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Understanding the conflict
R: Sanctions and Boycotts
Special section: the Academic boycott debate in the UK, April/May 2005
In the last fortnight of April there was a flurry of activity around the resolutions on the call for an academic boycott of Israel at the AUT (Association of University Teachers) conference. Two resolutions were adopted, calling for boycotts of Bar Ilan and Haifa Universities. Many members of the AUT threatened to resign and a move was rapidly successful to get anough signatories to call for a Special Council meeting before the end of May. There was a continuing discussion around the issue right up that special council and beyond. At it, the decisions to boycott were revoked, though there was an affirmation of the need to ‘base its policy on providing practical solidarity to Palestinian and Israeli trade unionists and academics’. A couple of days later the other British trade union in the field, the Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (Natfhe) had its AGM. (The evolution of its position can be found in the final section of FFIPP-UK mailing no 6.)
The Guardian carried a lot of material in the build-up to the AUT Conference - news reports, editorial and op ed pieces and, on 19th April, three letters each signed by a large number of academics, including one from Faculty for Israeli Palestinian Peace (FFIPP-UK) which was signed by many JfJfP signatories. Some signatories signed an alternative letter (Alan Carling and others) published on the same day with yet a third letter signed by a range of other academics. Some of those involved with the second letter, who are against the occupation and against an academic boycott on principle, set up a website, ENGAGE to campaign for the rescinding of the boycott resolutions. There is much relevant material on this site.For futher correspondence in the Guardian see 20 April, 21 April, 23 April, 25 April. The continued discussion in May is less well documented here but is covered in the FFIPP-UK mailouts listed below. For a summary of the situation after the dust had settled see the Guardian report on 31 May 2005.
Facultry for Israeli-Palestinian Peace - UK has circulated relevant materials to interested parties. Rather than list all the articles these mailings have included separately, you can see the original mailings at:
FFIPP-UK mailing 1 - 26 April
FFIPP-UK mailing 2 - 27 April
FFIPP-UK mailing 3 - 29 April
FFIPP-UK mailing 4 - 10 May
FFIPP-UK mailing 5 - 19 May
FFIPP-UK mailing 6 - 6 JuneFor specific articles on the topic dating from April see:
Blunt boycott, Guardian editorial, 20 April
To boldly go, Ilan Pappe, 20 April
The sins of the few, Etgar Keret, 20 April
Ignoring the log in your own eye, Frances Raday, 20 April
Plus (not in the Guardian)
The Meaning of Academic Boycott, Baruch Kimmerling
See also the large selection of articles for May included in the FFIPP-UK Mailings above.Sanctions and Boycotts - general
JfJfP as such takes no position on the question of sanctions and boycotts, but European Jews for a Just Peace, to which we are affiliated, has called both for the suspension of the EU-israel Association Agreement, which accords special trade privileges to Israel, and for a boycott of settlement goods. Whatver individuals feel about the issues, they can no longer be avoided and we provide some relevant references here. Although there is some overlap, it has seemed worth separating the material here into three separate subsections dealing respectively with:
(a) economic issues
(b) military issues
(c) academic/cultural issues.Click here for a website with a wider range of articles
In January 2005 the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) issued a very helpful paper analysing various forms of sanctions and boycott call for sanctions against Israel, entitled Sanctions Against the Israeli Occupation: it's Time.
Henry Picciotto produced a very carefully argued paper on The Case for Selective Sanctions for Jewish Voice for Peace in the US.
An International Conference on Palestine took place in London on 5th December 2004. It was entitled: Resisting Israeli Apartheid: Strategies and Principles and provoked much controversy and objections from sections of the Jewish commuity. Papers were given by Tom Paulin, Mona Baker, Omar Barghouti, Haim Bresheeth, Lawrence Davidson, John Docker, Ilan Pappe and Lisa Taraki. They are available on the web at various places - see for example, the Bricup (British Campaign for Universities in Palestine) website under News and Events, subhead Articles. We have also posted two of them on our website, rathr than simply linking to them: the Tom Paulin keynote address and Omar Barghouti's paper at his request as he was unhappy with the version currently posted elsewhere.
(a) The economic boycott5. The case for sanctions against Israel
Gerald Kaufman
The Guardian, Monday July 12, 2004
'What worked with apartheid can bring peace to the Middle East'
4. The Campaign to Boycott Supporters of Israel - Lebanon has been particularly thoughtful about the modes and meanings of an economic boycott. Some of their material is made available here.
"Our boycott works by making a declaration of what we find objectionable in each company's practices. We classify the companies by their practices, explain the impact of such practices, and offer this information to our audience for them to evaluate. In this way, we both call on fellow boycotters to know exactly what and why they are boycotting, and we offer boycotted corporations a chance to recuperate themselves. In this way, also, we insist upon a rational, if passionate, character for our boycotting."
Click here for the full text of Kirsten Scheid's presentation on behalf of the Campaign to the "What Future for Palestine?" conference, Nov. 30, 2002, London
Click here for the Campaign's "Frequently Asked Questions" document
3. Jewish professors keep divestment drive alive
By Patrick Healy
Boston Globe , 21st December 2002
c. 1,200 words
2. Divestment from Israel is Peace Move
Joseph Levine
Columbus Dispatch Saturday, November 16, 2002
A brief update on the movement in the US by a supporter of the boycott.
