Arabs Against Discrimination[Academic boycott of Haifa and Bar-Ilan Universities dropped]

Academic boycott of Haifa and Bar-Ilan Universities dropped

Source: www.walla.co.il, May 26, 2005

By: Tamara Traubman, for Haaretz

Today the British Association of University Teachers (AUT) decided to lift its boycott of the Haifa and Bar-Ilan Universities due to “their collaboration in the perpetuation of the occupation.” The AUT board adopted three motions to cancel the boycott of the two Israeli universities, rejecting one motion to abolish the boycott only by way of a referendum of all AUT members.

Dr. Shalom Lappin of King's College in London welcomed the decision. Lappin, an Israeli national, withdrew from the AUT to protest the decision to boycott the two Israeli universities, and other members followed suit. As an additional act of protest, Lappin attempted to become an adjunct member of Haifa University . Today Lappin announced that he will return to the AUT, and he called on his colleagues to do the same. “We will return to the union to help create a professional, democratic union that reflects the opinions of its members, not simply extremist opinions,” he said.

AUT is the major teachers' union in Britain , counting as members 48,000 professors in British universities. The justification for boycotting Bar-Ilan University was its sponsorship of the College of Judea and Samaria , “built in the illegal settlement of Ariel.” As such, the AUT said that the university was directly implicated in the occupation of Palestinian territories, which violated UN resolutions.

The reason for the boycott of Haifa University was that it restricted the academic freedom of researchers who criticized Israel . As an example of the violation of academic freedom, the boycott proposal noted what it described as “university threats” to dismiss Dr. Ilan Pappe, an anti-Zionist historian.

The AUT boycott decision was symbolically significant, since it was the first academic union to decide to support an academic boycott of Israel . The boycott sparked stinging criticism from senior British lecturers. The boycott would have had real consequences, including the cutting of relations between Israeli and British researchers, no invitations for Israelis in British conferences and no participation by British academics in Israeli conferences, and perhaps even a rejection of articles submitted to academic journals by Israeli academics.

Reader responses to the article

The British boycotted themselves when they did not oppose the war in Iraq . Their Prime Minister lied when he sent military forces to an illegitimate war. The death of 120,000 innocent civilians and the occupation of an entire country on false pretences is a million times more serious than supporting a college located beyond the Green Line. You trouble-making trash: Go eat fish and chips or something and leave us alone. It's already hard enough here—Nir, Jerusalem .

Occupation? The notable thing is that the British are famous for their colonialism, which lasted a long time and included many places and countries. Excuse me, but go to hell. With or without them, Israel has the best institutions of higher learning in the world. This is about a persecuted people, not an expansionist people—Shalomi.

Someone who resigns shouldn't have the right to take back his resignation! I mean Lappin and his colleagues. What do these anti-Semitic English want? Haifa University is good enough for you, Lappin —An Arab.

UK sucks. Long live the USA [ sic ]—S.D.

Messing with Israel is like messing with the USA [ sic ]—Sami.

Israel is an apartheid state—Nothing will work but the boycott.

You fool, the one and only Israel is a Jewish state. Anyone who doesn't like can leave. We don't want strangers. We want a state free of strangers—A proud Israeli.