don't boycott israeli academics

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>topp8564 at mail.usyd.edu.au wrote:
>
>>I would agree wholeheartedly that it is wrong to boycott Israeli nationals
>>living abroad, but I cannot see the difference between boycotting Israeli
>>academic institutions and boycotting any other area of the Israeli economy. I
>>don't see why universities should be exempt on the basis of some notion that
>>they are ostensibly places of high learning and humanism. At any 
>>rate, I don't
>>think I would waste much time with the finer points of this 
>>argument, which is
>>bound to generate acrimonious accusations of personal bias. Israel requires
>>sanctions, not boycotts. Or at least it requires that we stop supporting and
>>inciting them.
>
>Puts Americans in a rather odd position, since we fund and arm 
>Israel. Do we boycott ourselves?
>
>Doug

Those who call for boycott of and divestment from Israel generally 
call for an end to US aid to Israel as well.

The US government also supported successive apartheid regimes in 
South Africa (Cf. _South Africa and the United States: The 
Declassified History_, 
<http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nsa/publications/DOC_readers/saread/saread.html>; 
_South Africa: The Making of U.S. Policy, 1962-1989_, 
<http://nsarchive.chadwyck.com/saintro.htm>), but I don't recall 
anyone holding up this fact as a reason that Americans shouldn't 
boycott and divest from South Africa, rather than as the reason for 
Americans to change US foreign policy toward it.

BTW, there exist more than similarities between Israel and apartheid 
South Africa.  Israel actively supported apartheid in South Africa 
(Cf. Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, _The Israeli Connection_; Jane Hunter, 
"Israel and South Africa," 
<http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Global_Secrets_Lies/Israel_SAfrica.html>; 
Jane Hunter, _The Israeli-South African-U.S. Alliance_, 
<http://www.ameu.org/uploads/vol19_issue1_1986.pdf>).
-- 
Yoshie

* Calendar of Events in Columbus: 
<http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>
* Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html>
* Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/>
* Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>