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The AUT offers support to colleagues in Palestine who have struggled for many years to establish and maintain a free and democratic system of higher education in the face of overwhelming difficulties.
We are affiliated to the Trade Union Friends of Palestine, and urge our members and local associations to support the aims of that organisation.
We also urge our local associations to establish links with Palestinian universities, including campaigning for formal twinning arrangements between Palestinian and British institutions, to support colleagues and students there, and resist the narrowing of their opportunities and suppression of their academic freedom by the oppression of the occupation.
To name just one program, the Israeli College of Judea & Samaria in Ariel is engaged in a visionary research project to improve the navigation capabilities and autonomy of robotic rovers for use in space exploration. NASA may incorporate their work in the next mission to Mars, in 2009.
But the stinking hypocrites of the Euro-Brit educational trade unions prefer to throw in their lot with debased murderers.
replies: 63 comments
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What exactly is "a free and democratic system of higher education"? Aren't nations and governments suppose to be free and democratic? Or is that not a concern of the Euroweenies?
Poor Palestinians, "struggling" for over 30 years to create a flourishing dictatorship...oh the humanity.
The suppression of their academic freedom and the narrowing of their opportunities is apparently due to the Israelis. It's the damn Jews again.
We believe that education has a central role to play in achieving a sustainable, long-term resolution to the conflict but that it can only flourish in conditions of peace.
There it is, plain as day. The institutions that teach and incite murder have a central role to play in achieving that sustainable, long term resolution to the conflict - a "final solution," if you will.
Once again, the soft bigotry of lowered expectations. They boycott Israeli educational institutions and educators because they expect more out of the Israeli government (yeah, like walking quietly into the boxcars again). They tolerate (and even applaud) the activities of hell-holes like An Najah because one just can't expect more from the paleos, what with them being so angry and seething and all. Besides, blowing people up and shit is now a legitimate part of their culture, so representations of same and tributes to same are just legitimate cultural expression.
F**k them all. To paraphrase mookie, I hate them all. Deeply and personally. Or I would, if I thought they were particularly relevant. Let's face it, most contributions to world achievement at this point come out of American and Israeli universities, anyway. And maybe that's what's really got their panties in a wad. They can't really boycot the US, so Israel gets their ire.
Therefore we support the international call for a withdrawal from armed conflict of all those involved
...so we're going to boycott Israeli academics and support Palestinian academics in universities that create and support the most vicious factions of said armed conflict.
I think this group is thinking that "an educated population can fix all ills." They probably have no idea about the curriculums involved in palestinian academia. If they did, would they still be for the boycott? That's a different story all together to me. Maybe they would.
I managed to determine that the Oxfam crowd was holding a meeting with the Red Cross to discuss the deteriorating situation. But just what exactly was "deteriorating"? As my groaning table and the stores along Main Street testified, there was plenty of food in town. Was it the water? I made a point of drinking the stuff everywhere I went in a spirited effort to pick up the dysentery and cholera supposedly running rampant. But I remain a disease-free zone.
Its in the Telegraph so you have to sign up but well worthwhile.
I'm glad I'm out of there (the UK). There was a time when I was proud to be from Glasgow, but now between these f-ckwits, Dalyell and company, I feel nothing but disgust.
They've given up whatever sense of decency they had in favour of ideology - and very warped ideology at that.
If there were peace throughout the Holy Land do you think these self-involved Euro academics would be exerting themselves to build an alliance with their colleagues in Palestine? Yeah, right. There is very little concern about the Palestinians other than their ability to be used as a weapon to inflict harm against Israel.
Continuing from my comment #8, the AUT website itself has an item about the conference rejecting the boycott call--even the 200 conference delegates (presumably a committed subset of the entire membership) did not support the call. The motion was soundly defeated.
The page Charles linked to clearly supports the idea of a boycott (and is thoroughly LLL to boot), but the official policy of AUT, as decided by its conference, does not include an academic boycott--the "best" efforts of Sue Blackwell notwithstanding.
cba: That is truly heartening. Unfortunately, individuals such as the odious Mona Baker have continued their anti-Israeli crusade on a personal level. Oh, well, free will and all that.
".....Sue Blackwell, a lecturer in the English department at Birmingham University who proposed the motion, told the delegates in Scarborough, northeastern England, that just as Britain had boycotted South Africa it should impose one on "today's apartheid regime."
She claimed that from its inception Israel had attracted international condemnation by violating UN resolutions and the Geneva Conventions regarding the rights of the Palestinians and of going to war with its neighbors.
