The Fanonite

I hope that the UCU boycott campaign has circled the wagons as pro-Israel groups launch an attack. I don’t think this is a very sound argument it suggests three things that science should be universal, that it should be above politics and that the UCU boycott is descriminating on the basis of “ethnicity, religion…etc”. Is it just me or are they none too subtily suggesting anti-semitism again?

Anyway Science has never been above politics - we could never imagine an argument of the Universality of Science being used to prevent a boycott of Nazi scientists for example. This doesn’t even address the point of the boycott which is, as far as I’m aware, that Israeli educational institutions should be boycotted because Israel itself hinders and stops Palestinian education. In fact the attack against the boycott argues for the very same just treatment of Israelis that the boycott argues Israel should give Palestinians. No discrimination on ethnicity etc and all the freedoms required of academics such as freedom of movement etc. It seems they’re suffering a bad case of double think. Until the restrictions are removed from Palestinians Israeli academics should suffer too - due to their responsibility in the situation.

Personally I think intellectuals have a greater responsibility in society to speak out against crimes such as those of the Israeli Apartheid State. Indeed this view was held by survivers of the Holocaust such Victor Klemperer, a Jew living under Nazi rule who avoided the gas chambers by a near miracle, he wrote about a German Professor friend whom he had admired, but who had finally joined the pack:

If one day the situation were reversed and the fate of the vanquished lay in my hands, then I would let all the ordinary folk go and even some of the leaders, who might perhaps after all have had honourable intentions and not known what they were doing. But I would have all the intellectuals strung up, and the professors three feet higher than the rest; they would be left hanging from the lamp posts for as long as was compatible with hygiene.

With this greater responsibility in mind, I think its correct to boycott intellectuals to raise awareness of their complicity in crimes and also that Israelis should suffer similar restrictions as Palestinian academics - a more appropritate use of the ‘Universality of Science’ argument.

Four Int’l Academic Organizations Slam British Boycott

Four international academic organizations signed a joint declaration denouncing British academics for attempting to impose a boycott on Israeli research institutions.

Prof. Shlomo Sasson, who heads the Institute for Diabetes Research at the Hebrew University, was one of the people who initiated the declaration. He said: “This declaration reflects the opinions of four organizations that represent thousands of researchers, physicians and health system employees in the field of diabetes and endocrinology.” He added: “I hope that this declaration helps prevent attempts to organize scientific boycotts in the future.”

The declaration cites “the principle of the universality of science” and was signed by the presidents of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, the American Diabetes Association, the International Diabetes Federation and the the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists.

The statement read: “We are aware of the suggestion put forth at the congress of Britain’s University and College Union (UCU) in May of 2007, calling for the boycott of Israeli academic institutions. We find the fact that the union chose to dismiss the suggestion unsatisfactory, because [the decision] stemmed from legal considerations and not from the actual substantive subjects that had been discussed.”

“We reaffirm our support for the important foundations of the principle of scientific universality, as it was defined in the constitution of the International Council for Science, which includes within it the freedom of movement, organization, expression and communication between scientists, as well as the possibility of access to information, data and research materials.

“As a corollary of this goal,” it added, “the Council opposes any display of discrimination based on ethnicity, religion, citizenship, language, political outlook… sex and age.”

The four organizations added: “We implore scientific unions and academic communities from various countries and regions to express similar support for these principles and for their implementation for the sake of academic freedom.”

The UCU decided last September to back off the boycott decision after lawyers told it that the boycott was illegal.

“It would be beyond the union’s powers and unlawful for the union, directly or indirectly, to call for, or to implement, a boycott by the union and its members of any kind of Israeli universities and other academic institutions; and that the use of union funds directly or indirectly to further such a boycott would also be unlawful,” a statement by the group said.