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British Professors Approve Israel Boycott
Move Slammed by Jewish Activists, but Anti-Zionist Says He’s Been Blackballed
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More in NewsBritain’s largest teachers union voted this week to press forward with a proposal to boycott Israeli academic institutions, setting the stage for a bitter struggle to reverse the decision.
The University and College Union, representing more than 120,000 college-level educators, voted May 30 to pass a motion imploring its branches to circulate and discuss a Palestinian call for boycott of Israeli academics and universities.
At the same time, a professor in America was painting himself as the victim of an Israeli university’s own version of political blackballing.
Yigal Arens, a University of Southern California computer science professor who is an outspoken critic of Israel, said this week that his invitation to an upcoming conference at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev was rescinded as a result of what he described as his anti-Zionist views. The NATO-sponsored conference, set to take place June 4-5, is being billed as an apolitical event that will explore the role of the Internet in combating terrorism.
The accusation from Arens, left-wing son of right-wing former Israeli defense minister Moshe Arens, comes as America’s mainstream Jewish community is mobilizing to defeat the academic boycott.
Alan Dershowitz, Harvard Law School professor and prominent pro-Israel advocate, said that to protest the vote he will attempt to mobilize 1,000 American university professors of diverse backgrounds to join him in declaring themselves honorary Israeli professors.
“I now consider myself an Israeli professor, and I will act as if I am an Israeli professor,” Dershowitz said. “If they boycott Israel,” he added, “they’re boycotting me.”
Another recent effort to exert political pressure on the Jewish state came in April, when Britain’s 40,000-member National Union of Journalists adopted a resolution calling for a boycott of Israeli goods.
Arens and his left-wing supporters say that his story undercuts a fundamental tenet of the anti-boycott movement, which holds that Israeli academic institutions are an unfair target because they are not political in nature. But anti-boycott activists say that even if Arens’s explanation of the incident is accurate, it does not justify ostracizing thousands of professors on the basis of their nationality.
“Even if one is troubled by the idea that one could be invited or disinvited because of their politics, it’s very different than saying that someone should be barred because they’re Israeli,” said Kenneth Stern, the American Jewish Committee’s director on antisemitism and extremism. “One thing is an error of judgment,” he said, “and the other is tarring a whole society.”
Arens told the Forward that in early January he received a call from Paul Kantor, a library and information science professor at Rutgers University, inviting him to participate in an international conference, “Security Informatics and Terrorism — Patrolling the Web.” The conference was being co-organized by Kantor and Ben-Gurion University professor Bracha Shapira.
According to Arens, he expressed concern to Kantor that he be treated with respect, as he felt snubbed while attending a conference in the Jewish state several years ago.
A week after their initial conversation, Arens said, Kantor rescinded the invitation, saying that Israeli government officials who would be at the conference were uncomfortable with the idea of his participation. Arens, the director of both the Intelligent Systems Division at USC’s Information Sciences Institute and the Digital Government Research Center, has drawn particular ire in Israel, given his father’s standing as a long-time Likud party politician.
The alleged snub of Arens was reported on the left-wing Jewish blog Tikun Olam.
When the 55-year-old USC professor sent an e-mail to Shapira asking why he was no longer welcome at the conference, Shapira responded, “Prof. Kantor exceeded his authority in extending the invitation without full consultation with the conference organizers. We sincerely regret the embarrassment.”
Shapira did not return a phone call from the Forward seeking comment.
In an e-mail to the Forward, Kantor disputed Arens’s characterization of the incident. “I am not sure that my error in extending an invitation should be described as a ‘disinvitation,’” he wrote.
Kantor did not respond to follow-up questions.
Meanwhile, in Britain, a coalition of Jewish groups united to condemn the union’s vote.
“The UCU boycott motion is an assault on academic freedom,” said Jeremy Newmark, the chief executive of Britain’s Jewish leadership council. “While the vast majority of academics do not support a boycott, the decision damages the credibility of British academia as a whole.”
Comments
"Yigal Arens, a University of Southern California computer science professor who is an outspoken critic of Israel, said this week that his invitation to an upcoming conference at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev was rescinded as a result of what he described as his anti-Zionist views."
If Arens hates Israel so much why would he want to attend a conference, there?
Shouldn't he want to join his British friends and boycott Israeli academic life?
For much of the material related to UK campaigns against such academic boycotts of Israel, see the website of Engage, here:
http://www.engageonline.org.uk/blog/index.php
But I don't understand why they voted this way. Am I missing something?
Come again! You want to compare a boycott of an entire country by over 120 000 academics to the disinviting of a single person by a small body. Am I missing something?
The resolution that UCU Congress carried yesterday (http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=2555) was NOT 'to boycott Israeli academic institutions'. It instructed the union's executive to circulate the call for a boycott from the Palestinian Committee for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) to branches for discussion. Doesn't anybody at the Forward do even this kind of rudimentary fact checking? What an embarrassment!
Far be it from me to suggest that the media present a balanced picture, but it does seem a little curious that in all the kerfuffle about 'academic freedom', nobody seems to have noticed the curfews and restrictions on movement in the West Bank that make teaching, study, and research virtually impossible, when the academic institutions aren't actually closed. Not to mention the complete isolation of Gaza.
I don't know Arens and don't like his action. Through colleagues who work on biological cybernetics I know that Israel is one of the world's great centers in that area. I'm sure that Arens could go to his meeting on his own power and expence, without a specific invitation. In any case, the loss is his and not a propaganda matter.
