URGENT! DEADLINE IS TODAY, April 18, 2005, at 5:00!!!!
From: ScholarsforPeace@aol.com
Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2005 5:33 PM
Subject: Action Alert: Please Sign Letter from SPME, AFI and ADL to British AUT by 4.18
Calling all Scholars to Protest British Academic Union's Israeli University Boycott Proposals Scheduled for April 20
Urgent Action Alert From Scholars for Peace in the Middle East www.spme.net , Academic Friends of Israel http://academics-for-israel.org/ and the Anti-Defamation League, www.adl.org
Please sign the letter below, circulate to as many colleagues as you can and return this letter to ScholarsforPeace@aol.com before 4.18.05 at 5:00 PM Eastern Time
We Must Send an Important Message To Our Colleagues in England...Now!!!
Thank you...
Letter to British Association of University Teachers (AUT) Protesting Israel Academic Boycott Proposals
Dear Academic Colleagues of the AUT:
We have learned with dismay that the 2005 Council of the Association of University Teachers is to debate a motion calling for a boycott of three of Israel’s leading universities. We wish to register with you our grave concerns with, and opposition to, this proposal. We also wish to explain why anyone committed to academic freedom, as well as the noble goal of achieving a lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians, should be resolutely opposed to a boycott of the higher education sector in Israel.
Israeli universities are renowned for their cutting edge research and their prevailing spirit of vigorous academic enquiry. Israeli academics have distinguished themselves in areas ranging from the natural sciences to the humanities. Moreover, Israeli universities enjoy a political independence which is unique in the Middle East, reflective of the best of democratic principles, academic integrity and commitment to excellence free of narrow ideological constraints. Punishing Israeli scholars who are engaged in international research by compromising them with a boycott defies the principle that scholarship should be above politics and places those who are working on projects for the improvement of knowledge and the betterment of humanity in a situation not of their making. Many Israeli academics are participating in the democratic processes of Israel and they should not be penalized.
Furthermore, the call to boycott these Israeli universities comes at a particularly unfortunate time. There are hopeful signs of a revival of the Middle East peace process, including the decision of key Arab countries such as Jordan and Egypt to restore diplomatic relations with Israel and the overwhelming support of the Israeli people for Prime Minister Sharon’s Gaza disengagement plan. At a time when the focus should be on increasing the prospects for cooperation rather than conflict, to call for a boycott is not just wrongheaded but destructive. We would encourage you, instead of demanding a boycott, to support initiatives such as the Declaration of Principles regarding academic and scientific cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians agreed last May under the auspices of Rome9s La Sapienza University. This important document was signed by leading representatives of several Israeli universities - including two of those who would suffer from a boycott - Palestinians from universities including Al Quds, Bethlehem and Hebron, and the Assistant Director General of UNESCO.
Furthermore, we are affronted by the strategy of singling out Israeli academics and institutions for a boycott while ignoring the rest of the world. If the AUT does not want to be accused of double standards, then why does it not also call for a boycott of Saudi Universities, because of the abuse of the rights of women and minorities in that country? Or, indeed, of British and American Universities, given the AUT's critical stance on the conflict in Iraq? Our view is that, as a general principle, the mission of academia is to engage, not to stigmatize, and to preserve the political independence of our Universities.
We respectfully urge the delegates to the 2005 Council to decisively reject the call to discriminate against Israeli universities. We do so in the name of academic freedom and fairness, mindful that an endorsement of the boycott could have an adverse impact on relations between American and British Universities. For the boycott will not just damage Israeli universities and current initiatives to secure Israeli-Palestinian academic cooperation. It will set an unfortunate precedent which will affect us all.
Yours sincerely,
Your name:
Your Academic Title:
Your Institutional Affiliation
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