Academics, ministers slam teaching union boycott of Israeli academe -

[Coastie for Truth]

Israeli leaders and academics on Monday slammed a vote by the largest university and college lecturers' union in Britain in favor of a motion recommending that its members boycott Israeli academics and institutions that do not publicly declare their opposition to Israeli policy in the territories. The motion passed with 106 in favor and 71 against. There were 21 abstentions.

The 69,000-member National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE) debated the proposal for the boycott at its annual conference in the northern English city of Blackpool. Two parts of the motion passed with a show of hands while a third went to a vote. Under the boycott, union members also will not submit articles to Israeli research journals.

Education Minister Yuli Tamir lashed out at the boycott on Monday.

"The decision to boycott academic institutions is a move worthy of condemnation and revulsion," Tamir said. "Those how are implementing this boycott are harming academia's freedom and turning it into a tool for political forces."

<<<snip>>>

[adriennui]

1. next is book burning

morons!

[Violet_Crumble]

2. You do realise academic boycotts aren't something new?

Coz I'm sure years ago there were the same sort of knee-jerking reactions as yrs to the academic boycott of South Africa....

The Academic Boycott of South Africa: Symbolic Gesture or Effective Agent of Change?

http://www.monabaker.com/pMachine/more.php?id=A1105_0_1_0_M



Violet...

[adriennui]

3. it's like shooting yourself in the foot

academic boycotts are more serious than product boycotts. the marginalizing of ideas is not good for the world.

in addition to south africa what other countries were academically boycotted.

[Coastie for Truth]

4. You have to realize

:sarcasm:


:rant:

to "Anti-Zionists" any boycott of the "Zionist entity" is a moral plus.

:sarcasm:


:rant:

[adriennui]

5. oops, forgot that

oh, that wascally zionist entity.

[Violet_Crumble]

7. As neither Adriennui nor me are anti-Zionists...

..is there any reason why you popped up in the middle of a conversation between us with that nonsense?

Violet...

[Coastie for Truth]

9. Yes - coz you hijacked my thread

with yer append elevating Mona Baker to sainthood.

[Violet_Crumble]

11. I didn't realise you had exclusive ownership of this thread...

How is posting in a thread and talking about the topic of the thread 'hijacking'?? Nor did I realise posting a link equated to elevating someone to sainthood. For the record so you can be accurate in future, I'm not an anti-Zionist, and I'd appreciate it if you could stick to the facts, okay?

Violet...

[Violet_Crumble]

6. I tend to agree with you somewhat...

Which is why I said in one of the many threads Coastie's started on this that I'm torn about it. Mainly coz I suspect it may not have the effect that's desired, and I think international sanctions are just way more effective than boycotts by themselves. It's not so much the marginalising of ideas I think is the problem - after all, if the idea that the occupation is something to be supported was to be marginalised, the boycott would be better aimed at US academia, where there's probably far more academics who support the occupation...

I don't know of any other countries other than South Africa that have been boycotted academically, but I'm not all that knowledgeable on what boycotts like that have happened in the past....

Violet...

[Tom Joad]

8. The line then was that the best route was "constructive engagement"

for South Africa, that was Reagan's line, in full support of the Corporate America, until it just became politically impossible to continue along those lines. (Israel, which did not have to worry about public opinion (why would the Israeli public condemn a country they wish to emulate?) , always had very strong ties to South Africa, which made Israel useful for the United States ruling elite at the time

Here we have a much harder field to plow, as very little of what is really happening to Palestinians is reaching the U.S. public. But there are cracks develping in the dam, and i just keep hoping it will break eventually.

[adriennui]

15. what a disingenuous comment

do you know, for a fact that israel wanted to emulate south africa? that's foolish, both countries have been treated as pariahs....south africa deservedly so. israel has had to make some weird economic alliances to merely survive...as it's neighbors want israel destroyed.

[Tom Joad]

10. Mona's perspective is helpful. Thanks for the link.

Never heard of her before.

O8)

[Violet_Crumble]

12. I haven't heard of her either...

..but if yr free around 3pm on Friday, I'll be having my Elevate Mona To Sainthood Party!! :party:

Violet...

[Tom Joad]

13. I'll call the pope, he loves to Party down!

:toast:

[pelsar]

19. sainthoods for racist pigs?

Mona Baker, a professor at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), admitted yesterday that she had dismissed Dr Miriam Shlesinger and Prof Gideon Toury because of their nationality.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/07/07/nisr07.xml&sSheet=/news/2002/07/07/ixnewstop.html

[Jim Sagle]

20. Sounds like she's related to Jim "Fuck the Jews" Baker.

[Violet_Crumble]

22. Since when have Israelis been a race?

Only a little while back, you were insisting in a thread about Israel's discriminatory law aimed at Palestinian spouses of Israeli citizens that it wasn't racist. So why are Israelis a race and Palestinians aren't?

Violet...

[pelsar]

31. israelis arent race....

it was more of an immediate reaction when i read that she fired two people simple because they were israelis....the word racist just popped in...and i was so fukin pissed that someone/anyone could defend such utter "racism" (i needed the "ultimate' in disgust" even though its not exact.). The word biased or discrimintory seemed way to tame...but your comment is noted and i shall count to 10 next time i get really pissed at something i read here.

[eyl]

33. I think the word you're looking ffor

is "bigoted".

(though IMO Jews share enough characteristics of a race for "racism to apply for practical purpose, though it's not technically correct)

[eyl]

14. She's the one who fired two researchers

from the board of her journal for the crime of being Israeli (ironically enough, one of the two was the former chairmwoman of the Israeli branch of AI).

