woensdag 15 oktober 2014

1.460 Academici tekenen anti-boycot petitie

Tot nu toe 1.461 academici stellen zich in een petitie te weer tegen een academische/wetenschappelijke boycot van Israel.

Ja, daar zijn veel Joodse namen bij, wat op allerlei manieren kan worden uitgelegd: meer betrokkenheid, gevoel van solidariteit, door eigen contacten beter op de hoogte van de situatie in Israel en makkelijker gevraagd voor de petitie. Het is te hopen dat de petitie nog wat bredere weerklank vindt.

Ze staan op de bres voor academische vrijheid, maar ook tegen de eenzijdigheid van de BDS-propaganda, en zijn van mening dat het isoleren van Israel de gewenste tweestatenoplossing ondermijnt.

Israel is het enige land ter wereld waartegen massaal en langdurig dergelijke boycot-campagnes gevoerd worden. Ze begonnen in de jaren ’30 bij de nazi’s en de jaren ’40 bij de Arabische Liga, om vanaf circa jaren ’70 door radikaal-linkse groepen te worden overgenomen, en in 2005 na een oproep van Palestijnse organisaties ook hier breder draagvlak te krijgen. Mag het eindelijk eens afgelopen zijn?

Wouter

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1,200 academics sign anti-boycott petition

http://www.timesofisrael.com/1200-academics-sign-anti-bds-online-petition/

Move comes in response to statement by over 360 anthropologists urging sanctions against Israeli academic institutions

BY TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF October 8, 2014, 5:18 pm

Illustrative photo of protesters urging a boycott against Israel. (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Nearly 1,200 academics from universities and colleges across the world signed an online petition to oppose any boycott of Israel and its higher education institutions.

“We, the undersigned academics… vigorously support free speech and free debate but we oppose faculty or student boycotts of Israel’s academic institutions, scholars and students,” the petition states.

The statement accused BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) supporters of discriminating against Israeli institutions, professors, and students “for no other reason than their nationality and the policies of their government,” and added that such a practice violated “the very principle of academic freedom.”

According to the petition, the BDS supporters’ position undermines the possibility of ever achieving a long-lasting peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, as it completely isolated the Jewish state.

“The two-state solution – which guarantees to both parties mutual recognition – enjoys the endorsement of the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, and the Arab League,” the petition reads.

“By demonizing and seeking to isolate one of the two parties to the peace process, the anti-Israel BDS movement sets itself apart from the global consensus for peace.”

The anti-BDS petition came in response to a statement posted on Oct. 1 on the website jadaliyya.com signed by more than 350 anthropologists which endorsed an academic boycott of Israel.

“As a community of scholars who study problems of power, oppression, and cultural hegemony, we have a moral responsibility to speak out and demand accountability from Israel and our own governments,” read the statement, which endorsed “boycott[ing] Israeli academic institutions that are complicit in these violations.”

Israeli academic institutions, the statement said, “are complicit with the occupation and oppression of Palestinians” with “intimate connections between Israeli academic institutions and the military, security, and political establishments in Israel.”

Among the signatories were 13 academics from the City University of New York and 13 from Columbia University. Nine co-signatories were listed as being from Harvard University and eight from Yale University.

JTA contributed to this report.