April 19, 2005
Dear Colleagues of the Association of University Teachers:
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 Rome’s 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
Paul S. Appelbaum
University of Massachusetts
Richard A. Friedman
Columbia University
Jonathan C. Finkelstein
University of Maryland
Sonia Bloomfield Ramagem
University of Brasilia
M. Krieger Massachusetts
Institute of Technology
Norman Levitt
Rutgers University
Phillip Silver
University of Maine
Joseph Kushick
Amherst College
Ilan Benjamin
University of California
Tuvia Blumenthal
Ben-Gurion University
Philip Carl Salzman
McGill University
Peter J. Haas
Case Western Reserve University
Ruth Langer
Boston College
Nadav Gabay
University of California, San Diego
Sam Peltzman
University of Chicago
Andrew I. Kohen
James Madison University
Yael Halevi-Wise
McGill University
Alan D. Grossman
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Jesse Barlow
Pennsylvania State University
Ronald Krebs
University of Minnesota
Neil J. Diamant
Dickinson College
Jonathan D. Sarna
Brandeis University
Joe Halpern
Cornell University
Ruth Raphaeli
Columbia University
Andrew Pessin
Kenyon College
Barry A. Farber
Columbia University
Richard L Coren
Drexel University
Uri Tasch
University of Maryland
Stephen Blank
US Army War College
Edna Erez
Kent State University
Peter Cole
University of Delaware
Joshua Jacobson
Northeastern University
Rachel Sztajn
University of Sao Paulo
Valerio Filoso
University of Naples, “Federico II”
Matthew Waldor
Tufts University
Fiorella Bassan
University of Rome, “La Sapienza”
Harvey Glickman
Haverford College
Kenneth H. Norwich
University of Toronto
Katrin T. Tenenbaum
University of Rome, “La Sapienza”
Michael Szenberg
Pace University
Annalisa Di Nola
TVI Community College
Michael Weinstein
University of Hawaii
William Sjostrom
National University of Ireland
Joseph Slawny
Virginia Tech
Jacob Amir
Sackler School of Medicine
Henrik Lando
Copenhagen Business School
Bernard D. Katz
University of Toronto
William W. Adams
University of Maryland
Mirna Cicioni
Monash University
Ronald D. Rotunda
George Mason University
Robert Lande
University of Baltimore
William M. Batkay
Montclair State University
Joanna Hershon
Columbia University
Joel Lebowitz
Rutgers University
Henry G. Manne
George Mason University
Maxwell Stearns
George Mason University
Jaroslava Halper
University of Georgia
Emily Tall State
University of New York
Howard A. Smith
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Laurie Zoloth
Northwestern School of Medicine
Meir Malul
University of Haifa
David Bernstein
George Mason University
Michael P. Kramer
University of Pennsylvania/Bar-Ilan University
Ada L. Sinacore
McGill University
Kenneth Dauber
State University of New York
Daniel Bethlehem
University of Cambridge
Jason I. Brown
Dalhousie University
Justin David Abbott
University of Turin
Don Goelman
Villanova University
Larry Benowitz
Harvard University
Guglielmo Verdirame
University of Cambridge
Stephen Tanny
University of Toronto
Mario Salmona
Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research
Raymond Parnes
Tel Aviv University
Eleonore Lappin
Institute for the History of the Jews in Austria
Mark A. Koppel
Montclair State University
Gustav J. Beck
New York University
Simha F. Landau
Hebrew University
Steven J. Miller
Brown University
Solomon Schimmel
Hebrew College
Solomon Friedberg
Boston College
Elizabeth Behrman
Wichita State University
Daniel A. Kirschner
Boston College
Edward Halper