[pelsar]

18. wow Mona Baker....what a racist PIG

Mona Baker, a professor at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), admitted yesterday that she had dismissed Dr Miriam Shlesinger and Prof Gideon Toury because of their nationality.

and this is someone who is "respectable" here...quite an interesting set of disciples

[Violet_Crumble]

23. I doubt very much she's either racist or a pig...

And who are you referring to when you say 'quite an interesting set of disciples'?

Violet...

[pelsar]

29. firing people because of their nationality?

"Mona Baker, a professor at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), admitted yesterday that she had dismissed Dr Miriam Shlesinger and Prof Gideon Toury because of their nationality."

few words can describe my disgust for such behavior.....and that would include those that defend such behavior-those disciples

and for those that support such behavior, i'm guessing but they probably wouldnt agree to such if the person being fired was a Palestinian and was fired from their job in England because of that nationality.

[eyl]

16. Let's see how the union

whose boycott the NATFHE is citing as a model responded:

At its recent annual conference NATFHE passed a motion inviting their members to consider boycotting Israeli academics under certain circumstances.

AUT does not endorse this policy and is strongly advising its members not to implement it.

In May 2005 AUT council overwhelmingly rejected an earlier decision to boycott two Israeli universities and reasserted its belief that freedom of expression, open debate and unhampered dialogue are prerequisites of academic freedom.

In addition, the meeting went on to set up a commission to investigate the whole issue of international boycotts. The report of the commission was agreed at May 2006 AUT council. It sets out a very careful, staged approach to boycotts which ensures that they are applied only in exceptional circumstances, are fully justified by the facts, and can be shown to be an effective way of furthering academic freedom and human rights.

The commission considered only the collective boycotting of institutions by the union's membership. It did not consider the boycotting of individual academics by individual union members. This tactic is fraught with difficulties and dangers and should not be followed by AUT members.

On 1 June AUT and NATFHE join to form the University and College Union (UCU). The NATFHE motion is not binding on the UCU. The AUT will argue for the UCU to adopt the report of its commission. It will not support or cooperate in any way with any attempts to implement the NATFHE motion in advance of the first UCU annual national congress in June 2007.

[eyl]

17. Spare us the analogies

In the days when there was a white supremacist regime in South Africa, those of us who were opponents of apartheid came together in a concerted campaign to isolate the state from the rest of the international community. This included cutting ties with South African universities.

The policy was clear, the rationale unambiguous, and support was broadly based. Although there was some disagreement about strategy, on the whole it was a united front. A line in the sand was drawn, and you knew where you stood. On the one side were those who opposed apartheid, and consequently supported an academic boycott; on the other side was everyone else.

Nowadays, the spotlight is falling on Israel. The most recent instance is the resolution adopted on May 29 at the annual national conference of Natfhe, the largest academic staff union in Britain. Resolutions of this kind appear to be based on an analogy with the boycott campaign against South Africa, but the analogy is mistaken.

More

[Violet_Crumble]

24. You mean like the one equating the boycott with McCarthyism?

;)

[eyl]

27. touche n/t

[Jim Sagle]

21. This boycott is an exercise in exterminationism.

Its perpetrators are doing their worst to realize another Holocaust.

[Violet_Crumble]

25. Nope. Supporting the occupation would be the exercise in exterminationism.

And claims that a boycott is trying to create another Holocaust is very much trivialising the Holocaust. People who resort to that particular tactic are every bit as disgusting as those who compare Israeli actions in the Occupied Territories to the Holocaust...

Violet...

[Name removed]

32. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[eyl]

26. Don't get carried away n/t

[eyl]

28. Another example of "Israel's apartheid educational policies"

the boycott condemns:

The health professions are gaining momentum among the Bedouin sector. Heba Abu-Kaf, a Bedouin student from the Negev’s Abu-Kaf tribe, began her studies this year at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev’s Joyce and Irving Goldman Medical School. Heba is the second Bedouin woman studying medicine in Israel. She joined the members of her class taking the Physician’s Oath on December 12, 2002.

Abu-Kaf’s admission to the program was preceded by Rania Al-Oqbi, who is currently in her sixth year of studies. Both these women are graduates of the project “Negev Medical Cadets,” a high school enrichment program in the Health Sciences, initiated by BGU in order to increase the number of Bedouins studying in the medical professions in Israel.

Dr. Riad Agbaria, Director of the Negev Medical Cadets project on behalf of the Faculty of Health Sciences, reported that six nursing students and the first Bedouin physical therapist graduated from the University last year. The first Bedouin paramedic will be graduating next year from the Emergency Medicine program. Kayed Al-Athamen, a second year medical student, is studying for a Masters degree in Pharmacology, after graduating magna cum laude in his studies in Medical Laboratory Sciences. “In light of all these facts,” says Agbaria humorously, “and having a young Bedouin man who has recently graduated the program in Health Systems Administration, it is possible, to all intents and purposes, to establish a bona fide Bedouin hospital.”

Source

[eyl]

30. Another few more thoughts

1) The boycott seems to be similiar to the resolution made in 2003. But as the letter in the link states, "NATFHE Head Office has had no reports of substantive take up of this policy over the last year". So it seems the rank and file wasn't that enthusiastic about the boycott (the situation was similiar with the AUT boycott last year).

2) The timing is also puzzling. The NATFHE merges with the AUT on June 1. The boycott decision does not apply to the new union. So they passed a resolution which would e in effect for three days.

3) The NATFHE seems to oppose the invasion of Iraq - an occupation which is, in a lot of ways, worse than the situation in Israel. I wonder what the reaction of the members would be if a resolution was proposed or passed blacklisting any British academic who did not publicly declare his opposition to the UK's Iraq policy?