Professor Uriel Reichman, President of the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, has responded to the decision by a small number of members of the British University and College Union to boycott Israeli academe as "a modern reformulation of Judenreine" a German expression used by the Nazis meaning "Jew free," describing areas they had emptied of a Jewish presence [Haaretz].
The professor's language might be considered extreme but there is little doubt that a gang of British teachers has joined their counterparts in journalism to discriminate against Israel at the worst of all possible times. The attack on Israel comes at the end of a month of viscious internal brawling between factions of the ruling Hamas and opposition Fatah which has left almost 100 dead, an escalation in the firing of rockets by Palestinians at Israeli civilian areas killing two, traumatising Sderot and disrupting normal life in the town, a time in which a monsterous propaganda campaign has been uncovered in which Hamas party is indoctrinating the minds of its children. All the while, Hamas continues point blank to refuse to recognise Israel, let alone negotiate peace or an end to the "occupation" of the West Bank.
The entire concept of a boycott is questionable and will do nothing to further the cause of peace between Israel and the Palestinians as long as British academics and journalists enjoy overdosing on hatred of the Jewish State as their own form of moral masturbation. Such boycotts not only are ineffective - they are simply counterproductive and shames all of British academia.
Michael Yudkin put it well in an article entitled "Is an Academic Boycott of Israel Justified?" in Democratiya:-
"It is a good deal easier to make grand gestures than to engage with the complexities of so intractable a problem as the conflict between Israel and her neighbours.".
Of course this begs the question whether the boycotters are interested in the conflict or its resolution at all. Their irresponsible conduct and discrimination against one side not only in this conflict but of all of the conflicts raging around the world is the stuff that would have Oswald Mosley doing cartwheels in his grave.
The professor's language might be considered extreme but there is little doubt that a gang of British teachers has joined their counterparts in journalism to discriminate against Israel at the worst of all possible times. The attack on Israel comes at the end of a month of viscious internal brawling between factions of the ruling Hamas and opposition Fatah which has left almost 100 dead, an escalation in the firing of rockets by Palestinians at Israeli civilian areas killing two, traumatising Sderot and disrupting normal life in the town, a time in which a monsterous propaganda campaign has been uncovered in which Hamas party is indoctrinating the minds of its children. All the while, Hamas continues point blank to refuse to recognise Israel, let alone negotiate peace or an end to the "occupation" of the West Bank.
The entire concept of a boycott is questionable and will do nothing to further the cause of peace between Israel and the Palestinians as long as British academics and journalists enjoy overdosing on hatred of the Jewish State as their own form of moral masturbation. Such boycotts not only are ineffective - they are simply counterproductive and shames all of British academia.
Michael Yudkin put it well in an article entitled "Is an Academic Boycott of Israel Justified?" in Democratiya:-
"It is a good deal easier to make grand gestures than to engage with the complexities of so intractable a problem as the conflict between Israel and her neighbours.".
Of course this begs the question whether the boycotters are interested in the conflict or its resolution at all. Their irresponsible conduct and discrimination against one side not only in this conflict but of all of the conflicts raging around the world is the stuff that would have Oswald Mosley doing cartwheels in his grave.
A MAN OF HONOUR
Nobel Laureate Steven Weinberg, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, has withdrawn from a planned trip to Englan in July because of what he perceives to be "a widespread anti-Israel and anti-semitic current in British opinion".
[Guardian]
Nobel Laureate Steven Weinberg, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, has withdrawn from a planned trip to Englan in July because of what he perceives to be "a widespread anti-Israel and anti-semitic current in British opinion".
[Guardian]
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