University of Georgia
Stanley Dubinsky
University of South Carolina
Abraham L. Sonenshein
Tufts University
Philip Olin
York University
George Zilbergeld
Montclair State University
Robert M. Steiner
Temple University
Sidney P. Kadish
University of Massachusetts
Gadi Benshalom
Ben-Gurion University
Joseph R. Spiegel
Thomas Jefferson University
Michael Aizenman
Princeton University
Mitchell G. Ash
University of Vienna
Neil W. Schluger
Columbia University
Joel N. Eisen
University of Toronto
Solomon S. Stavrov
Tel Aviv University
Ben Zion Shapiro
University of Toronto
John R. Cohn
Thomas Jefferson University
Boris Laikhtman
Hebrew University
Gary S. Fischer
University of Pittsburgh
Carlo Rossetti
University of Parma
Emanuele Ottolenghi
Oxford University
Ran Lachman
College of Management, Tel-Aviv
Adela Beckerman
Florida Memorial University
Leila Beckwith
University of California at Los Angeles
Paul Concus
University of California
Berkeley Kenneth Lasson
University of Baltimore
Anatoly Libgober
University of Illinois
Vera Pless
University of Illinois
Charles Kadushin
Brandeis University
Theodore K. Rabb
Princeton University
Rosamond Rhodes
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Irina Reyfman
Columbia University
Bruce Elliot Hirsch
Drexel University
Theodore H Geballe
Stanford University
Moshe Anisfeld
Yeshiva University
Eric Zarahn
Columbia University
J. Zussman
University of Manchester
Ira Tabas
Columbia University
James Shapiro
Columbia University
Ralph Halbert
University of Toronto
Ruth Kark
Hebrew University
Robert Baker
Union College
Jill Shapiro
Columbia University
Evelyn M. Horn
Columbia University
Nathan Seiberg
Princeton University
Israel Ringel
Hebrew University
Julian Ilicki
University of Gavle
Richard A. Cohn
Northwestern University
Shirley Lee
Roehampton University
Harold P. Lehmann
Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
David Sanders
Montclair State University
Simon Maybaum
Columbia University
Neta A. Bahcall
Princeton University
Michael Brocke Heinrich
Heine University
P.V. Viswanath
Pace University
Kenneth A. Altman
Columbia University
Elisabeth Maxwell
Oxford University
Linda Larkey
University of Arizona
Elizabeth Ann Stewart
The Open University
Joel Migdal
University of Washington
Daniel Leiwy
University of Westminster
Benjamin Melamed
Rutgers University
Craig B. Langman
Northwestern University
Or Gozani
Stanford University
Avery Meiksin
University of Edinburgh
Paul Ingram
Columbia Business School
Matthew Kramer
Cambridge University
Andrea Litvack
University of Toronto
Agnieszka Bron
Stockholm University Sweden
Steven Bowman
University of Cincinnati
Adi Schnytzer
Bar Ilan University
Stuart M. Sprague
Northwestern University
John H. Riskind
George Mason University
Nancy Pollak
Cornell University
David Miller
University of Leeds
Herbert P. Phillips
University of California, Berkeley
Myron L. Cohen
Columbia University
Theodore Karp
Northwestern University
Awi Federgruen
Columbia University
Sara Shanske
Columbia University
Clifford Stein
Columbia University
Sylvia Sztern
Lund University
Elizabeth Friedman
Illinois Institute of Technology
Norman L. Cantor
Rutgers University
Robbie Smith
Lancaster University
David T. Raphael
University of Southern California
Alexander Blokh
University of Alabama
Wlodzimierz Konar
Warsaw University
Sidney Blatt
Yale University
David Rabin
Georgetown University
Eytan Gilboa
Bar Ilan University
Arnulf Zweig
University of Oregon
Thomas G. Mahnken
Johns Hopkins University
Mark Gottdiener
State University of New York
