Re: [xmca] Boycott Information

UCU, our union, is affiliated to the Stop the War movement and
regularly supports their activities. I myself often volunteer in the
National office and help to organise demonstrations.
We are in no way complacent about the UK/Blair role in the illegal
and murderous war an occupation of Iraq

Shirley
On 31 May 2007, at 18:25, David Preiss wrote:

> "No Israeli university has explicitly dissociated itself from the
> Occupation, nor even debated publicly the question of whether or
> not it would be appropriate so to do. All Israeli universities are,
> therefore, directly or indirectly complicit in virtue of the
> training of, and support for, the occupying forces, or a failure to
> condemn the outrages carried out in the name of every Israeli
> citizen."
>
> Shirley,
> And what UK university has explicitly dissociated itself from the
> occupation of Iraq? Please, Shirley, the boycott is addressing the
> wrong target. Why don´t UK academics instead spend their time
> fighting against the military actions of their own government, its
> complicity and support of the dirty war against terrorism? It is
> too way easy to condemn universities, as abstract entities. I am
> sure that most israeli academics are among those supporting a
> settled solution of the conflict. Worst of all, this kind of
> initiatives instead strengthening the peace camp in Israel
> contribute to its alienation. A more positive initiative sponsored
> by UK academics would try to make israeli and palestinian academics
> meet and collaborate and would not raise irresponsibly the level of
> isolation of those involved in the conflict,
> David
>
> On May 31, 2007, at 5:44 AM, Shirley Franklin wrote:
>
>> As a Jewish member of UCU I support the boycott, which is a
>> boycott against Israeli UNIVERSITES as Zionist institutions not a
>> boycott against individual Israeli academics. It will be possible
>> for us to engage with Israeli academics but not with their
>> institutions - examining, university delegations,etc.
>>
>> It is really important that anti-semitism is not confused with
>> anti-zionism. The boycott basically supports the rights of
>> Palestinians to live equally as Israelis do in their own homes, in
>> their own lands. UCU members are not singling Israel out. Both the
>> behaviour of the occupying forces in the Occupied Territories, and
>> Israeli state policy, is not simply barbaric; they are clearly
>> designed to make these areas ungovernable and non-viable, and
>> eventually to eradicate altogether any distinctive Palestinian
>> culture and history. The illegal settlements, the strategic use of
>> the road network between the settlements, and the separation wall
>> constitute an intentional policy of disaggregation of Palestinian
>> territory.
>> The discriminatory practices in respect of water supply, land
>> ownership, military checkpoints, incursions and the use of
>> airpower regardless of civilian casualties, house demolitions and
>> other collective punishments, and the dramatic differences in the
>> financing of educational, health and other resources between
>> Israelis and Palestinians render Israeli state policy both
>> discriminatory and destructive. These policies are not consistent,
>> the UCU members insist, with peace, security or indeed any form of
>> academic freedom for the Palestinian population.
>>
>> Universities play a particularly important role in Israeli
>> society, one that is distinct from the role of academic
>> institutions in other oppressive states. No Israeli university
>> has explicitly dissociated itself from the Occupation, nor even
>> debated publicly the question of whether or not it would be
>> appropriate so to do. All Israeli universities are, therefore,
>> directly or indirectly complicit in virtue of the training of, and
>> support for, the occupying forces, or a failure to condemn the
>> outrages carried out in the name of every Israeli citizen.
>>
>> Shirley Franklin
>> On 31 May 2007, at 03:03, David Preiss wrote:
>>
>>> This is indeed a quite complicated issue, David, and that has
>>> made many people think there is an anti-Semitic push behind this
>>> boycott. I understand criticism towards Israel very well, but if
>>> we start boycotting academics because of the military options of
>>> their countries there are many that should stop working with our
>>> American or even UK friends as well because of the Iraq policy of
>>> their governments, not to speak of our colleagues which are
>>> living under the many oppressive regimes that abound around the
>>> world these days. I think this whole thing is a very bad idea
>>> that does not serve its moral purposes.
>>> David Preiss
>>>
>>> On May 30, 2007, at 8:21 PM, David H Kirshner wrote:
>>>
>>>> Earlier today (May 30, 2007), the United Kingdom's University and
>>>> College Union endorsed the principle of a boycott of Israeli
>>>> academic
>>>> institutions, and called for an educational campaign among UCU
>>>> members
>>>> in support of such a boycott. Those who are interested in this
>>>> issue
>>>> might want to communicate their opinions to UCU General
>>>> Secretary Sally
>>>> Hunt: sallyhuntucu@googlemail.com
>>>>
>>>> David Kirshner
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> xmca mailing list
>>>> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
>>>> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
>>>>
>>>
>>> David Preiss, Ph.D.
>>> Subdirector de Extensión y Comunicaciones
>>> Escuela de Psicología
>>> Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile
>>> Av Vicuña Mackenna 4860
>>> Macul, Santiago
>>> Chile
>>>
>>> Fono: 3544605
>>> Fax: 3544844
>>> e-mail: davidpreiss@uc.cl
>>> web personal: http://web.mac.com/ddpreiss/
>>> web institucional: http://www.uc.cl/psicologia
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> xmca mailing list
>>> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
>>> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>
> David Preiss, Ph.D.
> Subdirector de Extensión y Comunicaciones
> Escuela de Psicología
> Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile
> Av Vicuña Mackenna 4860
> Macul, Santiago
> Chile
>
> Fono: 3544605
> Fax: 3544844
> e-mail: davidpreiss@uc.cl
> web personal: http://web.mac.com/ddpreiss/
> web institucional: http://www.uc.cl/psicologia
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> xmca mailing list
> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca

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Received on Thu May 31 12:26 PDT 2007