 Lecturers
overturn Israel boycott
UK
academics have voted to overturn a boycott of two Israeli universities
accused of complying with anti-Palestinian polices.
BBC
May 26, 2005
Members of
the Association of University Teachers had previously decided to sever
all links with Bar-Ilan and Haifa universities.
The academics'
body now says it is time to "build bridges" between those with
opposing views and support peace moves.
The debate
has caused bitter argument among academics and others worldwide.
Complaints
The council of the AUT was reconvened in central London after 25 members
- the required number under the union's rules - complained about the original
vote, held in Eastbourne last month.
Opponents
of the boycott had complained that the debate had been curtailed and that
the accusations were unfair.
Dr David
Hirsh, from Goldsmiths College in London, welcomed the latest vote, saying:
"A boycott is a tokenistic gesture which does more harm than good.
"The
need for hard work, building links with Palestinian and Israeli academics,
is less glamorous but much more important."
Pro-boycott
activists accuse Haifa of mistreating politics lecturer Ilan Pappe for
defending a graduate student's research into controversial areas of Israeli
history.
The university
denied this and threatened legal action against the AUT.
Bar-Ilan
is alleged to have helped with degree programmes at a college in a settlement
in the West Bank. But it insists this is autonomous.
Sue Blackwell,
an English lecturer at Birmingham University and a leading pro-boycott
activist, had predicted a "stitch-up" by opponents.
She said:
"The struggle goes on. This is the end of the beginning.
"We
are not surprised. We saw people who did not come to earlier meetings
there and we knew what the outcome would be.
"We
won the moral argument. They just won the vote."
Supporters
of both sides gathered outside the Friends Meeting House in central London
venue after the vote, which had been closed to the media.
Boycott opponents
claimed three-quarters of members had voted to end the sanctions.
Luciana Berger,
a member of the Union of Jewish Students, from Birkbeck, University of
London, said: "We are very happy. It's a victory for peace and open
dialogue.
"It's
a victory that we shouldn't have had to have won in the first place."
However,
Professor Steven Rose of the Open University, a boycott supporter, said
the debate would lead to the state of Israeli higher education being discussed
"on campuses up and down" the UK.
Sally Hunt,
AUT general secretary, said: "It is now time to build bridges between
those with opposing views here in the UK and to commit to supporting trade
unionists in Israel and Palestine working for peace."
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The
AUT academic Boycott of Israel
On
Friday 23rd April 2005, the eve of the Jewish Passover, Delegates of the
40,000-member United Kingdom Association of University Teachers, meeting
in Eastbourne England, voted Friday to boycott Haifa University and Bar
Ilan University. The moral high ground or just plain racism and self-hating
Jews? cont'd...
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