Ben Gurion University
Ben Gurion University - David
Newman (Dept of Political Science) prettifies and rationalizes the
anti-Israel boycott by British Anti-Semites
See the full original article,
go here
Boycotting
universities is not the same as anti-Semitism
DAVID NEWMAN
Jun. 7, 2009
It didn't receive huge coverage in the
local press, but last week the British academic trade union, the UCU,
approved its annual motion calling for an academic boycott of
Israel. The motion was then shelved by the union chiefs who,
regardless of their own political feelings towards Israel/Palestine,
have become increasingly uncomfortable with the hijacking of the
union convention by a relatively small group of vocal political
activists who appear to have little else on their agenda but the
annual condemnation and delegitimization of Israel.
The attempts to impose an academic boycott
have long ceased to be a simple condemnation of Israel's policies
concerning the West Bank and the Palestinians. Were this the case,
there would be many, even in the Israeli and Jewish world, who would
be sympathetic to such a critique. But the UCU boycott debates have
transformed into Israel-bashing sessions, with unbalanced debates
that question its existential legitimacy.
After the UCU motions in 2008 were
withdrawn in the face of the threat of anti-discrimination legal
action, it was thought that the boycott fervor had died down. The
university vice chancellors and principals had all expressed their
opposition to any form of boycott, making it impossible to implement
at any institutional level, while even the few individual boycotters
attempting to implement their own silent boycott could only speak on
behalf of themselves, not the institutions for which they worked.
But the Gaza war proved to be an excuse
for raising the boycott issue again, not just in the academic union
but in other more significant trade unions, and not just in the UK
but also in other Western liberal democracies, such as Canada and
most recently Australia.
THERE IS NOTHING like a good boycott or
perceived anti-Semitism to bring a Diaspora Jewish community into
action. In the UK, where there is no lack of community institutions,
the boycott attempts have spawned the establishment of a well-funded
Stop the Boycott Campaign, the Fair Play Group and the reincarnation
of the pro-Israel lobby, BICOM. It has also renewed the fighting
spirit of academic organizations such as the Academic Friends of
Israel, left-of-center Engage, or the right-of-center SPME - a North
American consortium of scholars which has now established branches
among UK academics to try to ensure a more balanced debate on
campuses.
Within Israel itself, the boycott attempts
may have raised the ire of the university faculty, but it has
largely been pushed aside as meaningless and irrelevant. When the
boycott was first placed on the agenda some years ago, there was
criticism of the Israeli universities for not taking a stand and not
becoming actively involved in the counterboycott activities. But
once they did become involved, they found that community
organizations were not really interested in listening to their
Israeli colleagues. They certainly did not want to hear from Israeli
academics who were also critical of government policies. It was
always much easier just to join forces with the right-wing lobbies
and simply equate any criticism of Israel with structural
anti-Semitism. In doing so, the community organizations completely
lost control of the debate.
MOST ISRAELI ACADEMICS have preferred to
operate independently of Jewish community institutions abroad, if
only because their agendas are different. Most Israeli faculty | 
