October 18, 2007
Faculty Focus , September 2007, Vol. 40, No. 3: 7
Proposed Boycott of Israeli Institutions by British Academics: Response to President Toope
[In a strongly worded condemnation of Britain's University and College Union's decision to consider a boycott of Israeli universities posted to the website of the President of the University of British Columbia, UBC President Stephen J Toope calls the threatened boycott ”a dangerous and unsupportable attack on the core values of academic life.“ [More] The following is a response from UBC staff.]
On June 15, UBC President Stephen Toope drew the attention of UBC's Academic community to a projected boycott of Israeli institu¬tions by Britain's University and College Union. Signatories below, as staff, faculty and former students of UBC, hope that the President's comments mark the beginning of a discussion about this boycott among academics here at UBC.
It should be remembered, first of all, that boycotts are not about individuals. They are a tactic used to change specific policies---in this case, the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, and the stifling consequences the occupa¬tion has had on the Palestinian population, including academics and students.
From 1988 to 1992, all schools and universities in the occupied territories were shut down by military order, and a whole genera¬tion of Palestinians was deprived of its right to education. Since 2000, a more subtle policy has been put in place. Travel restrictions make it impossible to attend a university unless you live within walking distance. Roadblocks, checkpoints, and curfews disrupt schedules, and make it impossible to plan the academic year and hold examina¬tions.
Because foreign aid has been withheld, and tax revenues are likewise withheld (Palestinian taxes are collected by Israel, which is supposed to transfer them to the Palestinian government, but refuses to do so), the universities cannot get funds and many students cannot afford tuition fees. One conse¬quence has been that professors have gone unpaid for many months. Now Israeli authorities are denying visas to foreign academics who wish to teach in Palestinian universi¬ties, and even to Palestinians who have lived and taught there for many years but who hold a foreign passport.
These are just a few examples of the extreme difficulties faced by Palestinian academics and students, and a few reasons why the presidents of Palestinian universities have repeatedly called for interna¬tional support.
In forty years of military occupa¬tion, there is no record of an Israeli university standing up for the rights of Palestinian universities. To be sure, there are voices of opposition within academia in Israel, and we admire them, as we admire the courageous Israeli journalists, such as Amira Hass, who give a voice to those who live under occupation, and the soldiers who refuse to serve in the occupied territories.
As stated above, a boycott is directed at institutions, not individ¬uals. It might mean, for example, refusing on moral grounds to give a seminar at the College of Judea and Samaria, which was established by Bar Ilan university on occupied territory, yet at the same time might permit collaboration with individual academics from Bar Ilan university itself.
Some of the undersigned participated in a boycott of Soviet universities, one aim of which was to coerce the Soviet government into allowing Jewish academics to emigrate to Israel, and we are proud of having done this. A boycott of Israeli universities, to coerce the Israeli government into allowing the Palestinian population its right to education, certainly needs to be discussed, and cannot be condemned offhand. As President Toope says, one purpose of a university is “to provide a free forum for ideas, popular or otherwise”. We feel that President Toope has begun that discussion on this subject, and we would like to see it continue.
Signatories:
Martin Adamson, Professor, Zoology; James Boucher, CUPE 2950; Nathan Crompton, UBC Arts 2008; Ivar Ekeland, Canada Research Chair in Mathematical Economics, UBC & Former President, University of Paris-9; Gabor Mate, B.A. (UBC 1968) M.D. (UBC 1973); Stephen Petrina, Education; E. Wayne Ross, Professor, Department of Curriculum Studies; Rabab Ward,Director ICICAS (Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems) UBC
For further information about the boycott, visit: www.inminds.co.uk/boycott-israel.php.
For further information about the struggles of Palestinian univer¬sities, visit their websites. Birzeit's is at: http://right2edu.birzeit.edu/.
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Originally published at http://www.facultyassociation.ubc.ca/newsletters/Sept2007.pdf
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