worst, it points to a far more sinister and tragic motivation.

"Equally disturbing is to do so at a time when Israel's civilians are facing near-daily missile attacks from Gaza and her partner for negotiations is an organization that dispatches suicide bombers and refuses to recognize the Jewish State's right to exist.

"Given this decision, I am deeply saddened to say that while my foundation had been considering opening up our scientific grant process to British researchers we will no longer be able to do so. I urge you to work against this boycott and restore learning's highest ideal of fairness free of prejudice to British academia."

[mike435]

check out the other thread were i have posted a chronical of the headlines

[donsaeid]

they did the same to iran! because of nuclear dispute! so i see it fair!

[donsaeid]

I think this is disgusting, shameful and selfish act.

why didnt you say those things when google boycotted iran, when US chemist Organization did same and many others!

[indian_blues]

what google boycotted Iran? can u give me link for the story pls.

[donsaeid]

http://www.tapesh.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3016

not only google! but yahoo, java and McAfee did stop their services to iran! i think it was after ahmadinezhads remarks!

and now they are going to boycott iran once more after detention of a iranian-american scholar!

[indian_blues]

couldn't understand coz it was in farsi.

anyway it was ridiculous. u can't punish common people for the wrong deeds of politicians.