Racists Trying to Boycott Israeli Knowledge

What is it with these bloody racists in the U.K? Why do they seek constantly to discriminate against Israeli academics on the basis of their nationality? What has an academic’s nationality got to do with his professional work? Should we boycott British academics for their government’s use of cluster bombs in Iraq which have caused thousands of civilian casualties?

What am I talking about you may ask? A large teachers union in the U.K., the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE), is calling on its 67,000 members to “consider the appropriateness” of a boycott of Israeli academics who do not publicly disassociate themselves from Israeli governmental policy. The amusing thing is of course the rather underhand and cowardly way NATFHE is going about its little boycott. It’s not calling for an actual policy of boycott for fear of being sued, as Haifa University threatened to do to the AUT after last year’s effort. No, instead they have tried this underhand ploy of organising an individual boycott to cover the own snivelling, gutless backs.

The whole thing is so utterly disingenuous anyway. Where are the calls for boycotting Russia over the deaths of over 200,000 civilians in Chechnya? What about a boycott of Sudan for the deaths of perhaps 400,000 Darfurians, the internal displacement of two million people and the creation of 200,000 Darfurian refugees who have fled to Chad? Equally, I don’t see the NAFTHE calling for any boycott of Chinese academics over their government’s atrocious human rights record, widespread use of torture, restriction of religious freedoms and the fifty-six year occupation of Tibet and the cultural genocide they have perpetrated there.

The truth is that a call to boycott academics or anyone else for that matter on the grounds of their nationality is simply racist. Individuals do not create government policy or implement it and cannot be held responsible for it. The pursuit of knowledge should, in the first place be, above contentious political debates anyway. The reasons why British academic unions only want to single out Israel is rather sinister as well, but I won’t go there right now.