[R-G] Academic Boycott - Rights and Wrongs

[Sid Shniad]

http://www.thestruggle.org/academic_boycott.htm 



Academic Boycott – Rights and Wrongs 



By Moshé Machover * 



First published 2005 


In April 2001, six months into the second intifada, a small ad-hoc group, most of them Israeli citizens, published a call launching a campaign to boycott Israeli exports and leisure tourism in Israel. As far as I know, we were the first to publish such a call (see URL http://www.middleeastuk.com/com/features/boycott.htm ). You can still find it, with hundreds of additional signatures of supporters from many countries. (If you have not added your signature, please do so now). 



The justification for this campaign should be obvious even to liberals, let alone socialists. Since the demise of South-African apartheid, Israel is the last remaining active colonial settler state. Its treatment of the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories is, if anything, more brutal than that meted to non-whites by the apartheid regime. As Israel enjoys the full support and protection of the US (which it serves as chief regional partner and enforcer), other governments dare not take any effective measure to restrain the armoured monster bulldozers of Israeli expansionism that trample over the Palestinians, demolish their homes, steal their land and uproot their ancient olive trees. It is left to world public opinion and civil society to act in defence of the victims. The same arguments that justified the boycotting of the South-African apartheid regime - accepted by all progressive people - surely apply in the present case. 



Let me add one general point: the boycott tactic has the great double merit of being non-violent and a way in which every individual can express a moral commitment. This immediate mobilizing effect on those who join the boycott is no less important than its real effect on the target (in this case, Israel), which will take long to gain force. 



Shortly after we issued our call, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in the UK launched its BIG (Boycott Israeli Goods) campaign (URL: http://www.bigcampaign.org.uk/ ). 




Dos and don'ts 



At about that time, I was involved in private discussion among some radical academics about extending the economic boycott to the academic sphere. My position was - and remains - that a boycott directed against Israeli academic institutions is wholly justified, but a boycott of Israeli academics, as individuals, is unacceptable. 



The arguments justifying economic boycott apply also to an institutional academic boycott. Israel's universities are part of institutional structure of the Zionist colonial settler state and help to manufacture its ideological superstructure. True, a small minority of radical dissident academics are - barely - tolerated within these institutions; but surely the institutions as such cannot be judged by these rare exceptions. 



On the other hand, being an Israeli, and in particular an Israeli academic, is not per se a punishable offence; so no one should be penalized merely for being an Israeli academic. 



Moreover, an individual academic boycott would be impaled on the horns of a nasty dilemma: either it is a blanket boycott directed indiscriminately at all Israeli academics, or some exemptions are to be made. 



In the first case, the boycott would target the righteous along with the wicked, punishing the small minority of beleaguered courageous academic dissidents, as well as the few Arabs who, against great odds, have achieved positions in Israel's academe. 



But if exemptions are to be allowed, then a thicket of thorny questions must be faced: Are Israeli Arab academics to be exempt, on purely ethnic grounds? What would be the rules and procedures for exempting any individual? Who would be authorized to grant exemptions? What evidence of righteousness would need to be submitted by an individual wishing to be exempted? If an individual felt that s/he was unjustly denied exemption, how and to whom would s/he appeal against the decision? These and similar questions have no satisfactory answer. Begin to consider them, and you are reminded of loyalty oaths and totalitarian policing of thought. Any system of individual penalties is inherently iniquitous unless it is accompanied by a fair and transparent mechanism of adjudication. 



On these grounds, I believe that sanctions such as the following are justified: 



Refusing to participate in academic conferences co-sponsored by the Israeli authorities or by Israeli universities. 



Acting within international scientific organizations so as to oppose them holding conferences in Israel. 



Acting against cooperation at the institutional level with Israeli universities. 



Opposing the award of grants by the EU and other international agencies to Israeli universities; refusing to act in any way (for example, as referees) to facilitate such grants. 



Refusing to collaborate with a person acting as representative or on behalf of an Israeli university. 



On the other hand, acts such as the following, targeting an individual merely on the ground that s/he is Israeli, are unjustified: 



Withholding scientific collaboration with an Israeli scientist who acts in an individual capacity. 



Hampering the publication of academic work by an Israeli. 



Refusing to act as a referee of a paper submitted to an academic journal by an Israeli. 



Dismissing an Israeli from the editorial or advisory board of an academic journal to which s/he had been appointed in an individual capacity. [1] 



Let me add three remarks. First, if you have some evidence that an individual academic is guilty of a war crime, or even of propagating racist poison, then you may well wish to have nothing to do with that person. But this applies whether or not the guilty person is Israeli. No general academic boycott of Israel need be invoked. 



Second, clearly even an institutional academic boycott is bound to have some adverse side effects on individual Israeli academics, including the righteous minority. This kind of thing is unfortunately inevitable in any boycott. Even disinvesting in firms, such as Caterpillar, that supply Israel with instruments of oppression, may well hurt some innocent people. This cannot be a valid objection to the boycott. Would we oppose a campaign for disarmament on the grounds that it would deprive some workers of employment? But deliberately aiming punitive measures at individuals irrespective of their personal guilt is quite a different matter: it is morally repugnant. 

Third, there are bound to be some borderline cases, where it is not quite obvious whether an Israeli academic is acting on behalf of an institution (in which case applying the boycott is justified) or in an individual capacity (in which case no sanction ought to be imposed). Most real-life demarcations are somewhat fuzzy. Such doubtful cases should be resolved as best we can, applying sound judgment and good common sense. But, most importantly, they must be resolved ad causam , on the merit of the case - not ad hominem , on the merit of the individual. 




AUT resolution lacked clarity 




On 6 April 2002, a campaign for an academic boycott of Israel was launched by a letter to the Guardian signed by 120 academics, headed by Hilary and Steven Rose. The steps proposed in the letter were clearly aimed at institutions rather than individuals. Moreover, they were of very limited scope, [2]   which is perhaps reasonable as a first step.