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Thursday, May 31, 2007

British UCU boycott call: worse than is being reported

Yesterday, the British University and College Union voted to boycott Israeli academic institutions for the usual Jew-hating-masquerading-as-human-rights reasons. While this has been reported pretty widely, what people don't realize is that they passed two anti-Israel resolutions, the second one arguably worse.

The full of the resolutions are not even available on the UCU website - are they perhaps a bit embarrassed? - but I found a copy here:
Resolution 30 Boycott of Israeli academic institutions
Congress notes that Israel’s 40-year occupation has seriously damaged the fabric of Palestinian society through annexation, illegal settlement, collective punishment and restriction of movement.

Congress deplores the denial of educational rights for Palestinians by invasions, closures, checkpoints, curfews, and shootings and arrests of teachers, lecturers and students.

Congress condemns the complicity of Israeli academia in the occupation, which has provoked a call from Palestinian trade unions for a comprehensive and consistent international boycott of all Israeli academic institutions.

Congress believes that in these circumstances passivity or neutrality is unacceptable and criticism of Israel cannot be construed as anti-semitic.

Congress instructs the NEC to
§ circulate the full text of the Palestinian boycott call to all branches/LAs for information and discussion;
§ encourage members to consider the moral implications of existing and proposed links with Israeli academic institutions;
§ organise a UK-wide campus tour for Palestinian academic/educational trade unionists;
§ issue guidance to members on appropriate forms of action;
§ actively encourage and support branches to create direct educational links with Palestinian educational institutions and to help set up nationally sponsored programmes for teacher exchanges, sabbatical placements and research.

A count was taken of the voting on this motion which was as follows:
FOR 155 [61%]
AGAINST 99 [39%]
ABSTAIN 17

Resolution 31 European Union and Israel
Congress notes:
1. That since the Palestinian elections in January 2006 the Israeli government has suspended revenue payments to the Palestinian authority (PA), and the EU and US have suspended aid, leaving public-sector salaries unpaid and earning the condemnation of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions;
2. That Israel is seeking to upgrade its relations with the EU to the same level as Norway and Switzerland, permitting free passage of goods, people and capital, while denying these freedoms to Palestinians.

Congress resolves to campaign for:
1. The restoration of all international aid to the PA and all revenues rightfully belonging to it;
2. No upgrade of Israel’s status until it ends the occupation of Palestinian land and fully complies with EU Human Rights law;
3. A moratorium on research and cultural collaborations with Israel via EU and European Science Foundation funding until Israel abides by UN resolutions

Congress instructs the NEC to encourage Branches/Associations to
1. raise these campaigns in their Institutions and
2. investigate the possibilities of twinning their Institution with a Palestinian University or College

This motion was declared passed on a show of hands –with a majority visibly still higher than that for Resolution 30.
The hypocrisy of calling for boycotts of Israel while allowing every oppressive nation on the planet to do business as usual is obvious.

But what is stunning is the fact that these same self-styled humanitarians support Palestinian Arab terrorism - at the same time that they want to boycott Israel, they are trying to prop up the same universities that lecture hate, support terror attacks against civilians and daily advocate genocide against Jews. Arab terrorism against Israel is not only condoned; it is encouraged by these moral midgets.

There are no shortage of znti-Zionist Israeli academics who freely condemn Israel - but they must be punished, according to the EUdiots in Britain. Yet can one even imagine a Palestinian Arab lecturer who can espouse a Zionist position in his classes? Free speech is an oxymoron in the Palestinian Arab universities that they want British universities to "twin" with.

Beyond that, they call for unconditional monetary aid to go to the same Hamas-led government that is behind the daily barrage of Qassam attacks on Israel. The amazingly stupid British intelligentsia doesn't only support Arab terror - they want the EU and US (and Israel) to fund it!

These resolutions are beyond imbecilic - they are embarrassing, and the fact that the British wackademics go along with these absurdities will ultimately make British academia and research irrelevant, not Israel's.