Boris A. Kushner
University of Pittsburgh
Joyce R. Ladenson
Michigan State University
Yosef Kaplan
Hebrew University
Martin A. Strosberg
Graduate College of Union University
Dr. Ilana Berman-Frank
Bar Ilan University
Froma Zeitlin
Princeton University
Aaron Kupchik
Arizona State University
Michael Lieber
University of California, Los Angeles
Alan M. Whitman
Villanova University
Stephen Shenker
Stanford University
Luann Good Gingrich
York University
Graham Riches
University of British Columbia
Brian S. Mittman
University of California, Los Angeles
Alan Marcus
Boston College
Myra Bluebond-Langner
Rutgers University
Hanne Trautner-Kromann
Lund University
Tony Michels
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Steven Fisch
Fordham University
Gary A. Anderson
University of Notre Dame
Hubert G. Locke
University of Washington
Carlo Zevi
Rome University, “La Sapienza”
Willy Fischler
University of Texas at Austin
Graham Riches
University of British Columbia
Gary Seay
City University of New York
Shoshana Slawny-Levitan
Virginia Tech
Jeffery W. Birns
University of Southern California
Zafra Lerman
Columbia College, Chicago
Paul Root
University of Pennsylvania
Pamela J. Shoemaker
Syracuse University
Daniel Rynhold
King’s College, London
Amanda Perreau-Saussine
Cambridge University
Baruch Offir
Bar-Ilan University
Avraham Faust
Bar-Ilan University
Adina Shamir
Bar-Ilan University
Guy Ourisson
Louis Pasteur University
Dr. Ofra Korat
Bar-Ilan University
Vladimir (Ze’ev) Khanin
Bar-Ilan University
Aren M. Maeir
Bar-Ilan University
Avi Kober
Bar-Ilan University
Justin Silver
Hadassah College, Jerusalem
Danielle Gurevitch
Bar-Ilan University
Mervyn M Lovat University of Glasgow
Linda Steiner
Rutgers University
David B. Weiner
Hadassah College, Jerusalem
Peter Machinist
Harvard University
Dr Robert F. Miller
The Australian National University
Simon Levin
Princeton University
Jakob Feldt
University of Copenhagen
Michael A. Livingston
Rutgers University
T. Neville Postlethwaite
University of Hamburg
Sam Fleischaker
University of Illinois
Hugh Shewell
York University
Jonathan Levav
Columbia University
Oded Netzer
Columbia University
Ran Kivetz
Columbia University
Sara Fridel
Bar-Ilan University
Jeffrey Goldfarb
New School for Social Research, New York
Olivier Toubia
Columbia University
Aniko Bodroghkozy
University of Virginia
Luisa Simberg
Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
Nina Collins
University of Leeds
Richard Rubenstein
University of Bridgeport
Yisrael Rich
Bar-Ilan University
Jo Masters
Middlesex University
Mally Shechory
Bar Ilan University
Yoseph Shilhav
Bar-Ilan University
Sandra Debenedetti Stow
Bar-Ilan University
Ivan E. Brick
Rutgers University
Lance D. Drager
Texas Tech University
Boaz Lerner
Ben-Gurion University
Sigrid Sohn
University of Venice
Ursula Bavaj
Università degli Studi dellaTuscia/Viterbo
Ruth Wodak
Lancaster University
Uriel Frisch
Observatoire de la Cote d’Azur
Ruth Perez Bercoff
Hochschule fur Musik und Theater
Zeev Schuss
Tel Aviv University
Harvey E. Goldberg
Hebrew University
Daniel Tal
Weizmann Institute
Noam Kochavi
Hebrew University
Hillel Shuval
Hebrew University
Raz Yirmiya
Hebrew University
Ramon Lewis
Latrobe University
David M. Schaps
Bar Ilan University
Uri Bialer
Hebrew University
Ira Sharkansky
Hebrew University
Allan Borowski
La Trobe University
Natalia Pylypiuk
University of Alberta
Michael Frenklach
University of California at Berkeley
Jenny Mandelbaum
Rutgers University
Peter B. Golden
Rutgers University
