Another shoe drops on boycott. Here are Israeli academics, many of them obviously Zionist, saying that they will not go into the territories. Their petition helps to dispel the big clouds surrounding academic boycott here in the U.S. Yes these Israelis are leaders; because as Omar Barghouthi has said, If you will boycott just an egg, we want you to boycott that egg.
The Israeli gesture also gets at the poverty of the American discourse on this issue.
Why is it that these lecturers have gone further than liberal Zionists here? Why is it that you will now see liberal Zionists in the U.S., granted permission by the Israelis, taking similar steps? Why must they have Israeli permission? Why can’t American liberals come to this understanding on their own? Remember: they didn’t need the Phoenix Suns (brave) gesture against the Arizona law to say, We’re gonna boycott Arizona. Finally, when will the existential crisis that the Jewish state is in due chiefly to its endless expansionism be communicated to the American people, without hysteria, by the media? Why is Israeli media freer to discuss the one-state-solution than the American media? (It is all about deference to Zionism inside American culture, and the guardian role granted the Israel lobby by the Jewish community and the U.S. establishment.) From Ynet:
"We are dealing with a catastrophe whose implication is a failure to partition the land; this may threaten the State’s existence as a Jewish entity." [said Economics prof Ariel Rubenstein]
Rubinstein added that he does not dismiss the possibility of imposing an academic boycott similar to the one imposed against South Africa during the apartheid era. "Under some circumstances, academic boycotts should not be rejected, but the question is who imposes the boycott and why," he said.…[meaning, he’s against the right of return…]
Another signatory to the boycott petition is Professor Amiram Goldblum, a chemistry lecturer at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
"By signing, we declare that we shall refuse invitations for lectures or seminars in the territories," he said. "We will not appear at the Ariel College or at its branches, because we believe that any appearance or academic discussion there violates the law and international conventions, which Israel should adhere to like all other nations."
