With the UK Academic Boycott Resurfacing, Israel Defunds anti-Boycott Effort

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http://www.solomonia.com/blog/archive/2008/04/with-the-uk-academic-boycott-resurfacing/

Cluelessness: Pro-Israel leaders feel at a loss as renewed British academic boycott looms

Senior academics and officials in the British Jewish community are gearing up for another boycott motion in their country against Israeli academia but lament they’ve lost a valuable resource which could lead the battle against well-funded proponents of the boycott. Though the motion may not have practical implications, leaders are concerned they may lose ground on the PR front because the Israeli academic body that led last year’s anti-boycott campaign, the Advisory Board for Academic Freedom (IAB), closed down for lack of funding.

The British academic union, the University and College Union (UCU), is planning to hold a conference next month in Manchester where it will consider the renewed call for a boycott…

…Despite last year’s precedent, however, Israeli academics in the U.K. are on edge and say the lack of funding for groups like IAB has negative implications at a critical time when cooperation is needed more than ever. “I’ve tried to bring Israeli lecturers [to the U.K.] and organize academic exchanges, but without funding, it has been problematic,” said Prof. David Newman, a British-born lecturer at Ben Gurion University, who is now on sabbatical at the University of London. He claimed Palestinian supporters hold conferences on U.K. campuses every week “about Israel as an apartheid state.” Newman complained, “There needs to be a greater balance, but my hands are tied because I have no budget.”…

…”The small, hard core group that wants to see this (boycott) go through has bigger funding behind them. They are not just a small group of academics, but we haven’t been able to unravel where their funding is coming from.”…

…Education Minister Yuli Tamir is less concerned with the boycott effort. She told Anglo File in an interview this week that despite what she believes to be a temporary closure of the IAB, the boycott issue is less pressing than in years past simply because both the British government and the country’s mainstream academic establishment remain firmly committed to open academic ties with Israel…

She’s right in that it is less pressing than in the past, but that’s just when you start to get complacent. Don’t mistake pleasant tea-times with British colleagues for being indicative of what’s going on in the trenches where the motions are passed. Even a soft academic hand can conceal a knife behind the back. There will be no excuse for Israelis being late to their own party again, should boycott efforts take wing this time.

With the UK Academic Boycott Resurfacing, Israel Defunds anti-Boycott Effort

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