by Associated Press and Israel Hayom Staff
University Heads Association chief says boycott movement has become a top concern for Israeli academics, particularly as it gains support at the "ground level" from U.S. student unions and academic associations • "There may be a domino effect," he warns.
An anti-Israel protester at
Dublin Airport [Archive]
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Photo credit: AP  |
Israeli anthropologist Dan Rabinowitz is a
leader in his field, heading a prestigious school of environmental
studies at Tel Aviv University, authoring dozens of publications, and
holding visiting teaching positions over the years at leading North
American universities.
But the British-educated Rabinowitz fears that
his younger counterparts may not enjoy the same professional
opportunities for a very personal reason: They are Israeli. As the
global boycott movement against Israeli universities gains steam,
Israeli professors say they are feeling the pressure from their
colleagues overseas. Although the movement ostensibly targets
universities, not individuals, Israeli academics say they are often
shunned at the personal level. They experience snubs at academic
conferences, struggle to get recommendations and can experience
difficulty publishing their work in professional journals.
"This is highly personal and personalized," said Rabinowitz.
The academic boycott is part of the broader
pro-Palestinian BDS campaign, which advocates boycotts, divestment and
sanctions against Israel. Inspired by the anti-apartheid movement, BDS
organizers say they are using nonviolent means to promote Palestinian
independence. Israel says the campaign goes beyond that and often masks a
more far-reaching aim to "delegitimize" or destroy the Jewish state.
But the BDS movement's decentralized organization and language calling
for universal human rights have proved difficult to counter.
The BDS website says, "The vast majority of
Israeli intellectuals and academics have either contributed directly to
the Israeli occupation and apartheid or at the very least have been
complicit through their silence."
And yet Israeli universities are widely seen
as liberal bastions, and their professors are some of the most vocal
government critics. Already enjoying significant support in the U.K.,
the academic boycott has chalked up a series of accomplishments in the
United States.
In recent years, the Association for Asian
American Studies, the American Studies Association, the Native American
and Indigenous Studies Association and the National Women's Studies
Association have approved boycott measures. In November, a meeting of
the American Anthropological Association overwhelmingly endorsed a
motion supporting a boycott of Israeli universities.
Peretz Lavie, president of the Technion,
Israel's premier science and technology university, said the effect of
such decisions has so far been minimal.
Lavie, who chairs the Association of
University Heads in Israel, said relations between Israeli and American
universities remain strong at the institutional and leadership levels,
and praised this month's decision by the Association of American
Universities reaffirming its opposition to the boycott. The group, which
represents 62 leading U.S. universities, said the boycott "violates
academic freedom."
Nonetheless, Lavie said the boycott movement
has become a top concern for Israeli university leaders, particularly as
it gains support at the "ground level" from U.S. student unions and
academic associations.
"There may be a domino effect," he said. "If we do not deal with it, it will be a major problem."
Lavie is now leading a battle against the
boycott. While acknowledging that Israeli government policies are open
to criticism, he said that holding universities responsible for them is
unfair and asked why countries with abysmal human rights records, such
as Iran and Saudi Arabia, have been spared.
"We have the feeling that these movements treat Israel differently than any other country in the world," he said.
Rabinowitz counts the November vote by the
anthropological association as one of the most painful chapters of his
career. He said he personally tried to alter the boycott resolution
twice, only to be rejected with little or no debate. He said the
rejection by his colleagues was a "defining moment" for him. In a
statement, the association confirmed Rabinowitz's account, noting that
the meeting was "highly charged."
Ed Liebow, the association's executive director, said the organization felt "a strong commitment" to take some sort of action.
"The one thing we can't do is nothing," he
said. The measure goes to the association's more than 10,000 members for
a vote this spring.
The association said it commonly took public
stands against governments accused of restricting academic freedom. It
recently sent a letter to leaders of Turkey, criticizing them for
allegedly curbing scholars there.
Ilana Feldman, a professor of anthropology at
George Washington University and a boycott supporter, said the proposal,
if passed, would not impede professors "in any way" from working with
Israeli scholars. Rabinowitz, however, said it is impossible to
distinguish between a person and his institution, which becomes part of
one's professional identity. Israeli academics say such feelings are
increasingly common.
Rachelle Alterman, a professor emeritus of
urban planning at the Technion, said she still has strong working
relationships with colleagues around the world, but the pro-boycott camp
is a "rising minority" in academia. She said it is less of an issue in
the hard sciences like medicine and physics, and much more palpable in
more subjective social sciences. Younger academics trying to establish a
reputation are especially vulnerable.
Alterman said she has begun to feel a
"coldness" from some colleagues at conferences that was not there in the
past. She said some colleagues refuse to attend conferences in Israel,
and editors at professional journals tell her it is difficult to find
people willing to review papers by Israeli academics.
"I call it the dark matter. It's there all the time, but elusive, hard to spot," she said.
In one recent case, a British colleague coolly rejected a request to assist one of her graduate students.
"I am afraid that as part of the institutional boycott
being observed by some academics in relation to Israeli organizations I
am unable to help with your request," the British professor wrote in an
email.
Associated Press and Israel Hayom Staff
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=31509
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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