Pauline I. Erera
University of Washington
Jerre Levy University of Chicago
David D. Perkins
Stanford University
Mark J. Schnitzer
Stanford University
Gerald Cromer
Bar Ilan University
Raymond P. Scheindlin
Jewish Theological Seminary of America
Giovanna Brogi
University of Milan
Jonathan Engel
Seton Hall University
Elliott Leyton
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Amalya L. Oliver
Hebrew University
Elena Lourie
Ben Gurion University
Michael Aizenman
Princeton University
Amit M. Schejter
Pennsylvania State University
Michael Otsuka
University College London
Eugene Burnstein
University of Michigan
Ernie Lightman
University of Toronto
Raphael Sealey
University of California, Berkeley
Avihu Hiram
Haifa Technion
Carol C. Bienstock
Radford University
Alexander Kheyfits
City University of New York
Peter Schaefer
Princeton University
Abel Klein
University of California
Robert J. Sillman
Georgetown University
Charmaine Williams
University of Toronto
Alexander Akin
Harvard University
Peter B. Shalen
University of Illinois
Joshua A. Fishman
Yeshiva University
Mark Schankerman
London School of Economics and Political Science
Peter A. Newman
University of Toronto
Claude Schochet
Wayne State University
Esti Sheinberg
irginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Mark Latash
Penn State University
Alan Mintz
Jewish Theological Seminary
Tomasa Bsink
Warsaw University
Alexi Sherman
University of Tartu
Michael M. Laskier
Bar Ilan University
Michael Dine
University of California
Jeff Dodick
Hebrew University
A. Yair
Hebrew University
Jonathan Berg
University of Haifa
Lina Ben-Dor
Hebrew University
Boris Shapiro
Bar Ilan University
Stephen H. Schneider
Stanford University
Yael Mandelik
Princeton University
Abraham Neyman
Hebrew University
Benjamin Ehrenberg
Bar Ilan University
Haim Burstin
Università degli Studi di Milano Bicocca
Ziv Kizner
Bar-Ilan University
Haim Cohen
Bar-Ilan University
Uri J. Schild
Bar-Ilan University
Gordon Reece
University of Bristol
Elie Assis
Bar Ilan University
Sam Lehman-Wilzig
Bar-Ilan University
Benny Peiser
Liverpool John Moores University
Issai Shlimak
Bar-Ilan University
Jon D. Levenson
Harvard University
Aron Weller
Bar-Ilan University
Ellen Spolsky
Bar-Ilan University
Alexander Z. Guiora
University of Michigan/University of Haifa
Shlomo Margel
Bar-Ilan University
Moshe Rosman
Bar-Ilan University
Ariel J. Frank
Bar-Ilan University
Aernout C.D.van Enter
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Martha Paley Francescato
George Mason University
Aharon Gedanken
Bar-Ilan University
Mark Pearlman
University of Michigan
Yehuda Schlesinger
Bar-Ilan University
Elad Ben Dror
Bar-Ilan University
Maro Martini
University di Trento
B. Wolfe University of Central Lancashire
Anna Rossi-Doria
Universita de Roma Tor Vergata
Hasia Diner New
York University
David M. Rosen
Fairleigh Dickinson University
Eytan Sheshinski
Hebrew University
Ronit Kark
Bar Ilan University
Annie Cooper
Emory University
Valentin Freilikher
Bar-Ilan University
Abraham Ulman
Bar-Ilan University
Eliot A. Cohen
Johns Hopkins University
Robert E. Osgood
Johns Hopkins University
Pat Lauderdale
Arizona State University
Anany Levitin
Villanova University
Adi Armoni
University of Wales
Sergei Abramovich
SUNY
David Andelman
Tel Aviv University
Shlomo Argamon
Illinois Institute of Technology
Michael Alles
Rutgers Business School
Natalia Pervukina
University of Tennessee
Sergiu Klainerman,
Princeton University
Dan Galai
Hebrew University
Fred Siegel
Progressive Policy Institute
