American professors boycott Israel.
Jim Jones | 29.01.2009 13:02
David Lloyd
In the wake Gaza genocide, a group of American university professors has for the first time launched a national campaign calling for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel.
This marks the first time that a national academic boycott movement has come out of America.
"As educators of conscience, we have been unable to stand by and watch in silence Israel's indiscriminate assault on the Gaza Strip and its educational institutions," the U.S. Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel stated in its inaugural press release last Thursday. Speaking in its mission statement of the "censorship and silencing of the Palestine question in U.S. universities, as well as U.S. society at large," the group follows the usual pattern of such boycotts, calling for "non-violent punitive measures" against Israel, such as the implementation of divestment initiatives, "similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era."
The campaign was founded by a group of 15 academics, mostly from California, but is, "currently expanding to create a network that embraces the United States as a whole," according to David Lloyd, a professor of English at the University of Southern California who responded on behalf of the group to a Haaretz query. "The initiative was in the first place impelled by Israel's latest brutal assault on Gaza and by our determination to say enough is enough."
"The response has been remarkable given the extraordinary hold that lobbying organizations like AIPAC exert over U.S. politics and over the U.S. media, and in particular given the campaign of intimidation that has been levelled at academics who dare to criticize Israel's policies," Lloyd wrote in an e-mail to Haaretz Monday. "Within a short weekend since the posting of the press release, more than 80 academics from all over the country have endorsed the action and the numbers continue to grow."
David Lloyd
Professor of English
Contact Information
Office: THH 416
Phone: (213)740-2808
E-mail:
davidcll@usc.edu
This marks the first time that a national academic boycott movement has come out of America.
"As educators of conscience, we have been unable to stand by and watch in silence Israel's indiscriminate assault on the Gaza Strip and its educational institutions," the U.S. Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel stated in its inaugural press release last Thursday. Speaking in its mission statement of the "censorship and silencing of the Palestine question in U.S. universities, as well as U.S. society at large," the group follows the usual pattern of such boycotts, calling for "non-violent punitive measures" against Israel, such as the implementation of divestment initiatives, "similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era."
The campaign was founded by a group of 15 academics, mostly from California, but is, "currently expanding to create a network that embraces the United States as a whole," according to David Lloyd, a professor of English at the University of Southern California who responded on behalf of the group to a Haaretz query. "The initiative was in the first place impelled by Israel's latest brutal assault on Gaza and by our determination to say enough is enough."
"The response has been remarkable given the extraordinary hold that lobbying organizations like AIPAC exert over U.S. politics and over the U.S. media, and in particular given the campaign of intimidation that has been levelled at academics who dare to criticize Israel's policies," Lloyd wrote in an e-mail to Haaretz Monday. "Within a short weekend since the posting of the press release, more than 80 academics from all over the country have endorsed the action and the numbers continue to grow."
David Lloyd
Professor of English
Contact Information
Office: THH 416
Phone: (213)740-2808
E-mail:
davidcll@usc.edu
Jim Jones
Comments
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The realities in the US
29.01.2009 15:02
The US is a large country and not homogenious. There are large regions and many academic institutions where the influence of the American "Zionists" is minimal. THAT, by the way is the critical factor in any such campaign. Seeing that influence as being due to a "lobbying organization" is to blind oneself to the relities.
In other words, a very big difference in trying to organize such a campaign at an institution where "Zionists" make up 15-20% of the student, faculty, and very important, alumni donor population is going to be very different from one where that's less than 1%. At an insitution where the "Zionists" are 20% and of the donor population (and perhaps account for 40% of the donor income) going to be tough sledding indeed.
Really need to study the success of the campaign against the Afrikaners to analyze WHY it was successful. How would this campaing worked out instead if there was a large Afrikaner population in the places where boycotts were to be established? Consider both direct effects and the indirect effects (on local politics, how it might affect local issues).
Given the realities HERE, need to consider the motivations might be more than just "anti-israel". I know, some of you are going to want to say, NOT intended to start an across the board attack on the "Zionists" (they can make themsleves safe from us by disassociating themselves form their tribe -- we are only going to be attacking them for what evil, nasty things that they do). They will CORRECTLY disbelieve that.
MDN