British academics and bigotry against Israel
Hundreds of British academics, mired in ignorance and bigotry, signed an advertisement in the Guardian pledging boycotts of Israeli academia. These people know no shame
The
United Kingdom has many attractions: Wimbledon, strawberries and cream,
and political parties that talk to each other. What a pity that it also
has far too many self-righteousness and holier-than-thou academics
whose bigotry is as considerable as their lack of knowledge of Middle
East realities.
The physical British fog, so familiar
from the Sherlock Holmes stories, may have disappeared, but the mental
fog prevails in the minds of some faculty members.
Shame on those 343 academic faculty
members, to whom another 150 were added, who signed an advertisement in
the British paper, The Guardian on October 27, 2015 pledging not to
cooperate with Israeli academic institutions.
In a world in which hundreds of
thousands of Middle East people are fleeing to European countries and
when in one month of October 2015 ten Israelis were killed and more than
100 injured by stabbing by Palestinians, the original 343 opinionated
individuals had a different priority. They were not concerned, let alone
troubled, by the continuing violence and terrorism against Israeli
civilians during that period.
Instead, they declared, in the
language of zealots, that they were motivated by “deep concern for
Palestinians…struggling to sustain some semblance of normal life in
intractably difficult circumstances of occupation and denial of human
rights.”
Accordingly, these resolute academics
will take a brave, indeed heroic, stand. They will not accept
invitations for academic visits to Israel or take part in events
organized, funded or sponsored by academic institutions or act as
referees related to them or cooperate in any way.
All this is essential because of the
“deep complicity of Israeli academic institutions in Israeli violations
of international law.”
One understands that many of the
signers of the Guardian statement must have been subjected to both peer
influence and pressure from Palestinian groups. It is difficult to know
the extent of knowledge of international law or of human rights
violations in Israel or elsewhere possessed by the faculty coming from
the listed disciplines such as art, classics, design history,
linguistics, physics, chemistry, civil engineering, translation studies,
and zoology.
Of course, one does not expect these
experts to discuss or comment on occupations or discrimination regarding
the control by China over Tibet, or Turkey over north Cyprus, or Russia
over the Crimea or eastern Ukraine. But some elementary information
about two issues, Palestinian behavior as well as the role and behavior
of Israeli institutions, might be expected.
On the first issue, they might have
known of President Bill Clinton’s comment on the failure of the Camp
David Talks in July 2000 between himself, then Israeli Prime Minister
Ehud Barack and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat: “I regret
that Arafat missed the opportunity to bring that (Palestinian) state
into being.”
On the second issue, they might have
known that Israeli Arabs, 20 per cent of the population, account for 50
per cent of the students in Israel’s main medical school, and that they
constitute 22 per cent of the total of Israeli university students. This
record does not appear to be what the academics call “deprivation of
opportunities” for Israeli Arabs. Busy with their studies they may have
forgotten that Israeli hospitals treat large numbers of Palestinian
patients, including family members of Hamas leaders.
There are really only two question to
be asked about the signatories of the infamous ad. What is their real
motive in signing, and why are they are anxious to prevent progress and
research in Britain?
No doubt these academics felt
self-satisfaction and moral uprightness from signing the statement but
they should be ashamed of themselves for disclaiming the whole ethos of
academia: open dialogue and pursuit of new ideas. They have acted not
only in an ignorant fashion, but also in one that is divisive,
discriminatory, and harmful; one that makes the pursuit of peace and
understanding in the Middle East more difficult. They are destroying
bridges, not building them.
They have not understood that the very
academic institutions they wish to boycott are among the bodies that
are often most critical of Israeli policies and places where open
differences on policies regarding Palestinians are passionate. They
might compare the expressions of concern of many Israeli academics to
improve the life of Palestinians with the freedom of speech and open
discussion available in Syria, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, or even between
the Fatah and Hamas factions of the Palestinians who are still killing
each other.
The ignorance of the signers so
concerned with the iniquities of Israel is truly astounding. One wonders
how or if the 343 academics pursue the truth in their own scholarly
disciplines. In this case of relations between Britain and Israel they
are inexplicably preventing progress.
Did they accept the Palestinian
Narrative of Victimhood and the statement, published on the same day as
their ad, of the official Palestinian Authority daily paper, Al-Hayat
al-Jadida, that it was the Balfour Declaration of November 1917 that
“dragged the region into the disasters of war and instability?”
A brief supply of evidence, simply
taking four examples, may be helpful to them if they are asked to sign
any future denunciation of the State of Israel or its personnel.
One is the 5 year British-Israeli
Birax scheme, partly funded by the Cancer Research UK and the British
Heart Foundation, for research and academic exchange partnership in the
field of regenerative medicine which brings researchers from both
backgrounds together. It is a token of the value in listening to and
respecting opinions different from one’s one.
Another is the Olive Tree Program,
started in 2004, that supports equal numbers of Israelis and
Palestinians to study at the City University in London. Its objective,
the exact opposite of the 343 academics, is to bring together those
involved in the conflict and offer the opportunity to reflect and learn.
The Program has awarded more than 50 scholarships in a variety of
subjects regarding Palestinians and Israelis.
In the Negev in Israel the Arava
Institute, one of the world’ leading environmental think tanks, also has
equal numbers of Israeli and Palestinians, together with Jordanians,
engaged in studying energy, water management, waste management, and
sustainable agricultural issues.
A fourth cooperative body is the
Daniel Turnberg Middle East Fellowship program that has brought together
more than 170 medical researchers, Palestinians from the West Bank and
Gaza and Israel to work in British universities on issues such as
childhood cancers, motor neurone disease, stroke, and autism.
Perhaps one of these valuable
scientific programs may help the 343 academics heal themselves, so they
can take part in advancing the cause of peace in the Middle East.
Michael Curtis, author of
"Jews, Antisemitism, and the Middle East", is Distinguished Professor
Emeritus in political science at Rutgers University. Curtis is the
author of 30 books, and in 2014 was awarded the French Legion d'Honneur
No comments:
Post a Comment