The Times is reporting that the UCU has voted in favour of boycotting Israeli universities.
Academia is a full of bizarre ironies and double standards. The University and College Union (UCU), which represents 120,000 academics, has voted to boycott Israeli Universities on the moral grounds that Israeli academics had “apparent complicity” in the “humanitarian catastrophe imposed on Gaza by Israel”. Aside from this charge being entirely bogus, it's also completely ludicrous and flies in the face of the spirit of academia. Engagement with Universities in Iran and Saudi Arabia is perfectly acceptable (as I think it should be), and in some cases encouraged. This sort of stunt can only hurt the international reputation of UK scholars. Of course, it's not the first time either, two years ago the UCU was made up of two different unions who tried the same thing before eventually overturning their decisions. It was determined back then that a boycott would be illegal, which is why this time they've stopped short and called for individuals to decide whether or not it's good for the institution to have any links with Israel. What a cowardly way to push a sickening agenda. This is even worse on the grandstanding front than Monbiot trying to arrest Bolton.
1 comments:
I second your conclusion.
It's correct to say that there are a number of nations in the world that commit a lot worse autrocities than do the state of Israel, if ever she does (I for my self think that the evils in that conflict are the Arab Palestinians).
I have yet to see a rational explanation as to why Israel uniquely deserves a boycott compared with, say Syria, Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, China, Burma or Russia or even Britain fighting against Iraqis in Iraq!
Why is this even the business of a trade union? It's not as if the UCU or its predecessors have done anything but hold down academic wages for years. At least they could fulfil their duties to their members before getting involved in international diplomacy, which is not anyway their task.
Personally, whatever their feelings about the Israeli-Palestinian issues, I think this boycotting is a stupid idea. And probably damaging to the UK. Israel is a world leader in certain studies (for eaxample: encryption and video conferencing spring to mind, bio-chemical, computers, agriculture, water use, alternative enery, etc.). Do they really want to cut themself off from the Israelis? There is more than a little jingoism here, in the idea that denying the Israelis the great privilege of talking to British academics is punishment enough to force them to change their government.
There is only one word for this: Wankers.
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