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Oxford University Museum. Oxford, along with Cambridge and Warwick, have just joined the fight against the AUT boycott of Israeli universities.
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05/15
Haaretz |
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| By israelinsider staff and partners May 15, 2005 |
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At least three British universities will oppose the boycott imposed by the British Association of University Teachers (AUT) on Haifa University and Bar-Ilan University in April, according to sources at the schools.
Representatives of the AUT branches at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Warwick will object to the boycott in the AUT's special council meeting scheduled to reconsider the boycott next week.
This, after Bar-Ilan Univerity launched an International Forum on the University's Website, calling for a cancellation of the British Academic Boycott through the newly-formed IAB (International Advisory Board for Academic Freedom of Bar-Ilan University).
The Rector of Bar-Ilan University, Professor Yosef Yeshurun, had invited all members of the academic community, as well as all other interested parties to join the university's struggle in defending academic freedom.
Since the announcement of the boycott, thousands of letters of support have been received in Bar-Ilan offices.
Dr. Jon Pike, a senior lecturer in philosophy at the Open University who organized the anti-boycott campaign and special conference, told The Guardian newspaper that he was convinced the ban would be canceled.
"I hope and expect that we will be able to overturn the boycott decision at the special council. Already, the Oxford, Cambridge and Warwick branches have come out in support," Pike said.
AUT local organizer and Oxford professor Terry Hoad told Oxford's Cherwell's newspaper that AUT members in Oxford object to the use of boycotts. He said the AUT's executive committee should set a policy of limiting boycotts to extreme cases.
AUT members who support the boycott say Israel is a sufficiently extreme case. They say Bar-Ilan University is collaborating with the "crimes of the occupation," as indicated by its previous sponsorship -- which continues today on a smaller scale -- of the College of Judea and Samaria in the settlement of Ariel. They also say that the University of Haifa has been harassing lecturers who criticize and undermine myths that are sacred to Israeli society, such as those relating to the War of Independence and the establishment of the state.
Universities in Israel, Britain and the United States slammed the AUT's decision to impose a boycott. The American Association of University Professors, which represents some 45,000 college and university lecturers, said that the British association's decision "harms academic freedom" and called for its cancellation.
The New York Academy of Sciences has also denounced the boycott. Joseph L. Birman, chair of the Academy's Committee for the Human Rights of Scientists, wrote to AUT president Angela Roger, calling to revoke the decision.
"The AUT resolution, by selecting individuals and universities for boycott, is a very clear reminder of McCarthy-like tactics which were the shame of the United States some 40-50 years ago," he said.
In the meantime, the Simon Wiesenthal Center launched the "Boycott the Boycotters" campaign, a petition held by Dr. Shimon Samuels , Director for International Liaison and co-chair of ARARE (Academic Response to Antisemitism and Racism in Europe) established in 1994 as the Center's campus arm in Europe.
Just last week in London, Dr. Samuels charged in a speech at the British Zionist Federation's rally against the AUT boycott that "[the boycott] demeans academic credibility -- and is part of a patter of gag-order Mafia-style manipulation on campuses across Europe -- when professors resort to mob tactics, a strategy of counteraction must be planned."
On behalf of the over 500 member professors of ARARE on campuses in 30 countries across Europe, Samuels "pledged to focus on retaking the initiative and rendering European academia free of boycott, discrimination or threat to any minority, ethnic, religious or national."
The Center has also asked members of the United States Congress to join the campaign, to see to it that no US government funds are released to any institution or academic who has stained the values of fairness and free speech by supporting this racist campaign.
The academic boycott is the latest example of growing hostility towards the Jewish State in Europe. In March, a Jewish Member of Parliament called for economic sanctions against Israel, while an anti-Israel play about the late Rachel Corrie, who is being hailed as the heroine of the Palestinian struggle, has been compared to the Diary of Anne Frank by some theater critics. All this, against the backdrop of London's Mayor Ken Livingstone who refuses to apologize for likening a Jewish reporter to a "concentration camp guard" and for labeling Israel's Prime Minister a "war criminal who should be in prison not in office."
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