Boycott/Counter-boycott

If a left-wing academic opponent of PM Blair in Britain wrote a letter to a
French University Teacher's Union asking them to boycott British
Universities because of Blair's "fascist" Iraq war policy, that has killed
thousands of poor, innocent Iraqis, and if that Union passed a resolution to
that effect, that would be equivalent to what has happened in Britain with
the Association of University Teacher's (AUT) Union anti-Israel boycott
motion. Although it was the Union's Executive Committee of 200 that passed
the motion unanimously, it is now policy for its 40,000 members! However,
of course, it could not be equivalent, because although there may be
antipathy towards Blair and Britain in France and elsewhere, it is not an
endemic cultural tradition like anti-Semitism, and it is not wrapped up in a
groundswell of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish views that have become
fashionable in Britain and around Europe today.
There are three origins of the current wave of anti-Semitism (for want of a
more descriptive phrase). First, there are the large number of Muslim
immigrants to Britain that have grown tremendously in recent years. There
are said to be approximately 1.5 million Muslims, about 10 times the number
of British Jews. Most of the Muslims are not Arabs, they are from the
subcontinent, Pakistanis, Indians and Bagladeshis. Most of them are
moderate in their views and not active in anti-Jewish activities, but even
if only 10% of them are, that's still a hell of a lot of people, over
100,000!
Second, there is the currently fashionable left-wing attitude to attack
Israel for alleged human rights and other abuses, on the assumption that the
Palestinians are the most perfect case of a third world cause, and that the
Jews should know better having been treated badly ourselves. The cause of
this mistreatment is variously ascribed to "the occupation," "the wall,"
"the Israeli military" and of course "the settlers"! The people who
pontificate on these subjects from a morally superior position are of course
universally ignorant of the facts of the true situation here in the Middle
East, and are highly politically motivated. But, their actions cover the
basis of a racist attitude towards Jews that, as good leftists, they had
difficulty expressing before. Now they have been freed from that
limitation, since its now clear to them that the Jews are the racists. I
myself was called a "racist" by a prominent British Jewish scientist because
I advocated a counter-boycott of UK academics.
The third leg of this unholy alliance is of course the traditional fascist,
anti-Semitic right wing. Although they have often been quiet in recent
years, they have re-surfaced over the immigration and amnesty issues, and
although anti-Muslim, they are not beyond making common cause with the
Muslims against the Jews.
The boycott of Israeli academic institutions by the AUT must be seen as part
of a wave of anti-Semitic/anti-Zionist activities in Britain. I include in
this category, the statements of London Mayor Livingstone and his reception
of a Jihadi Imam, the daubing of swastikas on Jewish gravestones, the
conferring of an MBE on Orla Guerin a BBC reporter of established
anti-Israel bias, and the opening of a play in the West End entitled "My
name is Rachel Corrie" about the pro-Palestinian activist who was killed
while acting as a human shield in Gaza, as well as attacks, verbal and
physical, on Jewish students at British (and American and European)
Universities. All of these activities reflect a disturbing trend of an
acceptable anti-Jewish subculture within British society (that I myself
experienced when growing up in Britain).
The AUT boycott is selective, not only that it is against Israel and ignores
many other much more repressive countries, but it is against two
Universities in Israel, Haifa and Bar Ilan Universities. One cause of the
boycott, a letter from Ilan Pappe, a tenured Professor at Haifa University,
is a case of delusional discrimination. Pappe has a well-known history of
being against the existence of the State of Israel, and was embroiled in a
case a few years ago in which one of his students at his instigation was
found to have fabricated evidence of a massacre of Arabs by the IDF during
the War of Independence in 1948. Yet he still has tenure and the University
announced today that they will take no action against him for his causing
the University to be boycotted. Now that's really liberal, and not only
that, Haifa University has a proud tradition of affirmative action in
helping Arabs and other minorities to study there, all students being
treated completely equally! So they chose the wrong University to boycott.
Bar Ilan, although a religious Jewish University also has affirmative action
programs for minorities, etc. The Executive Board of the AUT is still
considering whether or not to boycott the Hebrew University for having
stolen the land of Arab neighbors, since it turns out that the information
they were given by the organizers of the boycott was completely false, and
in fact according to a court case, the reverse was true.
As a scientist, rather than just sign petitions, I propose a counter-boycott
of British academia to the AUT boycott. I personally have refused to review
a scientific paper written by a British academic group but submitted to an
American journal (Molecular Cancer Therapeutics). I call upon all
scientists worldwide not to cooperate in any British academic activities
while this selective racist boycott is in effect. Unless it is revoked I
predict that many scientists will take action against British academic
institutions and that this will cause a net loss to the British scientific
establishment. To prevent the effects of this counter-boycott I suggest
that the British Government and the British Union movement take immediate
action to counteract or negate the AUT boycott. Only when this boycott is
revoked will we desist in our British academic counter-boycott. Only the
threat of firm action now can stop this movement from spreading. Soon other
British Unions will be the target of a minority that will pass similar
boycott resolutions, and then other associations will follow suit, and then
not wanting to be left behind, Unions and other groups in France, Germany,
Holland, Belgium, etc. will pass anti-Israel boycott resolutions, and then
the EU will get into the act. Who could believe it is possible? Ask any
survivor of the Nazi period in Europe, anything's possible.