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The Peace Vigil - Protesting the AUT anti-Israel Boycott
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The Peace Vigil - Protesting the AUT anti-Israel Boycott
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26 May 2005
After a lengthy debate involving deeply held views on both sides of the argument, AUT’s special council has today voted to revoke all existing boycotts of Israeli institutions.
AUT council has decided to base its policy on providing practical solidarity to Palestinian and Israeli trade unionists and academics, by agreeing a motion committing the union to having a full review of international policy, working alongside NATFHE and the TUC.
UK higher education has a long and proud tradition of defending academic freedom. The struggle to maintain academic freedom whenever it is under threat is one that AUT will always support and this principle will continue to guide our work.
Sally Hunt, AUT general secretary, said: 'It is now time to build bridges between those with opposing views here in the UK and to commit to supporting trade unionists in Israel and Palestine working for peace.'
Press contact: David Nicholson (press@aut.org.uk)
Source - http://www.aut.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=1235
Yehuda Lappin and Jpost Staff (26.05.05)
British Lecturers overturned their decision to boycott Haifa and Bar-Ilan universities in a vote on Thursday.
Britain's 40,000-member Association of University Teachers voted last month to boycott the academic institutions for actions that it said undermined Palestinian rights and academic freedom.
It also referred a motion to its executive committee to boycott the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The association said last week it would reconsider the boycott.
Upon exiting the meeting, Scott Styles, an AUT member from the Aberdeen local branch, remarked, "it was a passionate but measured debate." He said that in the first AUT meeting, when it was chosen to pass boycott motion, there was no proper debate, which upset many members."
Styles thought that the first meeting's lack of discussion is what motivated members to vote against the boycott on Thursday.
Paul Anderson, from City University branch of the AUT and part of the department of journalism told The Jerusalem Post that "on all of the substantive motions, the boycott was overturned. It's good news."
Anderson also mentioned "the meeting was quite passionate at some points."
Luciana Berger, a spokesperson for the Union of Jewish Students, was elated at the outcome. "This is fantastic news," she said, pleased with the "good results today."
Berger categorized the results as just. "The feeling here is not one of being triumphant, but that the right decision was made. I'm disappointed we even had to be here in the first place."
UJS's sectary Andre Oboler also felt "relieved," but he was not willing to view the overturned decision as a victory. "This is the start of an ongoing problem," he warned.
Right before the boycott, there was a vigil of about 150 Jewish students standing outside the conference center. The group was addressed by a number of speakers, including MPs. The vigil ended with a singing of the Israeli national anthem, "Hatikva."
With AP (© 1995-2005, The Jerusalem Post 05/26/05)
MATERIAL REPRODUCED FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY
This was the first article available to the public after the result was announced.
http://www.educationet.org/messageboard/posts/53610.html
Originally at
http://http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1117074327846
(that link is no longer available)
The Academic Friends of Israel
Press Release, 26th May 2005
No more boycotts in the future
Following the AUT vote earlier today, The Academic Friends of Israel (AFI) is delighted that all motions calling for
boycott of Israeli institutions were rescinded. The original motions were based on false or highly misleading evidence
and called for discriminatory measures that have been rejected by the UK government, the National Post-Graduate
Committee and numerous political and academic commentators. Academic and public opinion worldwide has roundly condemned
the pernicious nature of the boycott calls.
The AFI strongly recommends that for the future, all suggestions for boycott are recognised as damaging and
discriminatory and therefore will not be brought forward again to the AUT.
Ronnie Fraser chair of the Academic Friends of Israel commented:
"Fortunately the attempt of a few extremists to subvert AUT policy has failed. We hope the unambiguous results will put
paid to any further misleading and destructive manoeuvres, and allow British scholars to build bridges and promote peace
in the Middle East. This applies not only to the AUT but to the forthcoming meeting of NATFHE. Let us remember
that this boycott attempt was never about academic freedom but the delegitimisation of the State of Israel"
As well as classical anti-Semitism Jews suffer from what is called "new " anti Semitism which is defined as the
demonisation of Israel, the use of religious hate themes against Israel, international double standards for Israel and
the delegitimisation of the state of Israel.
Ronnie Fraser went on to say:
"Although people like Sue Blackwell say they are not anti Semitic, if one uses the definitions of the "new" anti
Semitism, her actions in calling for an academic boycott of Israel can clearly be seen as anti Semitic."
For further details, please contact Ronnie Fraser, Chair of The Academic Friends of Israel, via email (mail@academics-for-israel.org)
or via mobile (0797 3723289).
