Wednesday, June 6, 2007
An Israeli Druze PhD student, Amir Hanifes, writes about the British UCU boycott, and his experience at the meeting that led to the boycott vote: Ignored by the Brits:
Etc...but to be honest it's all a lot of blah-blah. It's a mistake at this point to talk reason. It's not about the academics and the truth of Israeli civil society and the challenges it faces. It's about the existence of the state.
Other links: CAMERA notes that "The Russell Group of the UK’s research-intensive universities" has rejected the call outright.
There's a very good piece by Shalom Lappin at Norm's: Responding to the Boycott. One of many important paragraphs in the piece:
Update:
One of several ads run by ADL in a number of media outlets:
Finally, there's this must-read by Melanie Phillips: The war against the Jews. The conclusion is important, and applicable in an extraordinary number of situations:
When Patrick Leigh Fermor, on his journey across Europe in 1933, was questioned in some bierstube on the result of the Oxford Union vote that ‘under no circumstances would they fight for King and country’ he described the atmosphere thus:‘I was surrounded by glaring eyeballs and teeth. Someone would shrug and let out a staccato laugh like three notches on a watchman’s rattle. I could detect a kindling glint of scornful pity and triumph in the surrounding eyes which declared quite plainly their certainty that, were I right, England was too far gone in degeneracy and frivolity to present a problem. But the distress I could detect on the face of a silent opponent of the régime was still harder to bear: it hinted that the will or the capacity to save civilization was lacking where it might have been hoped for.’
Bravo, Sol! Your connection of the British boycotts to the Arab League boycotts is insightful.
That got me thinking - in fact long before the Arab League boycotts there had been boycotts of Jewish interests - dating back to the 1920's:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_and_political_boycotts_of_Israel
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/riots36.html
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/boytoc.html
The Arab League Boycott has also affected individual Jews (not just Israelis but Americans and other Jews!) via it secondary and tertiary clauses:
"In 1975, Sen. Frank Church made public for the first time a list of 1,500 American firms on the 1970 Saudi blacklist. Publication of the list made the public aware, for the first time, of the scope of the Arab boycott. Particularly shocking were revelations of U.S. government complicity; perhaps, the most serious of which was the admission that the Army Corps of Engineers excluded Jewish soldiers and civilians from projects it managed in Saudi Arabia.
In 1977, Congress adopted legislation encouraging, and in some cases requiring, U.S. companies to refuse to take actions that have the effect of supporting the restrictive trade practices or boycotts fostered or imposed by any foreign government against a country friendly to the United States or against any American. This law was adopted despite threats from the Arab world. As the Washington Post wrote (April 17): "No realistic person would assert that an anti-boycott law will not cost something . . . . But if there is a price to keep foreigners from compelling Americans to trample on their own basic values, surely it is worth paying and, as surely, thoughtful and responsible Americans will be willing to pay it."
In signing the anti-boycott bill into law, President Jimmy Carter said: "My concern about foreign boycotts stemmed, of course, from our special relationship with Israel, as well as from the economic, military, and security needs of both our countries. But the issue goes to the very heart of free trade among nations." Carter said the bill was intended to "end the divisive effects on American life of foreign boycotts aimed at Jewish members of our society. If we allow such a precedent to be established, we open the door to similar action against any ethnic, religious, or social groups in America."
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/Fighting_the_boycott.html
This document is an interesting timeline from the 1930's:
http://www.indiana.edu/~league/1933.htm
Finally, there is long-term bad blood between Britain and Israel. The primary target of the Stern Gang and Irgun (though Irgun members fought and died for Britain during the war), had not been the Arabs, but the Brits.
Similarly, the Brits had also become targets of Arab boycotts and violence and thousands of British soldiers died in the Mandate before they departed, leaving a war in their vacuum and bitterness in their souls:
"From the outset, the British edifice had been built on sand. 'I thought today,' (Chief Secretary Gurney) wrote, 'if Palestine has to be written on my heart, must it be written in Arabic AND Hebrew?'"
http://www.passia.org/seminars/2000/israel/part3.html
Hitchens on at least a tangential, multi-culti aspect of the problem in the UK, in Vanity Fair.
h/t Jeremayakovka, which post is worth a full read.