Skip to content or view screen version

Palestinian union backs boycott motions at AUT Council

brum imc volunteer | 17.04.2005 20:26 | Education | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements | Birmingham

Press Release - for immediate release

Palestinian union backs boycott motions at AUT Council

The Palestinian sister union of the Association of University Teachers has issued an Open Letter to the AUT Executive and Council calling for unambiguous boycott of Israeli universities.

In a polite but critical letter, the Palestinian Federation of Unions of Universities' Professors and Employees says that it is "deeply disturbed and saddened" by a motion being brought to Council by the Executive.

The Federation states: "Although we do not want to interfere in AUT's work, we nonetheless feel that we must share our concerns with you regarding this whole motion, which in our view is conceived on the basis of a misrepresentation of the obstacles to peace with justice in the Middle East."

The letter continues, "The 'problems' facing the Middle East do not arise from misunderstandings, negative stereotypes, or lack of communication or empathy between Palestinians and Israelis, or between British academics and their Israeli counterparts. The real obstacle to the achievement of a just settlement of a historic conflict continues to be the system of colonial apartheid erected by Israel, and Israel's rejection of a growing body of international resolutions."

The Federation draws particular attention to the International Court of Justice ruling against the wall being build by the Israelis around the West Bank, and concludes by calling for sanctions against Israel. The letter is signed by the Palestinian Federation of Unions of Universities' Professors and Employees and by PACBI, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel.

Professors Hilary and Steven Rose (BRICUP Co-ordinators) said: "The Palestinian University teachers' union has asked for the solidarity of AUT members in their long struggle for educational and human rights. BRICUP urges the AUT executive to respond with the same moral conviction and generosity that many years before they gave to the ANC call for the boycott of apartheid South Africa."

Sue Blackwell, another BRICUP member and a delegate to Council from Birmingham AUT which is proposing several pro-boycott motions, said "This is an important statement which should leave delegates in no doubt as to the position of our Palestinian sister union. BRICUP supporters will be distributing it at Council. "The crucial vote on all the motions, including the Executive one, is expected to take place on Friday 22nd April.


Notes to Editors:

1. The full text of the Federation/PACBI Open Letter is attached.

2. The full text of the Executive motion is attached.

3. The full text of the Palestinian Call for Academic and Cultural
Boycott of Israel can be found at:
 http://right2edu.birzeit.edu/news/article178

4. AUT Council meets in Eastbourne from 20th to 22nd April. The
debate on Israel and Palestine is scheduled for the morning of
Friday, 22nd April.

5. The authors of the Open Letter can be contacted on:
Info @ BoycottIsrael.ps

6. BRICUP can be contacted at BRICUPINFO @ YAHOO.CO.UK
Sue Blackwell can be contacted on 0121-414-3219 on Monday morning.

brum imc volunteer
- e-mail: BRICUPINFO @ YAHOO.CO.UK
- Homepage: http://right2edu.birzeit.edu/news/article178

Comments

Hide the following 3 comments

widen the boycott

18.04.2005 09:04

an academic boycott of israeli educational institutions should be part of a bigger boycott of israeli products and services. there already is a campaign to do just that:

 http://www.mylinkspage.com/israel.html

as boycotts go, boycotting israel and the US should be at the top of the list.

- -


Why no boycott of China or Syria? Double standard bigots

18.04.2005 20:30

Pay attention, Professor. If you support the proposed academic boycott of Israel — and if you are to remain intellectually honest — prepare for a radical lifestyle change. Firstly, unplug your computer. Good. Now switch off your interactive digital television set. Well done. And now throw away your mobile phone. Excellent. You see, Professor, these machines are not only the engine of the globalised, capitalist world but they also depend on technologies that have been produced by Israeli academics in the Zionist entity.

Stop playing with your detached mouse, Professor, and concentrate. I’m afraid you may not use the British Library because it has been computerised by Ex Libris, a Zionist company that was spawned by the odious Hebrew University of Jerusalem. And if, God forbid, you develop problems of the small intestine, you may not pop the Zionist-invented ‘video capsule’, which passes naturally through your body as it monitors this delicate piece of your anatomy. You will, sadly, have to take it up the derrière, Professor. As a matter of principle, of course. But remember: your principle allows your proctologist to keep his hand in.

All this boycotting, you see, is the logical extension of proposed academic sanctions against Israel by some members of your Association of University Teachers (AUT) when they meet in Eastbourne next Wednesday. Just visit the website of Egyptian-born Mona Baker of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. She set the standard by firing two Israeli scholars from the boards of her translation journals as a matter of high academic principle.

You will see that Ms Baker’s ambitions do not end with the academic boycott. Her website also includes a section entitled ‘Boycott Israeli Products & Services’, which features dozens of global brands that, inconveniently, are not Israeli at all. The offenders presumably have earned their place in infamy by dealing with the Zionist entity, by being owned by Jews or by having Jews on their boards. They range from Coca-Cola and Nescafé to Johnson & Johnson and Estée Lauder, from Hugo Boss and Ralph Lauren to Selfridges and Marks & Spencer, from Kleenex and Wonderbra to Lancome and.... All marked for boycott.

Absent from Ms Baker’s list — and here I think I can help — is a set of global companies which are arguably even more culpable because they not only operate in Israel but also do most of their R&D there. IBM and Intel each have three R&D centres in Israel; Microsoft established its first non-American facility there, and Cisco Systems has built its only non-American R&D centre in Israel. Then there is Motorola, which has its largest R&D site in Israel, and News Corp, whose company NDS develops those neat interactive technologies for digital television. There are many more.

Douglas Davis


...

18.04.2005 22:04

Well, my computer doesn't use Intel, I have an AMD processor, it's just better. I certainly don't watch Cable TV, god forbid, I don't want my brain to turn to mush. I'm not a big fan of the pharmaceutical industry, I think we're too reliant on drugs when really we should be focusing on prevention of problems by improving our diet and lifestyle choices. In all the years of my life, since being a teenager, I've gone very well without taking any drugs, and having a healthy vegetarian diet, plenty of exercise, not smoking-drinking...

I mean, all those things you described, I don't really think of them as very good, really. Especially cable TV. Maybe if people stopped using those products, the world would actually be a better place anyway!!! You're not doing a very good job of persuading me to use Zionist products.

By the way, McDonalds send money to Israel. McDonalds is rubbish, and is making a generation of obese, unhealthy people.

Boycott zionist products!!!

Djinn