Originally Posted by moon

The garbage man, surveying the piles of shit which block the road, has to start somewhere.

Originally Posted by moon

U.K. union backs calls for boycott of Israel academe - Haaretz - Israel News


Those backing the call for the boycott cite the near-impossibility of an education for a Palestinian , the disruption of civic life by ethnic cleansing and the apartheid wall and the traumas which are an everyday experience for Palestinian students.

The boycott would be designed to shame Israeli academics into going further in their efforts to undermine the brutality of Zionism in their country.

Originally Posted by Bart

In some ways, the Israeli Jews had this coming. We now live in a world where we froun upon pretty much everything remotely racist. Yet we apparently should have little problem with an ethno-cracy with bizarre racist laws, rules and regulations.

I'm not God and maybe my judgement is flawed, but I am in favor of such a boycott.

Originally Posted by moon

AO;


I believe it far more likely, as did the majority of the delegates, that censure from abroad will galvanize the Israeli intelligentsia into an active role in Israeli politics and so provide a check for low-brow Zionism which currently perpetrates the crimes under discussion.

The 'entrenched bunker mentality' is already running the country and that is believed to be , in part, because of the lack of pressure from within.

Imagine America with most of its politically-connected Liberals declaring withdrawal and retreat to the laboratories and libraries. Imagine if the patriotic numbnuts controlled every aspect of American life unopposed.

Rakkasan;


I rest my case.

Originally Posted by Peace Now

This boycott reeks of hypocrisy.

Interesting isn't it, that these British academics (who I'm sure are morally impeccable and not biased in any way) discuss boycotting only Israel in the name of academic freedom.

And while they're taking this "courageous stand" for academic freedom, what better way than to deny academic freedom to students and professors who happen to be from Israel purely based on their nationality.

Why is it that they don't discuss boycotting other countries whose policies they don't agree with, like the US, Russia, or China?
Maybe those countries are too big and boycotting them would actually mean risking some kind of consequences, it's much easier picking on a small country like Israel.

These enlightened British academics aren't going to boycott countries with far worse human rights records and where academics face far worse oppression like Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, or Zimbabwe, are they? No, that would be wrong. Let's single out just one country and ignore their reasons for implementing strict security measures, and let's ignore other countries doing far worse all over the world. Let's just single out Israel which is the only country in the region which actually gives all its citizens academic freedom including Arab Israelis (Palestinians who live within the Israeli borders and who have equal citizenship).

Palestinians are not Israeli citizens, and they would be the first to say that they live outside of Israel. Nobody is denying that they are living in harsh conditions, but in fact the conditions of Palestinians living in surrounding Arab countries are often far worse. Remember, Israel handed Gaza and most of the West Bank to the Palestinian Authority. If they would stop the constant terror attacks against Israel it wouldn't be forced to take security measures which make life in the Palestinian territories more difficult.

By the way, perhaps someone should remind these British academics that Britain itself is currently engaged in two wars in that very same region, and responsible for displacing tens of thousands of people and disrupting their former way of life (as it was under Saddam or the Taliban). Not to mention their long history of imperialism and oppression which is the reason for many of the conflicts in the Middle East.

I guess this is their idea of defending academic freedom and the free exchange of ideas. By denying students and professors these very rights purely based on their nationality.

Originally Posted by moon

Let's investigate why these groups of British academics and unions might have the hots for the prosecution of nationalist Zionism.

Starting with the creation of the synthetic State itself, the British are culpable in the chain of events leading to the mass immigration into Palestine of European Zionist hopefuls fed on a diet of Ben-Gurion 'brutal compulsion' rhetoric. Many feel a guilt about this, not for the good intention of attempting to provide a safe haven for European refugees but rather for their misjudgment of the character of the immigrants. These, history clearly records, were terrorists who quickly began to assert themselves by way of violent terrorist actions.
The British, I venture to say, would rather that this hadn't been the case, a regret strengthened by the abominable treatment which the Zionist terror groups began to mete out to Palestinians just as soon as they had infiltrated Palestine in sufficient numbers and had acquired sufficient weaponry.

Yes, that might rankle with a nation which sacrificed so many and so much during WW2 only to see fascism appear in Palestine in a different guise, and at their own behest ! Sixty years of this abominable behaviour warrants much more than an academic boycott. Unfortunately, the American veto prevents the application of the law.

Which other of the countries you hold up as potential fig-leaf material has occupied another's territory illegally for so long, has practised ethnic cleansing, apartheid and murder with such impunity, and staggers under such a long list of United Nations condemnatory resolutions ignored ?
Put another way, which country deserves to be boycotted as much as the Zionist State ?

Originally Posted by moon

Which other of the countries you hold up as potential fig-leaf material has occupied another's territory illegally for so long, has practised ethnic cleansing, apartheid and murder with such impunity, and staggers under such a long list of United Nations condemnatory resolutions ignored ?
Put another way, which country deserves to be boycotted as much as the Zionist State ?

Originally Posted by Slon

You are trying to be sarcastic, but you don't know how right you would be if you were not.

Originally Posted by moon

It doesn't matter to the machine-gunned civilian whether his murderer hated him or not.