For first time, U.S. professors call for academic and cultural boycott of Israel
By Raphael Ahren In the wake of Operation Cast Lead, a group of American university professors has for the first time launched a national campaign calling for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel. While Israeli academics have grown used to such news from Great Britain, where anti-Israel groups several times attempted to establish academic boycotts, the formation of the United States movement marks the first time that a national academic boycott movement has come out of America. Israeli professors are not sure yet how big of an impact the one-week-old movement will have, but started discussing the significance of and possible counteractions against the campaign. "As educators of conscience, we have been unable to stand by and watch in silence Israel's indiscriminate assault on the Gaza Strip and its educational institutions," the U.S. Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel stated in its inaugural press release last Thursday. Speaking in its mission statement of the "censorship and silencing of the Palestine question in U.S. universities, as well as U.S. society at large," the group follows the usual pattern of such boycotts, calling for "non-violent punitive measures" against Israel, such as the implementation of divestment initiatives, "similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era." The campaign was founded by a group of 15 academics, mostly from California, but is, "currently expanding to create a network that embraces the United States as a whole," according to David Lloyd, a professor of English at the University of Southern California who responded on behalf of the group to a Haaretz query. "The initiative was in the first place impelled by Israel's latest brutal assault on Gaza and by our determination to say enough is enough." "The response has been remarkable given the extraordinary hold that lobbying organizations like AIPAC exert over U.S. politics and over the U.S. media, and in particular given the campaign of intimidation that has been leveled at academics who dare to criticize Israel's policies," Lloyd wrote in an e-mail to Haaretz Monday. "Within a short weekend since the posting of the press release, more than 80 academics from all over the country have endorsed the action and the numbers continue to grow." Asked if the group would accept the endorsement of Hamas supporters, Lloyd said, "We have no a priori policy with regard to the membership or affiliation of supporters of the boycott so long as they are in accord with the main aims stated in the press release." He argued that, "on several occasions Hamas has sought direct negotiations with Israel, a pursuit that constitutes de facto recognition of Israel, and has openly discussed abandoning its call for the destruction of the state of Israel conditional on reciprocal guarantees from Israel." Lloyd wrote that to the best of his knowledge, all supporters of the anti-Israel boycott were also opposed to the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Asked if logic wouldn't dictate that he and his colleagues boycott themselves, he responded, "Self-boycott is a difficult concept to realize. But speaking for myself, I would have supported and honored such a boycott had it been proposed by my colleagues overseas." More @ http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasen/spages/1059775.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nokia: This message is a part of our campaign for world recognition of the Palestinian state and the Palestinian people. One major company who does not do so is: Nokia.. If they will not respect the Humanity of the Palestinians and their right to exist, then we might as well be offended and hence BOYCOTT the Nokia stuff. This is the link for messaging the Board of Directors (You can do it anonymously and in total confidence). http://www.nokia.com/A4126366 This is an example you could use: Dear Board of Directors, I have been going through the Nokia site and I have not found the State of Palestine stated anywhere in the Middle east, and I wonder.. Is the Feelings of all Arab and Muslim people not important to you? My message is only the first of a great campaign we're starting to give the Palestinians their right to exist on your site. The Middle East is a Huge market for your products, so you do not want to be on our boycotting list and reap the same fruits other companies are reaping. I am expecting to hear from you soon. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Comments: عجبآ لنداء بمقاطعة الكيان الصهيوني يأتي من داخل الأمم التي حملت هذا الكيان الخبيث جنينآ والتي ربته ورعته وسلحته وحمته مولودآ بينما لا نسمع أي همس أو حتى تفكير أو خاطر من حكومات المسلمين بأي نوع من المقاطعة!٠٠٠ صدق الشيخ العالم المصري محمد عبد المقصود (حفظه الله) حين قال "كنا على الأقل في الماضي ننبح ولكن أصبحنا الآن لا نستـطيع حتى أن ننبح" ٠٠٠ هذا النقل تقريبي جدآ ٠٠٠ Amazing to hear calls for the boycott of the Zionist Evil Entity from within the nations that have carried it as a fetus and reared it, nurtured it, protected it and armed it after birth, while we do not hear any call or whisper or thought of boycott of any kind from the governments in the Muslim World!...
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