http://geoconger.wordpress.com/2007/06/21/israel-academic-boycott-attacked-cen-62207-p-5/
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper , British Foreign Policy , Bishops , House of Lords , Church of England , Israel . trackback
The Bishop of Chester has denounced the call made by the University and College Union [UCU] for a boycott of Israel and has condemned Palestinian suicide bombings.
Dr. Peter Forster told the House of Lords on June 12 the boycotts “will be either ineffective or counter-productive, and we are nowhere near a situation where that would be helpful.”
His comments came during a debate last week on the government’s response to the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Anti-Semitism and its implications for higher education introduced by Baroness Deech, the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education.
Lady Deech, the former head of St Anne’s College, Oxford told the Lords the UCU boycott was anti-intellectual “bigotry.”
“The boycott is contrary to the 70 year-old principle of the universality of science, and every learned academy that I know of has objected. It is not morally justifiable to hold all Israeli academics collectively responsible for the actions of their Government. This is bigotry, which has no place in our world-class British universities,” she said.
Lord Moser, the former director of the Central Statistical Office and warden of Wadham College, Oxford, backed Lady Deech saying the “rising tide of anti-Semitism throughout Europe, including this country” was the greatest he had seen since leaving Germany in 1936.
The UCU’s boycott call was a “biased and unhelpful response to events on the ground in the Middle East” that “cannot be tolerated or supported,” Lady Deech said.
“Academic freedom is the first target of tyrannies, and those who ignore attacks on academic pursuits are cooperating with tyranny. They must ask themselves why Jewish students and Israeli academics, alone in the world, are chosen as the targets.
“As my father sadly bore witness, as early as 1923 Vienna University was the focus of assaults on Jewish students and curbs on Jewish professors and on the right to learn; followed by Warsaw University which imposed racial restrictions in the 1930s. British universities have to learn from the history of pusillanimity in the face of racism,” she said.
Dr. Forster noted that while the security barrier had increased Israel’s security, it had worsened the plight of the Palestinians, creating “a sort of de facto apartheid” in the region. “One has to acknowledge the horrible nature of suicide bombings, and, in its own way, the security wall has stopped this form of terrorism in Israel. But the price has been great,” he said.
“However, the last thing that is needed is a boycott,” Bishop Forster said. “The situation needs greater exchange, interaction and mutual conversation by those most involved in it. In this way, indeed, there will be hope in dialogue.”