.........there you have it.... only Israel has violated UN resolutions and Geneva Conventions.....the Arabs are not even considered..
"The question for us is what we can do to show our disgust at this abhorrent regime," she said. "There has been half a century of human rights abuses by Israel. Isn't it time we took some action?"
.........she really wants the completion of the final solution....repulsive bitch
However, most of the delegates voted "no" after Alan Waton, an executive member of the 46,000 strong association, warned that such a boycott would be counterproductive to the union's aims. "
.......i.e. the resolution and Sue Blackwell arent abhorrent on their own....but rather any boycott would not be in their own interest. The premise and validity of her bile arent contested, only that the union would not benefit.
Sue Blackwell is a war criminal wanna be, anti semitic piece of shit.
She is an associate of the equally repulsive Mona Baker and Baker's supporter, the supremely repulsive David Irving
I didn't think Israel participated in the Geneva Conventions. If that doesn't matter then that is beside the fact that a terrorist who bombs an Israeli bus while in disguise is in gross violation of the conventions, and since it's state sanctioned, so to is the PA. Easy deduction, why don't people get it?
It pains me to admit this but I am a lecturer at a major university here in the UK. I would not pay a red cent to become a member of the AUT but I am sickened with their systematic efforts to marginalize Israel.
ploome is right on in her observation that the only rationale for the defeat of the boycott motion was because it would not be in the best interests of the AUT.
The academics in the UK are truly the most obtuse bunch of leftists on the planet. Ironic that individuals who pride themselves on their powers of critical thinking would so readily swallow everything they read in The Codependent and The Goebbelsian newspapers.
The Media Line conversation with SJ co-founder Ken Baker follows:
TML: Why are you boycotting Bar Ilan University?
Baker: That would be pretty obvious, wouldn’t it?
TML: Well, I’m giving you the chance to make a statement about it right now.
Baker:
TML: What do you think about the fact that there are 9 or 10 Palestinians taking the Arabic track in the translation department where your book would have been used?
Baker: It doesn’t make a bloody bit of difference to me. Now…that’s the typical Zionist argument isn’t it?
Baker: The only thing we’re interested in is Israel’s military activity against the Palestinians. Are you aware of the academic boycotts against Israel? Do you happen to cover those issues?
TML: Well, Mr. Baker, that’s precisely why I’m calling you, to get a balanced report.
Baker: Well, it doesn’t matter. Everything I say gets twisted anyway. I have nothing further to say to you.
Sue Blackwell is a war criminal wanna be, anti semitic piece of shit.
Absolutely. I referred to the fact that she's an antisemitic lying sack of dirt in my original post on the topic way back on May 9.
OTOH, I have to admit to a (very tiny) soft spot for Mona Baker--if it hadn't been for her "stand on principle" last summer I'd never have googled her and wouldn't have discovered LGF!
We also urge our local associations to establish links with Palestinian universities, including campaigning for formal twinning arrangements between Palestinian and British institutions,
I am almost afraid to ask, what university would AUT formally twin with An Najah ?
I like the idea of European universities boycotting Israel and U.S. cultural and research institutions. I'm sure Europe's scientific research will profit more from its close links to Arab research institutions than from a partnership with U.S. or Israeli research, for example.
I’m writing in regards to the suggested AUT boycott of Israeli cultural and research institutions, purportedly in response to Israeli raids on Palestinian universities. The AUT also mentions that staff, students and trade unionists have been killed and injured in the conflict.
Perhaps the AUT is unaware of the goings on in Palestinian universities? Let’s take an-Najah, Nablus. There have been numerous Hamas rallies, Hamas training days (complete with mock buses – Hamas need models to demonstrate how they murder Israeli civilians), shrines for suicide bombers and calls for Jihad against the United States from members of the an-Najah staff.
Six suicide bombers attended an-Najah university, as did seven mid- and senior-level Hamas officials. The actions of Hamas have led to hundreds of deaths, thousands of injured. They routinely use rat poison in their bombs, to make the shrapnel more deadly. One member shot a seven-month old baby in the head with a sniper rifle. Another broke in to an Israeli house and killed two sleeping children and their mother. Hamas leaders regularly call for genocide against the “Zionists”, and have place themselves firmly in an-Najah university.
If, as your website claims, you would like to see the end of armed conflict, surely an-Najah would be a good place to start?