Michael A. Slonim
Ben Gurion University
Franklin M. Fisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Michael Benedikt
University of Texas at Austin
Nathan P. Devir
Pennsylvania State University
Arlene D. Wilson-Gordon,
Bar-Ilan University,
Kevin Madigan
Harvard Divinity School
Tamar Drukker
University of London
Yaakov Elmam
Yeshiva University
Boris Rubinsky
University of California at Berkeley
Norbert Schwarz
University of Michigan
Steven D. Fraade
Yale University
Aaron Levine
Yeshiva University
Joanne Cummings
University of Toronto
Merle Goldman
Boston University
Marshall I. Goldman
Wellesley College
Alexander Samely
University of Manchester
Jack S. Cohen
Hebrew University
Al Kornhauser
Virginia Tech
Lucille Cohen
University of Manchester
B. J. Matkowsky Northwestern University
Malka Weintraub University of Baltimore
Shmuel Shulman
Bar Ilan University
Susan A. Gitelson
Columbia University
Svante Lingarde
Lund University
Zohar Yakhini
Haifa Technion
Yaacov Iram
Bar Ilan University
Elliott Leyton
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Jonathan Engel
Seton Hall University
Vlad M. Zatsiorsky
Penn State University
Dennis Carlton
University of Chicago
Giovanni Moracci
University of Urbino
Milton Heumann
Rutgers University
Robert Kubey
Rutgers University
Irwin H. Epstein
Loyola University
Steven J. Diner
Rutgers University-Newark
Richard Kalmin
Jewish Theological Seminary
Dan Michman
Bar-Ilan University
Stanley Brandes
University of California, Berkeley
Jon Abbink
Vrije Universiteit
Yair Goldreich
Bar-Ilan University
Eli Aramang
Rockefeller University
Paul A. Gluck
University of Miami
Sophia Menache
University of Haifa
Jay Robert Dorfman
University of Maryland
Tomas Buch
University of Buenos Aires
Andrey G. Kalinichev
Russian Academy of Sciences
Kathryn Ann Moler
Stanford University
Bertram M. Schreiber
Wayne State University
Kenneth J. Arrow
Stanford University
Yaakov Spiegel
Bar Ilan University
Wendy B. Gray
Case Western Reserve University
Abraham Rinat
Weizmann Institute of Science
Arkady Tempelman
Penn State University
Bernard Septimus
Harvard University
Andrei Lopatenko
University of Manchester
Barbara S. Reed
Rutgers University
S. Z. Havlin
Bar-Ilan University
Yehuda Lindell
Bar-Ilan University
Lucy Suchman
Lancaster University
Geoffrey Grimmett
Cambridge University
Phyllis Chesler
City University of New York
Stuart W. Margolis
Bar Ilan University
Josef Ashkenazi
University of Miami
Seymour Spilerman
Columbia University
Andrew Sayer
Lancaster University
Mallory Wober
Michigan State University
Enrico Isacco Rumbaldi
Feldmann University of Milan
Laura Quercioli Mincer
University of Rome, “La Sapienza”
Jean-Victor P. Wittenberg
University of Toronto
Paul E. Kerswill
Lancaster University
Miriam Kaufman
University of Toronto
Michael H. Hecht
Princeton University
Joseph Turow
University of Pennsylvania
Roger Freidland
University of California
Thomas G. Spiro
Princeton University
Usha George
University of Toronto
Andrei Zelevinsky
Northeastern University
Abraham Nudelman
Bar-Ilan University
Marc Bernstein
Michigan State University
Raoul Kopelman
University of Michigan
Efraim Karsh
Kings College, London
Lewis Glinert
Dartmouth College
Arthur Cohn
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Ralph Roskies
University of Pittsburgh
William Nicholls
University of British Columbia
Boaz Ilan
University of Colorado
Daniel Jackson
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Roni Berger
Adelphi University
Ralph Isberg
Tufts University
