Boycott backlash

A week and a half ago, Israeli professor Neve Gordon wrote an op-ed in the LA Times calling for a boycott of Israel.

So if the two-state solution is the way to stop the apartheid state, then how does one achieve this goal?

I am convinced that outside pressure is the only answer. Over the last three decades, Jewish settlers in the occupied territories have dramatically increased their numbers. The myth of the united Jerusalem has led to the creation of an apartheid city where Palestinians aren’t citizens and lack basic services. The Israeli peace camp has gradually dwindled so that today it is almost nonexistent, and Israeli politics are moving more and more to the extreme right.

It is therefore clear to me that the only way to counter the apartheid trend in Israel is through massive international pressure. The words and condemnations from the Obama administration and the European Union have yielded no results, not even a settlement freeze, let alone a decision to withdraw from the occupied territories.

I consequently have decided to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement that was launched by Palestinian activists in July 2005 and has since garnered widespread support around the globe. The objective is to ensure that Israel respects its obligations under international law and that Palestinians are granted the right to self-determination.

The president of Ben Gurion University, where Gordon teaches, Rivka Carni then circulated a letter criticizing Gordon for his stance. This sent terror supporter Helena Cobban into a tizzy. She accused Carmi of making a “veiled threat” against Gordon – in fact Carmi said explicitly that she would not fire Gordon. At the end of her post Cobban takes another cheap shot at Carmi:

Meanwhile, BGU’s presidency was taken over by Rivka Carmi, a physician. Her commitment to academic freedom seems extremely thin– especially compared with Braverman’s.

Wait a second. On one hand Gordon called on others to join a boycott – including an academic boycott – of Israel. This would have the effect of curtailing academic inquiry. And yet Cobban claims that Carmi is the one with no commitment to academic freedom? It’s a point that Carmi herself made in an op-ed published the other day in the LA Times.

At the same time, by calling on other entities, including academic institutions, to boycott Israel — and effectively, to boycott his own university — Gordon has forfeited his ability to work effectively within the academic setting, with his colleagues in Israel and around the world. After his very public, personal soul-searching in his Op-Ed article, leading to his extreme description of Israel as an “apartheid” state, how can he, in good faith, create the collaborative atmosphere necessary for true academic research and teaching?

The primary effect of Gordon’s Israel-bashing will be to detract from the work of his university. I am a doctor; my professional career has focused on preventing hereditary genetic diseases in the Bedouin Arab community. Today, the laboratory that I founded at Ben-Gurion University is working with Bedouin, Palestinian and Jordanian doctors and researchers to improve the health of Arab children across the region. This is but one of the many Israeli-Arab collaborations — in fields that range from developing advanced water technologies to solar energy, environmental conservation and emergency medicine — that will be compromised here if “collective punishment” for Gordon’s actions or for my opposition to his views is imposed on BGU.

Cobban’s hatred of Israel is so extreme, it blinds her to this obvious point: the boycott of Israel inhibits academic freedom.

More at Media Backspin. Also check out Antisemitism rebranded.

Crosssposted on Soccer Dad.