UCU Boycott of Israel (PR5)

At the inaugural congress of the University and College Union (UCU) in May this year a motion was passed committing the union to hold a period of debate and discussion on whether it should organise a boycott of Israeli academic institutions.

The motion commits the union to publicise the call by many Palestinian organisations, including the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions, for a boycott of academic and cultural institutions.

A similar motion was also passed at this year’s Unison conference, stating the belief that “ending the occupation demands concerted and sustained pressure upon Israel, including an economic, cultural, academic and sporting boycott.”

The decision by the UCU congress has provoked an immediate and vitriolic response from certain quarters. Alan Dershowitz, the prominent lawyer and Harvard law professor, told the Guardian that if the boycott call is endorsed by the UCU branches there would be retribution, and that he had enlisted 100 lawyers to break the boycott. “If the union goes ahead with this immoral petition, it will destroy British academia,” Mr Dershowitz said. “We will isolate them from the rest of the world.”

The Labour government has also made it clear that it is totally opposed to any boycott. Blair personally rang the Israeli prime minister to apologise, and has made it clear that the government will oppose any boycotts.

The arguments from those opposed to the boycott are varied but chief among them are the idea that Israel is a democratic state where academic freedom exists and that picking on Israel, when there are so many other repressive regimes, is a sign of “anti-Semitism”.
These arguments must be countered by the facts of what is happening in the West Bank and the Gaza strip. Along with this we need to build a campaign of solidarity with the Palestinian people immediately, especially at a time when those among the Palestinians who want to resist the Israeli state face a terrible military, economic and political onslaught.

Just looking at a few examples of Israel’s actions gives the lie to the idea that Israel is a democratic state and that it supports academic freedom.

∑ From September 2000 to mid-2006 Israel demolished well over 4,000 Palestinian homes.
∑ Since the capture of East Jerusalem in 1967 not a single new school, public building or medical clinic has been built there for the Palestinians. The estimated 260,000 population have two libraries compared with the 26 libraries for the 500,000 or so inhabitants of Israeli occupied West Jerusalem and the East Jerusalem Jewish settlements.
∑ In the Occupied Territories movement of Palestinians is impeded in the same way that the South African Apartheid state used the Pass Laws. There are 41 major settler roads which West Bank Palestinians are not allowed to use, or even to cross.
∑ The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories (B’Tselem) found that 85% of Palestinians interrogated by Israel’s security services were subjected to “methods constituting torture”. A decade ago Human Rights Watch put the number of Palestinians tortured or severely ill-treated in the tens of thousands.
∑ Since 2000 the Israeli military has prevented all students from Gaza from reaching their studies in the West Bank. Since the summer of 2006 the Israeli Defence Force has banned any new students from the Occupied Territories from studying at any Israeli university. The Israeli state has regularly closed down universities in the Occupied Territories. Birzeit University was closed for four years at one point.*

These policies and actions demonstrate the racist nature of the Israeli state and show clearly that the national and democratic rights of the Palestinians are trampled on. There is indeed no democracy or academic freedom for the Palestinians.

There is no doubt that any trade unions that decide to back a boycott will face enormous pressure both from the US and British states along with pro-Zionist forces. Every attempt will be made to ensure that there is not a proper open and democratic debate within the UCU.

It is important that the real situation of oppression that the Palestinian people face is brought to the fore and that the lies about the supposedly democratic nature of the Israeli state are exposed. The decision of those supporting a boycott to press for an open and democratic discussion of the boycott was an important step forward.

Now there is the opportunity not only to put forward the arguments about why a boycott is justified but also to inform hundreds of thousands of trade unionists about the daily repression faced by the Palestinians and to ask them for their active solidarity in defence of the rights of the Palestinian people. This is why the right wing Zionist lobby has launched a ferocious counter-offensive – it is afraid the truth will out.

David Esterson/Lambeth

College UCU in a personal capacity

These examples are taken from the pamphlet Why Boycott Israeli Universities? produced by BRICUP – the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine

Links

Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel:

www.pacbi.org

British Committee for the Universities of Palestine:

www.bricup.org.uk

BM BRICUP, London WC1 N3XX

Mon 08, October 2007 @ 18:39