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Academic
boycott may be annulled before it takes effect
By Tamara Traubman, Haaretz Correspondent
The controversial
decision by Britain's Association of University Teachers (AUT), to boycott
Bar-Ilan and Haifa universities, may be annulled before it actually takes
effect. Members of the association who oppose the boycott are attempting
to collect 25 signatures of AUT's council to force a special meeting that
will overturn the decision.
One of the
teachers behind this move, Dr. David Hirsh, said in a telephone interview
from London University's Goldsmith College, that four to five signatures
have been collected: "The call went out only on Wednesday. It is
still early," he said, adding that he is convinced the remainder
will be collected in the coming days. According to AUT rules, if 25 council
members sign an official request for a second discussion, the association's
president may summon a special meeting of the council.
Hirsh, a
sociologist, says he supports a Palestinian state, but opposes an academic
boycott. "Israel is not 'illegitimate,' as South African apartheid
was. Occupation is illegitimate - not Israel itself."
A week has
passed since the AUT's annual convention in Eastbourne, where the association
voted on the boycott. Bar-Ilan University was targeted due to its support
of the College of Judea and Samaria in the settlement of Ariel, and Haifa
was boycotted because the university victimized "academic staff and
students who seek to research and discuss the history of the founding
of the State of Israel." The latter clause refers mainly to Dr. Ilan
Pappe, a post-Zionist historian from Haifa University. The decision exempts
from the boycott academics and intellectuals who opposed "their state's
colonialist and racist policies."
The AUT decision
has aroused tremendous opposition, both in Israel and in England. Members
of AUT said opponents of the boycott were not permitted to speak at the
discussion, and the decision was taken without requesting the universities'
response. In addition, doubts were raised about the legality of the decision.
The past week was rife with anti-boycott activity: several lecturers resigned
from the association in protest; faculty members, rectors university presidents,
and not only from Bar-Ilan and Haifa universities, asked British colleagues
not to join the boycott, and to persuade others to reject it; and Jewish
organizations in Britain, such as "Academic Friends for Israel,"
lobbied extensively to have the boycott annulled. A Times of London editorial
harshly condemned the decision, and university intranet and internet -
the new arena for political warfare - is overflowing with condemnations
and a variety of strategic proposals to counter the decision.
Michael Green
of Cambridge University, one of the world's leading physicists, is one
of the members who resigned from AUT. "I would condemn many actions
of Israel's government," Green told Haaretz, "but (a boycott)
contradicts academic freedom." He called the decision "outrageous,"
saying it exceeded the agenda of a trade union. "Why is such a step
taken against Israel, and not applied to many places in the world, such
as Russia, for its policy in Chechnya?" Green said three or four
other people told him they would resign from AUT as a result of the boycott.
Dr. Jonathan
Ginzburg, an Israeli lecturer at London's Kings College, and Prof. Shalom
Lapin, a Jewish faculty member at Kings, announced their resignation from
AUT earlier this week. Both were active in preventing an academic boycott
of Israel that the AUT proposed in 2003. "There is a lot of anger
about this decision," Ginzburg told Haaretz. "Many delegates
voted without learning what was the position of their local branch members."
Lapin and Ginzburg say another five lecturers plan to resign from AUT
and others are considering the move.
A key figure
behind the boycott is Dr. Sue Blackwell from Birmingham University. As
an academic she specializes in language and gender issues, speech development
in children and legal language. As an activist she is the local representative
of AUT and campaigns against the war in Iraq, against Israel's policies
and against racism.
"Whenever
the British National Party stands for elections in Birmingham, you will
find me campaigning against them on the street and reminding voters of
the horrors of the Holocaust", Blackwell says.
AUT's decision,
which was taken last Friday, has been in the pipeline for two years. Blackwell
and other teachers had attempted to pass a general academic boycott of
Israel, a move that failed. However a series of other decision were taken,
including the condemnation of human rights violations in the occupied
territories, and the decision that anti-Zionism is not equivalent to Anti-Semitism,
as well as a condemnation of "the witch-hunt against colleagues who
take part in the academic boycott of Israel."
In December
2004 London University held a conference about boycotting Israel, with
the participation of British and Palestinians academics and one Israeli
(Dr. Pappe). In the interim some 60 Palestinian cultural, labor, and academic
organizations called for an academic boycott of Israel, a step which provided
encouragement for the British initiative.
Following
the conference, Blackwell told Haaretz this week, "I thought that
instead of submitting a general proposal, let's focus on several Israeli
academic institutions and specify how they contribute to the occupation."
The Israeli
universities said the organizers of the boycott did not ask them for their
position or seek clarification about the accusations against them. The
rector of Bar-Ilan University. Prof. Yosef Yeshurun, wrote to the AUT
explaining his argument against the boycott and asked the association
to allow Prof. Mina Teicher, who served as deputy president for research
at Bar-Ilan, to present the university's position. AUT sent a polite letter
of refusal, saying the meeting was members only , and suggesting that
Yeshurun send his position in writing. Yeshurun did not acquiesce to this.
However, at the meeting itself, members who wished to voice their opposition
to the boycott were not able to, on the grounds that there was no time.
In response
to questions from Haaretz, an AUT spokesman said that it was refraining
from comment at the moment. The decision raises difficult questions. For
example, why could opponents not express their view? Why were the universities
themselves not approached for their explanations? The boycott exempts
lecturers who oppose Israel's policy - how will this be verified? Will
Israelis submitting articles to British journals be asked to sign a declaration?
Bar-Ilan's sponsorship of the College of Judea and Samaria is now limited
only to 200 students, enrolled in the teacher's training program, and
after this year this unit will operate independently, based on a directive
by Israel's Council for Higher Education. Will the boycott expire in a
few months at the end of the academic year?
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