Letter to THES

This letter will appear in the next issue of The Times Higher Education
Supplement.
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Consider the following facts in the light of renewed calls for an academic
boycott of Israel, ("Alarm at bid to revive boycott", December 3). The
winners of The Wall Street Journal's 2004 Technology Innovation Awards have
just been announced. The gold award went to Sun Microsystems of California
for a wireless approach to chip design. The silver went to Given Imaging of
Israel for PillCam, a tiny camera that patients swallow so that doctors can see
their digestive tract. The bronze went to InSightec Image Guided Treatment
of Israel for ExAblate 2000, a non-surgical method of destroying tumours.
Israel is contributing to the future well-being of mankind through advanced
technology. It would be irresponsible and self-defeating for Britain to cut
itself off from these and other Israeli high-tech developments.
And what of the supposed "moral" issues involved? Why isn't a boycott of the
Palestinian university system being considered, when most Palestinian
campuses are dominated by terrorist groups? Last Tuesday, the head of the
student union of al-Quds University was assassinated by masked men in a taxi
with Palestinian licence plates.
No Israeli academic dares to visit Palestinian campuses, while Israeli
universities have a large component of Arab students and teachers who go
about freely and undisturbed.
This Israel academic boycott scheme is conducted by hate groups opposed to
peace, and should be resisted by all fair-minded people interested in the
true pursuit of knowledge and open interactions between peoples.

Jack Cohen
The Hebrew University
Jerusalem, Israel