Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, November 2007, pages 58-59
Waging Peace
Academic Boycott Drama
BOYCOTTS, DIVESTMENTS and sanctions (BDS) are nonviolent methods of protest. Nevertheless, the recent proposal adopted by the UK’s University and Colleges Union congress simply to discusswhether it should boycott Israeli academic institutions caused an international furor. Expensive ads denouncing a boycott appeared in European and American newspapers, including a letter published Aug. 5, written by Elie Wiesel and signed by 56 fellow (mostly Jewish) Nobel Prize laureates. (American Educational Trust boardmembers sent a letter and a Remember These Children book to each of the signatories.)
Supporters of an academic boycott say they cannot ignore what Israel is doing in the occupied Palestinian territories, or the systematic denial of educational opportunities and academic freedom to Palestinian students and scholars. Those opposed to the boycott say they’d prefer to continue their support of Israeli academics—many of whom, they say, are not responsible for the repression of Palestinians in the occupied territories.
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, readers who received our July 25 e-mail action alert entitled “Academic Boycott—Yes or No?” rushed to vote on theBritish Medical Journal’s Web site in support of an academic boycott of Israel. Voters opposed to the boycott were winning—until our readers heard about the online survey. At that point the scales began to tip, until, within 24 hours of our call for action, the survey abruptly ended.
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For more information on this controversial issue see British Medical Journal articles supporting each position: Should we consider a boycott of Israeli academic institutions? Yes by Tom Hickey, chair of the University and Colleges Union, Faculty of Arts and Architecture, University of Brighton, Brighton, at <www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/335/7611/12>, or No by Michael Baum, professor emeritus of surgery, University College London, London <www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/335/7611/125>.
—Delinda C. Hanley