I think that Arens participation in the conference was rejected not only by the Israelis but by NATO partners too. Both sides consider Arens as security endangerment to some sensitive military issues to be delivered, discussed and decided at the conference. As for the British akadamnic boycott, I think it won't hold water because the universities management and administrations are not part of the boycott decision and they have the pure professional interest to keep the complicated and plentiful ties between both states as they are. As far as the Arab Palestinians situation (Harry Feldman) it's not so simple as he puts it. Israel and the Palestinian Arabs are at a state of war which broke out by Arabs and still continues by their initiative. They declared war of aggression in order to ruin the state of Israel by all means. Although Israel fully withdrew from Gaza strip and left it for their responsibility, they use this asset in order to increase their terror abilities while keep attacking Israel daily. The Palestinian Arabs use kids, Women, ambulances, sick persons who are allowed to enter Israel for medical treatment and Students to move objects and items (explosives, guns, bullets, documents, computers etc.) from point to point helping terror organizations. I think it's quite not fair to suggest that the Israeli will endanger themselves just to let the world see that they loose the hook over the terror attempts to increase wounds on both sides. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BzffA8LVP8&mode=related&search=">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BzffA8LVP8&mode=related&search=</a> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66maIBToYv4">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66maIBToYv4</a> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQYXair1Fu8&mode=related&search=">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQYXair1Fu8&mode=related&search=</a> Ain't it enough yet?
Abe Bird Israel
The resolution that UCU Congress carried yesterday (http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=2555) was NOT 'to boycott Israeli academic institutions'. It instructed the union's executive to circulate the call for a boycott from the Palestinian Committee for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) to branches for discussion. Doesn't anybody at the Forward do even this kind of rudimentary fact checking? What an embarrassment!
Far be it from me to suggest that the media present a balanced picture, but it does seem a little curious that in all the kerfuffle about 'academic freedom', nobody seems to have noticed the curfews and restrictions on movement in the West Bank that make teaching, study, and research virtually impossible, when the academic institutions aren't actually closed. Not to mention the complete isolation of Gaza.
I think that Arens participation in the conference was rejected not only by the Israelis but by NATO partners too. Both sides consider Arens as security endangerment to some sensitive military issues to be delivered, discussed and decided at the conference. As for the British akadamnic boycott, I think it won't hold water because the universities management and administrations are not part of the boycott decision and they have the pure professional interest to keep the complicated and plentiful ties between both states as they are. As far as the Arab Palestinians situation (Harry Feldman) it's not so simple as he puts it. Israel and the Palestinian Arabs are at a state of war which broke out by Arabs and still continues by their initiative. They declared war of aggression in order to ruin the state of Israel by all means. Although Israel fully withdrew from Gaza strip and left it for their responsibility, they use this asset in order to increase their terror abilities while keep attacking Israel daily. The Palestinian Arabs use kids, Women, ambulances, sick persons who are allowed to enter Israel for medical treatment and Students to move objects and items (explosives, guns, bullets, documents, computers etc.) from point to point helping terror organizations. I think it's quite not fair to suggest that the Israeli will endanger themselves just to let the world see that they loose the hook over the terror attempts to increase wounds on both sides. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BzffA8LVP8&mode=related&search=">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BzffA8LVP8&mode=related&search=</a> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66maIBToYv4">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66maIBToYv4</a> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQYXair1Fu8&mode=related&search=">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQYXair1Fu8&mode=related&search=</a> Ain't it enough yet?
Abe Bird Israel
One wonders if the UCU boycott is blatant antisemitism or a camouflaged gesture of jelousy since the British Academics haven't really had any impressive performance since the last century. Is this yearly bashing of Israeli Academics to keep themselves feeling a bit alive ?
We all say no to Ovens & Death Camps. But not to Democratic Votes for Boy Cots in saying NO or "Never Again" to what is happing to Palestine daily.
This boycott is just another indication of how degenerate labor unions have become. In this action, they cooperate with holocaust deniers and those who would perpetrate another one. It is especially disgusting that the union involved here is one of academics, especially those who constantly call for "peace." Unions are on the slippery slope beyond the pale, and many, especially this one, have already passed that zone.
The real problem in the UK are Jews who see themselves first & foremost as British. The boycott itself is at least a sign that the British are steering away from being 'two faced' when it comes to dealing with Israel. Sadly, too many Jews have become so integrated into British culture that they are in urgent need of a soul transplant. Hopefully, such blatant outcries against the Jewish State of Israel might just make a few more Jews a little more uncomfortable about their 'British heritage', enough to consider where every Jew truly belongs. My message to British Jews....don't even bother fighting them, your true struggle should be here in Israel...beside us...not behind us!
It appears that the British stiff upper lip has turned into rigor and is now including the brain. Certainly they should boycott the only democratic country and all of their people in favor of the poor oppressed Arab community of peace loving terrorists who only want the total destruction of all things Israeli. And they call themselves academics? As an Amerocan I am ashamed to have descended from Britain. Thank God we revolted or we might be considered part of the incredibly stupid backward thinking bunch of BLOODY morons.
It appears that the British stiff upper lip has turned into rigor and is now including the brain. Certainly they should boycott the only democratic country in the area and all of their people in favor of the poor oppressed Arab community of peace loving terrorists who only want the total destruction of all things Israeli. And they call themselves academics? As an American I am ashamed to have descended from Britain. Thank God we revolted or we might be considered part of the incredibly stupid backward thinking bunch of BLOODY morons.
Although I agree that the article above could've been better written I wonder if we have lost sight of the common thread of intolerance here. Israelis disinvite a prominent academic because of his views on Israel? Does Professor Arens have a competency in the areas to be discussed in Israel?
Secondly, why would British academia persue a policy of isolation with regards to Israeli academics?
The scarey issue here is that all of these "educated" people should know better!
So, an article that purportedly supposes to talk about the Nazi like British boycott degenerates into an Israel bashing piece. Featuring the disgruntled son of Mose Arens. I know the Forward is left wing but perhaps you should keep an eye on the real enemies. Bill Pearlman