Israel boycott and academic freedom

[barb162]

Letters
Israel boycott and academic freedom

Tuesday May 30, 2006
The Guardian


The decision of Natfhe to invite members to boycott Israeli academics who do not publicly dissociate themselves from Israeli policies tramples over the universal principle of academic freedom, and is counterproductive to the fostering of peace and understanding in the Middle East (Academics support Israeli lecturers, May 27). Israeli universities are free, independent and integrated. They are at the forefront of developing cooperation with Palestinians. It is this type of action that Natfhe should be encouraging. The boycott does nothing to assist the Palestinians, while passing a sentence on Israeli universities that it has not passed on any other universities around the world.
The idea of a "personal boycott" represents an insidious threat to the world of academia. Instead of judging research on merit, it opens the door for academics around the world to be judged according to their nationality and political opinions. Academic life is about opening minds, not closing them; hearing both sides of an argument, not one alone. The Natfhe boycott is a betrayal of these values.
Dr Jonathan Rynhold
International Advisory Board for Academic Freedom, Bar Ilan University, Israel


Natfhe's inspiring and historic decision, in the context of the growing international movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions, will effectively contribute to the civil struggle aimed at ending the Israeli occupation and other forms of oppression of the Palestinians, by attaching a considerable price tag to Israel's unrelenting disregard of international law.

The truth about the collusion of Israeli academic institutions in maintaining Israel's colonial and racist policies has come out, despite all attempts at suppressing debate and bullying critics of Israel. Indeed, Israeli academic institutions have consistently condoned, even encouraged, the work of academics who advocate ethnic cleansing, apartheid, denial of refugee rights, and racial discrimination against the Palestinians. Collaboration with the intelligence services and the occupation regime is part of the routine work of the Israeli academy.

snip


http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,1785710,00.html

[ixion]

1. they're not boycotting the universities...

they're boycotting racist professors, IMO.

[mike_c]

2. agreed-- the boycott extends only to academics who do not dissociate...

...themselves from apartheid policies. This is a legitimate tool for seeking social justice-- and I say this as an academic, for whom the notion of academic freedom is of paramount importance. Israeli academics are still free to embrace apartheid if they choose to, but the rest of the academic world is not under any obligation to give them a voice.

[eyl]

4. It would be one thing

if they boycotted academics who supported a political stand they opposed. Mind you, that would be bad enough, but at least it makes some modicum of sense. But this is not what they aer doing - they are demanding that any academic who wishes to avoid the boycott openly declare his support of their political stance. I refuse to do that - and would do so even if I agreed with their stance - just out of the principle of the thing.

[barb162]

10. The name Dalton Trumbo keeps popping up for me

He and other very talented artists had a few problems during the 1950s with HUAC.

In any case, here's another story
http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/worldwide/story/0,,1786103,00.html
This sentence struck me:

"I find it extraordinary that any academic union should attack academic freedom in this way. An academic boycott for political ends is in direct conflict with the mission of a university, and betrays a misunderstanding of our function."
snip

[Phx_Dem]

11. I thought legitimate tools include

the scientific method and empiricism. You realize that you are saying that your personal opinions trump science. This is a matter of professional integrity, a professor/researcher/scientist uses all the evidence available, not just evidence from "acceptable" professors.

[barb162]

3. That's not the way this is being reported so far

in some places re the "universities"
"Lecturers call for Israel boycott
A UK lecturers' union has urged its members to consider boycotting Israeli academics and universities"
snip
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/5029086.stm

[ixion]

5. I can't really see how academics would go for a blanket boycott like that

it's anti-intellectual to generalize.

Disclaimer here: It is my opinion that Israel is a rogue state, and should be serverly sanctioned by the UN. However, that does not mean that honest academics should be persecuted just because they happen to teach at an Israeli university.

I'd like to see them extend their boycott to the moron professors here in the US, who are doing they're part to rewrite history and push the neocon agenda. These people are driven by policy and not truth, IMO.

[barb162]

7. There's a letter in the posted story about boycotting

Chinese academics re Tibet. Well, what about Iranian academics who do or don't support the Iranian leader. What about a slew of boycotts for all kinds of things along these lines.

Shades of the blacklisting during the HUAC McCarthy Hearings.

[ixion]

9. which is why academia should remain academic, and not venture

into the political.

Academia is about Truth, politics is about lies, and n'er the twain shall meet, IMO.

[eyl]

6. BTW, regarding the second letter in the OP

I don't recognize the other two names, but Omar Barghouti was one of the activists for the AUT boycott. Interestingly enough, though he describes Israel as an "apartheid state", with its academic institutions supporting its "racial policies", he is (or at least was last year) a PhD student at Tel Aviv University.

Now, I don't know how it's done elsewhere, but in Israel, voluntarily suspending your studies (which you need to do if you plan on spending a significant amount of time elsewhere, such as out of the country) requires approval of the faculty. Barghouti must have had such approval, since he spent a lot of time in Europe last year campaigning for the AUT boycott. So effectively, TAU gave him leave to go campaign to boycott it. Given that he apparently feels it's OK to penalize an academic based on his holding or not holding a given political stance, I wonder if he feels TAU would have been jsutified in refusing him that leave since they didn't like his politics...

[barb162]

8. good point...I wonder too