Wednesday, August 22, 2018
Elder of Ziyon#EASA2018 in full motion against cooperation with segregatory Israeli institutions established in occupied West Bank: 160+ vote in favor! Victory! pic.twitter.com/0Pjidh5Zct— Allegra Lab (@allegra_lab) August 16, 2018
The BDS movement tweeted this as a victory.
But according to the tweet the European Association of Social Anthropologists, all they agreed upon was to not cooperate with "Israeli institutions established in occupied West Bank" - not an academic boycott of Israel, as BDS insists upon.
Which means that practically it is a boycott of a single Israeli university, Ariel University, which indeed has a sociology and anthropology department.
But is Ariel University "segregatory?" Not at all. It has Arab Israeli students and it would welcome Palestinian Arab students as well - but the PA forbids them to go there.
I couldn't find the exact text of the motion, so I can't say much more about it. But I think it is far less than the BDSers are pretending it is. Not that it is horrific for any academic group to knowingly institute a boycott on any university, violating all academic principles and standards on freedom of expression.
There are 14 Israeli members of the EASA. And one person who identifies as Palestinian, who may have Israeli citizenship.
Which means that practically it is a boycott of a single Israeli university, Ariel University, which indeed has a sociology and anthropology department.
But is Ariel University "segregatory?" Not at all. It has Arab Israeli students and it would welcome Palestinian Arab students as well - but the PA forbids them to go there.
I couldn't find the exact text of the motion, so I can't say much more about it. But I think it is far less than the BDSers are pretending it is. Not that it is horrific for any academic group to knowingly institute a boycott on any university, violating all academic principles and standards on freedom of expression.
There are 14 Israeli members of the EASA. And one person who identifies as Palestinian, who may have Israeli citizenship.
(h/t Andrew)