Alternatively, contact Robin Stamler at 07957 561 236
The Academic Friends of Israel
Email: mail@academics-for-israel.org
P.O. Box 360
Harrow
HA3 9WY
Background
Wonderful News
Jeff Weintraub
( an e-mail announcement)
This is wonderful news, which
represents a welcome victory for academic freedom and political sanity. The decisive character of this vote also
supports the claim made by a number of British academics that the April 22 resolutions instituting the blacklist of
Israeli academics did not reflect the actual views of most AUT members, but instead constituted a political hijacking of
the AUT by an organized minority of committed extremists. With this result, the AUT has vindicated that claim and
redeemed itself.
This is above all a victory for those AUT members, and others in Britain, who led the campaign to
overturn the April 22 vote. I would like to think that they were usefully supported in this effort by the
strong public statements condemning the AUT blacklist, and defending the principle of academic freedom, issued by
scholarly and academic associations outside Britain, including including
the American Association of University Professors (AAUP),
the Middle East Studies Association (MESA),
the American Political Science Association (APSA),
the New York Academy of Sciences,
the National Academy of Sciences,
the American Association for the Advancement of Science,
and the American Federation of Teachers.
But our first congratulations and thanks should go to the British academics and others who led the struggle to bring the AUT to
its collective senses (among others, those associated with "Engage"
and "Zionism on the Web").
So CONGRATULATIONS.
At the same time, this is a victory for all of us, because the fundamental issues at stake here are not
exclusively British and Israeli. The April 22 AUT blacklist decision was not an isolated incident, but one product
of a long-term campaign, which in turn has been made possible by a range of political, ideological, moral, and
intellectual pathologies that remain pervasive. And as several of the pro-blacklist activists made clear
immediately after the AUT vote, this is a long-term fight that will not simply go away.
After the vote, Sue Blackwell, an English lecturer at Birmingham University and a leading pro-boycott activist,
said she was disappointed but not surprised by the vote. She had believed it would be a "stich-up". "The struggle goes on. This is the end of the beginning," she said.
"We are not surprised. We saw people who did not come to earlier meetings there and we knew what the outcome would be...We won the moral argument. They just won the vote."
A small group of anti-boycott protesters gathered outside the London venue for the vote.
Among them was Luciana Berger, a member of the Union of Jewish Students, from Birkbeck, University of London. She
said: "We are very happy. It's a victory for peace and open dialogue... It's a victory that we shouldn't have had to have won in the first place."
Professor Steven Rose, from the Open University, said: "The crucial thing is that the issue is on the agenda and the
debate is going to go on and on in every campus up and down the country. *[/BBC News/]*
Unfortunately, this is probably correct--which is one reason by strong and unequivocal statements
rejecting the blacklisting of Israeli academics (and academic blacklists in general) remain urgently important.
But for the moment, with respect to the blacklist supporters in Britain and elsewhere, I'm
afraid I cannot help thinking of a line about the Americans that Nasser often used in his speeches "May
they choke in their fury!" After that, we can return to reasoned discussion and debate ...
Yours for academic freedom & political sanity,
Jeff Weintraub*
P.S.* And, by the way, if you haven't yet signed this Anti-Blacklist
Petition <http://www.petitiononline.com/j141789/petition.html>,
it
remains highly relevant, so please take this opportunity ...
British group cancels boycott of two Israeli
universities
By Tamara Traubman, Haaretz Correspondent, and News Agencies
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/580496.html
LONDON - The British Association of University Teachers decided during a special council session Thursday to
overturn its controversial boycott of Haifa and Bar-Ilan universities immediately. The group initiated the boycott
in April due to what it called the universities' participation in the occupation.
Britain's largest university teachers' union said in a statement that the council had made its decision "after a lengthy
debate involving deeply held views on both sides of the argument."
It said it would now base its policy on "providing practical solidarity to Palestinian and Israeli trade unionists and
academics, by agreeing a motion committing the union to having a full review of international policy."
"It is now time to build bridges between those with opposing views here in the U.K. and to commit to supporting
trade unionists in Israel and Palestine working for peace," said the union's general secretary, Sally Hunt.
The union had decided to boycott Haifa and Bar Ilan universities for actions that it said undermined Palestinian rights
and academic freedom. At the same time it referred a motion to its executive committee to boycott the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem.
The union, which has 40,000 members, adopted three proposals to cancel the boycott and rejected a proposal to allow all
AUT members to vote on the issue.
"We are pleased that the boycott has been lifted but we're certainly not celebrating," said the Campaign Group for
Academic Freedom, an anti-boycott group. "We feel that already a great deal of damage has been done."
Dr. Shalom Lapin, an Israeli citizen who lectures at Kings College in London, said Thursday he would renew his
membership in the association, which he had canceled after the original boycott vote. He called on others who had also
quit the group to rejoin as well.
"We will return to the association to participate in creating a professional, democratic association that reflects the
opinions of its members and not of a group of extremists," said Lapin.
