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Academic boycott of Israeli universities likely to be overturned
To become de facto rather than de jure. So how is your little scheme progressing, Atomic Conspiracy? EFL.The supporters of a controversial boycott of two Israeli universities have accepted that the measure is likely to be overturned at a special meeting of Britain's biggest university lecturers' union later this week. Sue Blackwell, an academic at the University of Birmingham who attracted worldwide condemnation for leading calls to cut academic links with the universities of Bar-Ilan and Haifa, said she expected the boycott to be rescinded on Thursday by the Association of University Teachers. Members of the AUT voted at their annual conference in Eastbourne last month to boycott the two universities for their alleged complicity in human rights abuses. Haifa has started defamation proceedings against the union over the allegations. !!! This should be amusing. Anti-boycott activists hope they will overturn the original motion, which they say was not properly debated and did not represent the balance of views of the whole membership. Even if the policy is overturned, supporters of the boycott say the campaign has encouraged more British academics to shun joint scientific projects in Israel than ever before. "[Israel] is very strong in areas such as neuro-science, genetics and stem cell research so British scientists will lose out. But the people who will lose out most are the Israelis because they value links with Europe so highly," [said Steven Rose, professor of biology at the Open University.] Cutting off his nose to spite his face? How very Progressive of him. Opponents said the boycott would have little effect on research, but was an unacceptable attack on academic freedom. Dr Blackwell said she was offended by the suggestion that the boycott was in some way motivated by anti-Semitism, and said she had a track record of fighting all forms of racism. But then, the Jews are not a race as such, so antisemitism isn't really racism, at least when the light shines just right. Posted by: trailing wife 2005-05-24 |
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