Monday, May 26, 2008
Elder of ZiyonThe British University and College Union (UCU) is slated to debate once again whether they should boycott all things Israeli next week (h/t Global_Freezing). The very existence of Israeli universities - most of whom churn out people whose hatred of Israel rivals some of their British colleagues - is deeply offensive to some British academics, because of the "occupation" or "ethnic cleansing" or perhaps the fact that they are a bit too top-heavy with Jews. Last year the motion was handily defeated but they are back this year, with specific motions considering the "greylisting" of Ariel College, saying that all Israeli universities are "complicit" in murdering Palestinian Arabs, and calling for "twinning" and increased ties with Palestinian Arab institutions.
Not surprisingly, there are also motions for solidarity with Cuba and its "socialist revolution." British academia is still enthralled with the long-discredited positions of the Soviet Union of half a century ago, which could be why they like to call themselves "progressive."
US academics are not immune from their tunnel vision where all things Israeli are evil and all things "Palestinian" are good. David Mumford, a far left academic (who is a donor to MoveOn and ultra-liberal politicians) at Brown University, gained the prestigious Wolf Prize for mathematics given by Israel - and promptly pledged his share of the money to Bir Zeit University and Palestinian Arab causes.
Mumford had previously lectured at Bir Zeit and must have been impressed with how many terrorists that university has generated, including the prestigious "Engineer" who used his chemistry training at BZU to build bombs to kill as many Jews as possible. This is, of course, a very progressive liberal position nowadays.
