Solomonia Archive: Boycott Back At Ya

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

TigerHawk on the reborn British Boycott (see below):

...To be clear, the proposed boycott does not extend merely to Israeli professors who advocate for the current policy toward the Palestinian Arabs. Rather, it applies to any Israeli academic, speaking on any subject, who does not pass the proposed political test. An Israeli professor of ecology speaking about bumble bees would have to pass the test in order to survive the boycott. Having "no informed opinion," which might well be the case for a professor of ecology, is insufficient to earn a pass from the British professors.

Moreover, a British, American, French, Russian, Lebanese or Cuban professor need not declare his or her opposition to Israeli policy in the territories. The political test seems only to apply to Israeli professors. It is difficult to see how this is not, on its face, racist.

Don't agree? Then do a simple "thought experiment." Suppose American professors organized a boycott of any professor from any Muslim country who does not sign a statement repudiating the policies of the government of Iran toward the nuclear fuel cycle. No Europeans, East Asians, sub-Saharan Africans from non-Muslim countries, or Latin Americans would be boycotted no matter how fervently they supported Iran and how devoutly Muslim they might be. What are the odds that the entire world wouldn't view that policy as unreconstructed racism of the worst sort? Exactly zero...

Exactly right, although to pick a nit I'd say it's not exactly "racist," other than in the loose manner in which that term has come to be used in some circles, but it is anti-Semitic in the way that an obsessive interest in the sins (real and imagined) of the Jewish State is anti-Semitic (which may be a form of racism in any case).

It is the worst form of thought control that demands people positively express a position on issues on which they are not informed, and perhaps worse to demand they do so on issues on which they are.

The Hawk imagines that the AAUP (the American union) should boycott those who support NATFHE's call (should it come to pass). This won't happen, but in the spirit of the Solomonia policy of supporting boycotts in the case of those who themselves support such boycotts, it could and should happen on an individual level - ironically, just as the NATFHE proposal calls for.

Update: Judy has much more on this, here.

Posted by Solomon at 1:04 PM on Wednesday, May 10, 2006 | Comments (1)
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1 Comment

#1 Michael B | May 10, 2006 7:31 PM

Melanie Phillips's aptly titled Londonistan, which release is immiment, is likely to be highly instructive concerning the studied neglect of the Brits and of multi-culti pietism in general.