Re: [xmca] Boycott Information

"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

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Received on Thu May 31 11:27 PDT 2007