Why, then, would you gloss over the crimes carried out by the students of an-Najah and the other Palestinian universities in the name of “peace”, while using the deaths involved in counter-terrorist operations as an excuse to ignore the research conducted in Israeli institutions? Many of the students of Palestinian universities are directly involved in terrorism, though the same cannot be said of Israeli students. Do you recall the bombing of Hebrew University? Seven people were killed. The wave of five suicide bombings in forty-eight hours killed twelve people – one of the murderers was an engineering student from Hebron university and he killed four people and injured twenty.
Israel set up the universities in an effort to combat the terrorist atrocities and the situation that creates terrorism. It is clear that this has not worked.
Despite all these acts of murder, the universities remain open, albeit damaged. Never mind that though, eh? Education is the answer.
What do you know about education of Palestinians? Did you know that they are given maps showing “Palestine” where Israel exists today? Or that children are taught courses justifying anti-Semitism, or the illegitimacy of any Jewish claims to the land whatsoever? The glorification of martyrdom (read: murder)? All of these things are standard in the Palestinian education system.
I don’t dispute your right to an opinion, but I do dispute your erroneous justification for it. I’d like to have a response backing up your claims.
-----------------------------------
If anyone has anything to add, I'd appreciate it.
By the way, I don't agree with all that I wrote, ie:
Israel set up the universities in an effort to combat the terrorist atrocities and the situation that creates terrorism.
#18 Capitalist Pig
"There is very little concern about the Palestinians other than their ability to be used as a weapon to inflict harm against Israel.".
BINGO!
In the grand scheme of things, "Palestinians" are relatively insignificant except that they function as the surrogate berserkers of the nation states who pine for the utter destruction of Israel. This is not to diminish the danger the palisites pose to Israel & her citizens; they are vermin & should be dealt with summarily. But the real enemies of Israel are Islam, the Arab potentates, & Europe. The very existence of Israel is an intolerable affront to them.
You might point out that no signatory of the Geneva conventions is bound by them when fighting against a non-signatory... Only "minimum standards" apply in that case.
By the way, I don't agree with all that I wrote, ie:
Israel set up the universities in an effort to combat the terrorist atrocities and the situation that creates terrorism.
Well, actually, that's right: non-religious education, and in particular non-religious education of women, can defeat the situation (religious brainwashing) that creates terrorism.
I recall an israeli guy wrote back to a danish business man who wanted to break of abusiness deal to object israels treatment of the palis, in which the israeli guy made references to what happened in "civilized Europe" and put the saftery of his daufghter in the hands of the danish guy. Wish I could find it.
Speaking of Palestinian universities, the IDF shot and killed a Hamas terrorist with a 70kg bomb today. He was a student at Murder Jew University, aka, an-Najah.
Whooaaa on the Euro-Brit comment.
Firstly, the UK government, due to our electoral system, doesn't represent the will of the British people.
Secondly, no-one knows who the British people are any more; we take in more immigrants, according to the UN, than anyone else in the developed world. Diversity is fine - but this is adversity on a grand scale. A large number would be highly offended if you suggested they learn English (in England).
Thirdly, if you're male, and especially if you're not noticeably from an ethnic minority, you're assumed to be a racist misogynist with nothing contructive to say.
Fourthly, anything the UK government does in Europe automatically opposed by the dominant French/German EU axis.
I hate the phrase 'anti-semitism', it's too easily hijacked by hypocrits and neo-nazis; e.g. 'the palestinians are semitic people too' - where to start on that insidious little invention? The term for what's increasingly happening over here is hatred, pure and simple; Islamic chauvinist hatred. I doubt this will shock you, but it increases daily, with every wahhabi psychopath paid to live here.
It is racist horseshit, like that from adam, that makes me ashamed to be Bristish. Did you copy all that directly from the BNP handouts, or was that your own train of thought?
Well, lets look at your 'points':
Firstly, we elected the government. They are representative of our will. If you didn't vote for them, fine, say that. Don't pretend the majority didn't vote for Labour at the last general election.
Secondly, I know exactly who is British. It is the people who live and work in the British Isles and our few remaining overseas dependancies. As for your diatribe about Immigrants, then you are wrong. The US accepts far more immigrants a year than we do. Being the obvious racist you are, I assume you actually meant Asylum seekers. In which case you are right, but lets frame it properly. Both the USA and Germany get roughly the same numbers of applications every year, and both countries accept more applications than we do.
As for "A large number would be highly offended if you suggested they learn English". Yeah right. Why do you think they choose to come to the UK? Hint, it's because they already know English. I don't think you've actually talked to any aslyum seekers, have you?
