Irish academics urge Israel boycott
61 Irish academics sign letter urging colleagues to boycott
Israeli academic institutions in protest at 'Israel's policy
of violent repression against the Palestinians'
Moran Zelikovich Latest Update: 09.24.06, 10:42
About 61 Irish academics from all over the world have called
for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions "until Israel
abides by UN resolutions and ends the occupation of
Palestinian territories.”
The move marks the third attempt by European academics to shun
their Israeli counterparts.
On September 12, the Irish Times published a letter signed by
61 academics urging academic institutions all over the world
to boycott Israeli institutions of higher education.
"There is widespread international condemnation of Israel's
policy of violent repression against the Palestinians in the
Occupied Territories, and its aggression against the people of
Lebanon,” the letter read.
"We feel it is time to heed the Palestinian call to take
practical action to pressure Israel to comply with
international law and basic human rights norms. Many national
and European cultural and research institutions, including
those funded by the EU regard Israel as a European state for
the purposes of awarding grants and contracts," it continued.
"We call for a moratorium on any further such support to
Israeli academic institutions, at both national and European
levels. We urge our fellow academics to support this
moratorium by refraining, where possible, from further joint
collaborations with Israeli academic institutions. Such a
moratorium should continue until Israel abides by UN
resolutions and ends the occupation of Palestinian
territories," the academics concluded.
Tamir doubts call will be heeded
Education Minister Yuli Tamir told Ynet: "I will check the
issues and I will verify if they are lecturers who have
influence. In the coming week I'll be flying to England for
talks with lecturers and academics about the issue. The
question is whether these lecturers have a say in the academic
world or whether they don't. It is not pleasant, but not
terrible. We don't want to make a big deal of it because this
will give them a false status."
She added: "Until today boycott attempts have not affected
Israel in real terms such as grant applications and so on. I
never fell on an application for financial assistance that was
rejected on the bases that it was sent from Israel … Boycott
attempts have not turned into a central movement, to the
contrary – they only increased proposals for academic
cooperation. The last British boycott turned out to have been
initiated by a group of esoteric lecturers from whom many
universities alienated themselves."
Prof Yosef Yeshurun Rector of Bar-Ilan University sent a
letter to the European Union condemning the move by Irish
academics as anti-Semitic.
"Academic boycott is not ethical and contravenes the principle
of academic freedom," he wrote.
"Attempts to exclude Israel and Israeli academics for the
purpose of isolation and demonization, overlooking history and
decades of violence, are ethically unacceptable," Yeshurun
wrote.
Yeshurun said the move contravenes the charter of the
International Council for Science of which Israel is an
honorary member.
Yeshurun's letter was also signed by Dr. Edward S. Beck,
President of the Scholars for Peace in the Middle East body at
Walden University in the United States.
First Published: 09.24.06, 09:28