1. Do I Divest?
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
October 16, 2002
'If apartheid ended, so can this occupation, but the moral force and international pressure will have to be just as determined. The current divestment effort is the first, though certainly not the only, necessary move in that direction.'
(b) The military boycott2. Five reasons to stop US military aid to Israel
Contains the Stop US Military Aid to Israel petition which has been endorsed by: Gush Shalom, International Solidarity Movement, Jews Against the Occupation, Nilemedia, Academics for Justice, Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Golshan Society, Matzpun, Palestine Children's Welfare Fund, Palestine Right to Return Coalition, All About Palestine, Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace, Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel, Not in My Name, Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights, News from Babylon, Boycott Israeli Goods, Jewish Friends of Palestine, Citizens for Fair Legislation
1. Jews, Israel, and the United States: Talking Points for Jewish Antiwar Activism
Rachael Kamel, Jewish Mobilization for a Just Peace
c.4,000 words
"Talking to American Jews about cutting or suspending U.S. military aid to Israel is a daunting prospect...
(c) The academic/cultural boycott
8. Scholars under siegeSara Leibovitch-Dar takes stock (early 2004)
7. Israel's academic freedom defended, while Palestine's is destroyed
Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 10 January 2003
c.1,500 words
On the reactions of outrage to the University of Paris 6's decision to call for a non-renewal of the EU-Israel Association Agreement while human-rights abuses continue: 'What is interesting is that all this fulmination comes not against any actual call for a boycott, or for the breaking of any relations with Israeli academics, but rather for the expression of the view that while Israel is busy destroying Palestinian higher education, the European Union should not be funding Israeli higher education.'6. Israel's Academic Extremists
by 'Solomon Socrates'
Published by The Middle East forum, 'a think tank... to define and promote American interests in the Middle East', seeking, among other things 'a stable supply and a low price of oil'.
Solomon Socrates is 'the pen name for a watchdog team of researchers keeping an eye on Israel's universities'. This big-brother account 'of how a number of radicals actively legitimated the agenda of the country1s enemies', unwittingly provides a roll call of honour of Israeli academics who stand against the rising tide of reaction.
5. 'It's water on stone - in the end the stone wears out'
Andy Beckett
The Guardian, 12 December, 2002
A substantial, 4,000 word account of the ebbs and flows of the academic boycott campaign to date.
4. An e-mail discussion, 13 December 2002 onwards...
Michael Kustow's A Cloister'd Virtue was published in The Guardian on 17 December 2002. It is a 900-word piece on 'the limitations of self-righteous indignation at a distance'. But prior to publication it was circulated and a number of replies elicited.
Stephen Rose replies and presents the text Call for International Action in Support of the Palestinian People issued by the 1st December 2002 Palestine Solidarity Campaign Conference in London on the subject.
Tony Klug argues that the academic boycott has turned into "a call to boycott individual scholars"and adds the text of a letter submitted to The Guardian, 13 December 2002 but not published.
3. The academic boycott - original texts and appealsTo follow the earlier discussion (from April 2002 onwards), follow the link above. On this website put up by the Coordination des Scientifiques pour une Paix Juste au Proche-Orient there are a range of relevant documents including the text of the two original appeals in April 2002. The first points out that 'Israel [is often regarded] as a European state for the purposes of awarding grants and contracts ...[and calls for] a moratorium ... upon any further such support unless and until Israel abide by UN resolutions and open serious peace negotiations with the Palestinians'. The second, more a statement of individual commitment says: 'I can no longer in good conscience continue to cooperate with official Israeli institutions, including universities... I will continue to collaborate with, and host, Israeli scientific colleagues on an individual basis.'
Among the documents on the site (follow the links to 'Reactions' and 'Informations') are:
* Daniel Amit's Concerning boycotts, May 2002 (''Freezing agreements with Israel, on the basis of violations of human rights, is not a boycott. Freezing agreements, whose terms are violated, is not an extreme measure. ');
* Hilary Rose & Stephen Rose's reply/clarification to a Nature editorial: ''Signatories do not call for a boycott of individual scientists, among whom are longstanding friends and colleagues. The call is for a suspension of institutional links only until Israel complies with UN resolutions and begins to negotiate seriously with its Arab neighbours along the lines of the Saudi and many similar peace plans.'; and
* links to the correpondence columns of the Guardian e.g. Ethics and academic boycotts,11 July 2002
2. The Meaning of Academic Boycott
Baruch Kimmerling replies to Tanya Reinhart and others saying 'the same reasons that lead the Professors Rose to call for a boycott against Israeli academic institutions lead me to urge the world academic community not only refrain from boycotting us but to offer us its support and protection.'
1. Why academic boycott
Tanya Reinhart
A defence of the academic boycott against the arguments of Baruch Kimmerling who opposed the boycott but nonetheless defended the academics who called for one against those who demanded their dismissal.
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