Thirdly, It is just you who's opinion nobody values. I'm white and male, yet people value my opinion. If people think you are a racist and a mysogynist, have you ever considered that maybe you are?
*ON THE AUT AND THE BRITISH ACADEMIC BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL
As an academic finishing up a three-year contract in England (I go back to the U.S. in six weeks and I can't wait!!!) I wanted to offer a bit more information on the AUT's stance on Israel.
YES, the AUT decided not to endorse an academic boycott of Israel. And, as has been noted, this is not because they think it's wrong but because they think it's not "strategic."
HOWEVER, THREE OTHER ANTI-ISRAEL MOTIONS WERE CARRIED.
These motions call for for the AUT to affiliate with the Trade Union Friends of Palestine, establish links between British and Palestinian Universities and--my favorite--denounce the "witch-hunting" of colleagues who
participate in the academic boycott of Israel.
Mona Baker is at this point a mere sideshow. The problem has become far more mainstream. British academia is a moral cesspool in this regard, a true reflection of the BBC, the Guardian, and the usual suspects.
And the other major higher education teacher's union, NAFTHE, may be even worse than the AUT.
I cannot wait to leave this place.
(And, politics and morality aside, I'd also mention my absolute shock at how academically and organizationally inferior British universities are to American ones, at least as it appears to me after my three-year glimpse of one quite respectable large British university. I really thought American higher education had problems, but it's paradise compared to the creaking inefficiency of, well, at least the place I work. Sorry if I'm offending any hard-working British academics; my heart goes out to you.)
If there were peace throughout the Holy Land do you think these self-involved Euro academics would be exerting themselves to build an alliance with their colleagues in Palestine? Yeah, right. There is very little concern about the Palestinians other than their ability to be used as a weapon to inflict harm against Israel.
This is true, and it's rather instructive to contrast this with the IDF's concern for avoiding killing innocent Palestinians. What would those morally bankrupt acedemics do in the same situation?
These kinds of bigoted boycotts against friends of the US are not in step with American policy. They should be opposed by our doing the very opposite. American cultural and research institutions should establish closer relations with Israeli cultural and research institutions.
Do the Euros want to draw closer to the jihadists, and sever their connections to bona fide cultural and research institutions of the middle east? The Euros are proving themselves to be less and less relevant to any progress toward peace. We need to do the opposite.
We also need to stop thinking that the Euros can play any constructive role in moving toward middle east peace.
From that link in post 7 there were 3 resolutions passed at the FUEN conference in Bolzano two were for the Turkish Meshkets who are not being given Russian Federation passports and denied entry by Georgia and the final one was SUPRISE SUPRISE......
a request "YET AGAIN" that the UK govt includes the Cornish in the Framework for the protection of national minorities. What do you think of that cdavies? When do you start boycotting? When does the UK STOP its OCCUPATION AND CONTROL of everything in Cornwall? IN FACT when do they allow us to exist?
Adam post 52 was right on the money. Unfortunately the BNP is the only ones addressing these issues. I am no lover of the BNP (as I had to expalin to some allahbots) they hate celtic nashies like me. BUT Cdavies it will happen to you one day like it did to Toyah Wilcox and her friends in that quaint english village. Now I guess she is a BNP nazi too?
Good, let them develop an affiliation with Arab institutes of learning. The last time I checked, the only Palestinian Nobel laureate was a murdering terrorist. Perhaps, Britian wants to regress back to the 8th century and live like the Muslims?
Let them eschew all of the contributions that Jews have made to mankind in Physics, Medicine, Philosophy, Music, Art, and the Sciences. Guess I ain't going to Britian this summer...
OT
Funny where you find stuff, in an LA weekly artile about Iraqs marsh arabs, more proof that Russia and France where making money from Saddam's blood oil.
That’s the water — “and then there’s oil,” as Azzam wryly remarked. Unfortunately for the marshes, they straddle a massive reserve; Saddam had already developed, in drained marshland (with the help of Russia and France), the second and third largest oil fields in the world. But Azzam has met with oil experts, “and they tell me the drilling can be done with a slight footprint, gradually, from platforms,” he offered hopefully. “They say it’s the most modern method.”
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Well Mike, I'm abnormal. -- When FZ appeared on the Mike Douglas show (solo, playing guitar with recorded backup), Mike said "Your latest album is called Zoot Allures. How do you come up with such names for your records?" (or something equally banal!) Frank's succinct reply is printed above.
frank says:
