Title:
Be Part of the Solution: Stand with Israel!

Description:
When it comes to Israel, the great civil rights leader, Eldridge Cleaver, was right: you're either part of the solution or part of the problem. Rabbi Abraham Cooper - Associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center - describes the egregious double-standard, often, applied to Israel, and its dire ramifications for university students worldwide. Tyrannical despots warn us that Israel is 'evil'; their hypocrisy tells us one thing - the emperor wear no clothes! Islamic-extremist agents provocateurs fill the halls of the Concordia Universities of the world, armed with their go-nowhere message of Jihad, endless hate, and chaos. Be proud and stand, now, with Israel, the only true democracy in the Middle East; join, David, in his eternal struggle against the mendacious Goliath. The recent 2007 motion for the University and College Union in the UK expresses clear support for a boycott against Israeli academics/institutions and instructs the union executive to pass on Palestinian propoganda promoting a boycott to all branches for discussion. The motion also declares that neutrality over the middle east is not possible or desireable, in effect (as Ronnie Fraser of the Academic Friends of Israel explained) declaring war on Israel by the union. Such an idea of singling Israel out and treating it not on merit but as evil by nature is very likely to fall foul of the European Union's legal definition of antisemitism. Being such clever boffins, the UCU of course had a solution. In the text of the motion the UCU by their own resolution have defined their boycott as "not antisemitic". The fact that the UK Government's report into antisemitism disagrees with them seems not to bother these clever people in the slightest. The vote was counted at 158 to 99, those in favour of promoting a boycott in the majority. After the vote the General Secretary of the Union, Sally Hunt, said "I do not believe a boycott is supported by the majority of UCU members, nor do I believe that members see it is a priority for the union". The motion calls for the executive of UCU to: - circulate a Palestinian call for an academic boycott of Israel for information and discussion in local branches - organise a UK-wide campus tour for Palestinian academic/educational trade unionists (presumably promoting the boycott) - encourage members to consider the "moral implications" of existing and proposed links with Israeli academic institutions - issue guidance to members on appropriate forms of action The careful wording is a result of the past boycott efforts that saw the AUT threatened with legal action, and proposed boycotters informed by university administrations that they would be in breach of their contracts and liable to lose their jobs if they persued suggested boycott action. However they are worded, such boycotts are discriminatory, against all academic values, and the result of radicals trying to hijack a number of unions in the UK for their own purposes. http://www.wiesenthal.com/site/pp.asp?c=fwLYKnN8LzH&b=242023 Statement by Rhodes Scholars on Proposed UCU Boycott of Israeli Universities The United Kingdom's University and college Union has recently encouraged its members to consider abandoning all links to Israeli academic institutions. As Rhodes Scholars, we find this proposed boycott to be unjustified and an egregious violation of the basic rules of the academic community. Freedom of speech and inclusion of all parties who are committed to pursuing truth are essential values in academic life. Encouraging boycotts of universities and their professors violates these fundamental values. Differences must be rationally discussed, not silenced through such exclusionary tactics. Singling out Israeli universities for censure also suggests an unjust double standard and unfair prejudice against the Jewish State. We urge the University and College Union to abandon this effort immediately. Statement Signatories James Eli Adams Mark David Agrast Associate Professor & Senior Fellow Director Center for American Progress of Graduate Studies Washington, D.C. Department of English Cornell University T.A. Barron, Author Thomas C. Berg St. Ives Professor University of St. Thomas School of Law James Braden, Attorney Fred Cohen San Francisco, California University of California at San Francisco Kalman J. Cohen, Professor John V. Fleming Emeritus Fairchild Professor Emeritus The Fuqua School of Business Princeton University Duke University David S. Goldbloom, MD, FRCPC Joel K. Goldstein Professor of Psychiatry Vincent C. Immel Professor of University of Toronto Law St. Louis University School of Law Peter J. Kalis, Attorney James H. Merrell Lucy Maynard Salmon Professor of History Vassar College Thomas W. Merrill Joseph Nye, Former Dean Charles Keller Beekman Kennedy School of Government Professor Harvard University Columbia Law School Betsy L. Roe David H. Roe, President Central College Central College Thomas D. Rowe, Jr. Dr. Larry J. Sabato Elvin R. Latty Professor of Director, Center for Politics Law University of Virginia Duke University Andrew W. Savitz Kurt L. Schmoke, Dean Author of The Triple Bottom Howard University School of Line Law and former Mayor of Baltimore, Maryland David Vitter, United States R. James Woolsey Senator Former Director of Central Intelligence Edwin M. Yoder Jr. Author and Editor

Author:
SWCCampus

Tags:
boycott, Cooper, Israel, proud, UCU, Wiesenthal,