AVIVA-BERLIN.de im November 2024 - Beitrag vom 09.06.2009


Petition gegen den anti-israelischen Boykott von AkademikerInnen und israelischen Institutionen in Großbritannien
AVIVA-Redaktion

Nach dem Beschluss der britischen Dozentengewerkschaft UCU zum "stillen" Boykott israelischer AkademikerInnen ruft die WissenschaftlerInnen Vereinigung Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME)..

... zur Solidarität auf. Ihrem Aufruf sind bereits 20 NobelpreiträgerInnen und AkademikerInnen aus aller Welt gefolgt und haben die Antiboykott-Petition der SPME unterzeichnet.
Setzen auch Sie ein Zeichen gegen Diskriminierung und anti-israelische Polemik in der (akademischen) Welt, indem Sie diese Petition unterzeichnen:
Sign here

Bereits seit einigen Jahren bemühen sich in Großbritannien zahlreiche Mitglieder der UCU, der britischen DozentInnengewerkschaft, mit anti-israelischen und antisemitischen Boykottbestrebungen jüdische AkademikerInnen und Institutionen aus dem Lehr- und Wissenschaftsbetrieb auszuschließen:

SPME-Statement:
We, the undersigned faculty members, researchers, professionals, academics and students from around the world, denounce and utterly condemn the action of a majority of members attending the recent University and College Union (UCU) of the United Kingdom who voted to boycott Israeli academics and academic institutions. This action, despite the Union´s invalidation of the vote and non-acceptance as policy, has created a situation where union members have vowed to conduct a "silent boycott." Academic boycotts are incompatible with academic freedom and "silent boycotts" are particularly insidious.
In response to this action, we the undersigned, declare that any academic participating in such an action will also be boycotting us as colleagues. We stand in solidarity against boycotts, both official and "silent" of academics in general and of our Israeli colleagues and their institutions, in particular.

Background:
For the fourth time in as many years, a small but relentless group of academic activists in the United Kingdom has managed to manipulate what is now the University and College Union (UCU) to pass a motion calling for a boycott of all Israeli academics and their institutions. The motion, as pointed out several times, not only is unenforceable, but also violates both the union´s own anti-discrimination policy and British law. In the past the UCU leadership has nullified the motion precisely on those grounds.
The small cadre of activists behind this initiative now gloat that their motion was passed "by an overwhelming majority," because "the Zionists barely showed up." In fact, it now appears that both Jewish and non-Jewish scholars are absenting themselves from the annual meetings and many either have resigned or are in the process of resigning from the UCU. Support for the UCU is dwindingly because the preoccupation with Israel is increasingly recognized as inappropriate and racist. Proponents of this motion have so hijacked the union´s proceedings as to prevent the UCU from carrying out its primary mission, which is to represent the interests of academics within their institutions and nation.
The relentless condemnation of all Israeli academics is creating an atmosphere of intimidation and fear, something that any academic organization must find unacceptable. The faction behind these repeated motions seeks to make it easier for university departments to reject Israeli job applicants than risk accusations of political incorrectness in hiring them, easier for journals to reject submissions from Israeli and, in some cases, to publish unscientific and unscholarly denunciations of Israel than to risk a flood of letters of protest. No other country´s academics are being punished this way for the alleged crimes of their government.
It is an embarrassment to the British academy that this level of intimidation is being promoted by one of its own unions. In the end, the boycott will not only fail to do Palestinian academics any good, but will also isolate the union from the community of scholars who pursue truth with integrity and seek to promote civil and honest discourse. The UCU faction that seeks to demonize and delegitimize Israel as a democratic, pluralistic, self-critical Jewish state and society ignores the presence, in the same region, of despotic rulers who have no regard for human rights, including those of academics and other workers.

Therefore, as more than 11,000 of our colleagues world wide, including 55 university presidents and 33 Nobel Laureates stated two years ago in SPME´s response to a similar gesture of hate: www.spme.net/cgi-bin/display_petitions.cgi?ID=9 we position ourselves with Israeli academics and all those members of the UCU who reject the path of academic boycotts as counter to the basic ideals of our profession. We say to our colleagues in the United Kingdom: "If you boycott Israeli academics and academic institutions, you will also be boycotting us! You are separating yourselves from the academic community and the whole world is watching."
Adopted June 1, 2009
(Auszug der Petition von SPME)

Weitere Informationen zu Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) finden Sie im Netz unter:
www.spme.net
Weiterlesen auf AVIVA-Berlin zum Boykott israelischer Institutionen:

Protest gegen antiisraelischen Boykott der Pariser Buchmesse 2008

Boykott gegen israelische Universitäten