Palestinian university president denounces U.K. boycott of Israeli academi

[Colorado Blue]

Palestinian university president denounces U.K. boycott of Israeli academia

Prof. Sari Nusseibeh, president of Al-Quds University in East Jerusalem, has joined Prof. Menachem Magidor, president of Hebrew University, to denounce the academic boycott of Israeli universities.

Nusseibeh and Magidor issued a joint declaration last Thursday urging the end of the boycott declared by Britain's Association of University Teachers (AUT) and signed a cooperation agreement.

"Our position is based upon the belief that it is through cooperation based on mutual respect, rather than boycotts or discrimination, that our common goals can be achieved," the statement says.

"Our disaffection with, and condemnation of, acts of academic boycotts is predicated on the principles of academic freedom, human rights and equality between nations and among individuals."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/578862.html

So much for Sue Blackwell and the "Zionist backlash" she says is creating opposition to her boycott.

[Jim Sagle]

1. Good news. All those with good intentions will applaud the professor.

[Colorado Blue]

11. I applaud. He's right of course, of all the places NOT to

boycott - education is the WORLD'S only hope.

[Jim Sagle]

2. Is this the happenin' thread, or what?

:party: :toast:

[applegrove]

3. Get a peace - then wine. If there is no vote..boycotts are valid.

[Jim Sagle]

4. They can vote any time, as I'm sure you're aware.

[applegrove]

5. To make decisions about what goes on in their own country? That

goes with voting too. Also rights of return (to Palestine). And land?

Let us just wait for the peace to happen before we worry about what outside people feel about your country. You are at war. Israel is a great practicer of democracy inside the area:Israel. This will not be an issue once the Palestine is completely autonomous and there is peace.

[Jim Sagle]

6. Right of return is an absolute non-starter. It's a demand for Israel to

die as Jewish state.

NAME ONE TIME IN ALL OF RECORDED HISTORY WHERE THE LOSERS OF A WAR WERE GRANTED RIGHT OF RETURN - EVER!!!!!!!!!

[applegrove]

7. Sorry - I meant right of return for Palestinians to Palestine. Meaning

the people who left for 'fighting in a war'or economic refugees get to go back to Palestine (from parts unknown)and invest without the fear of being under the control of the Israelis. I guess I used the wrong term.

What I mean is economic and total geopolitical sovereignty. That is what peace will bring. Perhaps a boom to the Palestinian economy. And the return of many people willing to invest in land and businesses they know will always be theirs. I would imagine many, many economic ties would be renewed, opened up. Tis what happened to Eastern Europe after they got independence. Relatively wealthy North American of "x" descent went back to invest..if not to live there.

As to Israeli right of return... I think we know that will never be allowed to happen. But still there are families still torn apart from the wars 60 years ago. Perhaps compensation could replace the purchase of weapons?

I don't know. There are many people living pretty horrid lives of poverty. Economics is a tool too. And yes they have been at war. So do the peace and things will mysteriously not be issues.

[pelsar]

8. realistically....

once there is a real peace, whenever that may be...with monies for compensation (both sides).....of course there will be families that reconnect that were split in the wars...but that will all take time and is in the future. It would obviously (at least to some of us its obvious) that giving citizenship to people whos intention is to destroy your country isnt really a good idea....

there are a lot of steps in between that have to be taken care of first......

[applegrove]

12. And my point is that if you are still in the process of finding peace,

the last thing you should worry about is a slap from a bunch of academics from another country. Princess & the pea stuff. There are people within this mess who don't even have access to a basic education..so work on the peace first. Then raise your expectations for being treated on par with every other university in the free world, once you are on par with every other nation in the democratic world and are at peace.

Really - it is not as if American corporations are not taking a hit for their perceived ties to the hated Bush administration around the world. War is bad. And even if you are defending yourself ... it is still bad. And you will be rejected for engaging in it.

[Coastie for Truth]

13. Wrong

1. The "academics" in the AUT are boycotting the strongest supporters of peace in the Israeli body politic. They are setting back the cause of peace and of withdrawal from Gaza and the West Bank.

2. The attack dog mode of the AUT "academics" is typical of A.N.S.W.E.R -- this conflation of Zionism with the the Neocons, and the further conflation of Jews generally with the Neocons.

Lumping all Jews in with the Neocons, lumping all Israelis in with the Likud and the Haredi. Seems to be perfectly acceptable in our Progressive Community.

How long would it take somebody to get tomb stoned from DU if they lumped all Blacks in with Ward Connerly, Armstrong Williams, Alan Keyes, Condi Rice, Clarence Thomas or Janice Rogers Brown? To say that I oppose Janice Rogers Brown is not withdrawing support from Charlie Rangel or John Conyers or lumping Rangel with Janice Rogers Brown. But one illogic is acceptable in the progressive community - and the other one isn't.

Gimme a break.

3. The so-called "Princess & the pea stuff" argument may be just that in arts and letters and humanities -- but what about in medicine, cellular biology, biochemistry and human genetics? It ain't "Princess & the pea stuff" - and while I hate the logic - it is the "slippery slope."

[applegrove]

14. I would hazard to guess that the last people in the world who will

put up with a slippery slope are the Israelis. Academics are academics. They fight with each other all the time. In fact that is what the neocons are - yes? And they have been waging a war for decades (with mistakes like not promoting democracy in the middle east in the 1980s.. while all of Africa was desperately trying it on). So who is going to take them on but other academics? Because the neocons are not perfect. They are Utopians and they have a nasty habit of trying to blame others for their mistakes...the idea that you can just replace the truth with a myth... now..as an academic..might you not just have a problem with a bunch of Utopians like that? I mean I would think academics the world over might be just the people who would have to make a stand...you know..the enlightenment is the most hated thing in neocons minds. So who really is attacking who? Let us be clear on that!

[number6]

15. wha ......

:banghead:

ri....ght jim :eyes:

theres no Germans in Germany,.. they lost
theres no Japanese in Japan,.. they lost

only U.S. settlers ....er ok ..

[Jim Sagle]

16. What a lame twist.

[Colorado Blue]

9. They're voting already. There are lots of articles in this

forum about that.

INCLUDING several about a voting dispute between Hamas and Fatah, that Hamas is threatening to use as an excuse to go back to the ways of the rocket and bomb.

AND, Fatah has challenged and rescinded the results of elections where Hamas won, is threatening to delay the July elections, and armed gunmen have been shooting up government offices demanding this that and the other thing, including jobs. Some of the gunmen have actually been hired to be SECURITY GUARDS and police.

Real democracy can't happen where armed gangs are running around shooting at each other and threatening both each other and their neighbors. And what about the innocents who will then be caught in the crossfire?

And what of the innocents murdered by the Morals Police? There can be no true democracy if the rights of WOMEN aren't respected, or the rights of people to associate with Jews if they so choose.

Finally, victimizing Israelis because of an internal voting dispute really takes the cake.

[Colorado Blue]

10. I think the Arab states might want to start being constructive

here.

Holding the Palestinians hostage to their political ideas, since 1948, is appalling. Only Jordan, in all those years, and which by the way is the Eastern part of the Palestine Mandate (!) has offered citizenship to the Palestinian people - which is logical since they are the same people.

Things might have been better between Jordan and the Palestinian leadership if PLO hadn't tried to murder King Hussein and started a civil war that cost tens of thousands of lives. Yet Jordan, of all the Arab states, remains the one most helpful, in REAL terms - economic, diplomatic and otherwise, to the peace process.

As for land, look at this map:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Israeli_conflict

So now, will somebody tell me who has land?