The boycott had prompted angry opposition. Britain's Foreign Office last week praised the union's decision to reconsider
it, saying "close engagement" was the best way to bring about a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict.
Jewish organizations and opponents of the boycott were feverishly busy before the vote in last-minute preparations for
Thursday's meeting.
After the vote, some union members were set to continue the boycott on their own, said Steven Rose, a delegate from the
Open University who spoke in favor of the boycott at the council meeting.
"The genie is out of the bottle and cannot be put back again," he said.
Members of the Union of Palestinian University Professors and Employees called on the board of trustees of Al-Quds
University to dismiss university president Sari Nusseibeh after he acted against the boycott.
Union chairman Muhammad Abu Zeid said the Palestinian union will call for a general strike in all Palestinian
universities if Al-Quds University, which is located in East Jerusalem with colleges inside and around the city, does
not dismiss Nusseibeh.
Dr. Sue Blackwell of Birmingham University, one of the driving forces behind the boycott, said ahead of the vote that
the outcome seemed to be "fixed." She said many people who had never participated in the AUT would come with the
specific aim of stopping the boycott.
"I have never heard of such a thing in the 14 years I have been active in the AUT," she said, noting that special
sessions are convened only when there have been changes. "There is something anti-democratic in this," she said. Even
when a vote was taken and she lost, Blackwell said, she had never tried to get signatures for a new vote.
The AUT said in April that it would boycott Haifa University until it "committed itself to support academic
freedom, and in particularly to stop harassing academic staff and students who want to research and discuss the history
of the establishment of the State of Israel." Haifa was targeted
because the union said the university was threatening to fire a political science lecturer for supporting a student's
research into allegations of killings by Israeli troops.
The Bar-Ilan boycott was imposed because of the university's connections with the College of Judea and Samaria in the
West Bank settlement of Ariel.
The Israeli universities had said many elements of the union's allegations against them were false and they condemned
the boycott, calling it shameful and a blow to academic freedom. They said they had not expected it to have any
immediate effect but saw it as symbolically important.
Background
The Friend is the weekly Quaker magazine published in London.
It provides independent news and views from a Quaker perspective. The AUT Special Council tool place
inside the London Friends Meeting House, the Peace Vigil took place in the Garden of Friends Meeting House.
(This article has been reproduced with permission.)
Major demonstration outside Friends House
From The Friend, June 3rd 2005
Friends House was the scene of a large national demonstration on 21 May, when the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) protested outside the emergency meeting being held by the Association of University Teachers (AUT).
The AUT meeting was held to review a controversial decision to boycott Israeli universities. A motion had been passed at their annual conference to boycott two Israeli universities, Haifa and Bar-Ilan. The universities denied the accusations made against them and the boycott was the subject of fierce debate in the education press.
André Oboler, national secretary of the UJS, said 'Basically we think this is incredibly unfair and also discriminatory and dangerous for the students here. It's counter to peace in the Middle East, when what we really need is people working together and cooperating' he added: 'I'm from Lancaster University where we do have very good cooperation. We have an interfaith dialogue, which meets regularly – and we have Friends represented there as well. We get together and we manage to discuss things: this motion which they're looking to repeal here basically says that sort of thing shouldn't happen, people shouldn't discuss the problems, people shouldn't work together – and this doesn't help anyone.'
While the AUT meeting was in progress, a member of the Campaign Group for Academic Freedom, who did not wish to be named, said: 'Most of us – whatever we feel about the situation – would like to see peace there. But if the boycott is overturned we will not be celebrating as a lot of damage will have been done: damage to the peace process and damage to voices for peace on both sides.'
After a four hour emergency session, the AUT delegates emerged having overturned the previous motion by a sizeable majority, voting 'to revoke all existing boycotts of Israeli institutions.'
Outside, notwithstanding the defeat, Steven Rose, a professor of biology at the Open University and one of the initiators of the original motion calling for the university boycott, remained steadfast in his views. 'Our campaign now will be to take the argument for the boycott into every university, on to every campus where we can have a debate and discuss the issues, and the more that we do that the more the boycott will grow. The genie is out of the bottle.'
His sentiment was echoed by Sue Blackwell, from Birmingham University, who stated: 'This is the start, not the end, as far as the boycott campaign is concerned'.
After the vote, David Hirsch, from Goldsmiths, an AUT member who was present, said: 'This has rescued the AUT. The AUT was in serious trouble. It had a smell of anti-semitism about it, both in the UK and internationally. Members were leaving... and more members would have left today if the vote had gone the wrong way. The AUT was open to lawsuits and legal action.
'This has not been a victory for Ariel Sharon, the settlers or the separation wall. It has been a victory for the cultural, democratic spaces where Jewish and Palestinians study side by side rather than demonising each other.' He added: 'There has got to be a mass movement here for a just peace.'
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