BMJ  2007;335:124 (21 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.39266.495567.AD

Feature

Head to head

Should we consider a boycott of Israeli academic institutions? Yes

Faculty of Arts and Architecture, University of Brighton, Brighton BN2 1RA

Tony Blair's appointment as Middle East peace envoy is intended to invigorate the peace process. Tom Hickey thinks boycotting universities might encourage the Israeli government to reach a settlement, but Michael Baum believes collaboration is a more effective way forward

The proposal adopted by the University and Colleges Union congress to discuss whether it should boycott Israeli academic institutions has caused a furore. The House of Lords set aside time for a full debate, and the British government dispatched a minister to reassure its Israeli counterparts. Whole page advertisements rapidly appeared in national newspapers condemning the decision. The great and the good were mobilised. Irrational, one sided, anti-semitic, and counterproductive were some of the accusations levelled against us for deciding to debate.

As the motion's mover, I have been subjected to sustained vilification. Eminent American professors, and supporters of Israel, have threatened to bankrupt and to destroy the careers of any union members who support a boycott. The conflation of a boycott proposal and a proposal to debate the appropriateness of a boycott clearly serves the purpose of those who wish to deflect attention from the substantive issue: the plight of people suffering under occupation.

So why has the union brought this predictable condemnation down on its head? Delegates decided that we could not ignore what is being done in the Occupied Territories, or the systematic denial of educational opportunities and academic freedom to Palestinian students and scholars. Some BMA members have also expressed concern about the complicity of the Israeli Medical Association in the occupation.¹

Occupation

The territories, occupied since 1967, have been colonised by Israeli settlements built on illegally confiscated land. The area has been disaggregated and rendered ungovernable by road networks for Israeli use only. Houses are demolished as collective punishments, and there is regular shooting and shelling. Farmers are separated from their land, and the supply of water sharply discriminates between the needs of Palestinians and those of Israeli settlers.

In these circumstances, there can be no normal educational provision. Tutors and students face delays, harassment, and humiliation at checkpoints, visa and travel restrictions, and enormous problems of infrastructural decay and underfunding. Work for most inhabitants is all but non-existent, and 46% of the population is suffering from or vulnerable to food insecurity.²

Academic institutions

In all of this, there is strong evidence of the complicity of Israeli academic institutions.³ No Israeli college or university has publicly condemned what is being done in the Occupied Territories in the name of every Israeli citizen. Some Israeli educational institutions have established campuses for settlers on illegally confiscated land; others conduct archaeological digs on land from which Palestinian farmers have been expelled.

Some Israeli colleagues have spoken out against the occupation. But these are the heroic few. They risk their professional careers and being ostracised.

Our boycott debate is accused of infringing academic freedom. It does so, and that is to be regretted. The pursuit of scientific and artistic advance without hindrance is indeed crucial for human improvement. But academic freedom is not an absolute value taking precedence over all else. The values of human life and dignity are the ultimate objectives, and sometimes these may not be entirely compatible with the principle of untrammelled academic freedom.

We are also accused, hypocritically, of interfering with free speech. But it is our opponents who are trying to prevent such a debate from taking place.

Unfair to Israel?

We are accused of unfairly singling out Israel—the Jewish state—and hence of being anti-semites. We are asked why we do not propose a boycott of other states whose policies are barbaric and inhuman, such as China, Saudi Arabia, Iran, or Zimbabwe.

But whether a boycott is appropriate in such places depends on the merits of each individual case. In the case of Israel, we are speaking about a society whose dominant self image is one of a bastion of civilisation in a sea of medieval reaction. And we are speaking of a culture, both in Israel and in the long history of the Jewish diaspora, in which education and scholarship are held in high regard. That is why an academic boycott might have a desirable political effect in Israel, an effect that might not be expected elsewhere.

Anti-semitism?

The accusation of anti-semitism is both absurd and offensive. Accusing those who criticise Israel of being anti-semites presumes an identity of interests between Israel and all Jewish people, wherever they may be. This is illogical and contrary to the facts. Most people who spoke in favour of the motion at the our congress are Jewish, as are the members of the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine. The response of Israel's defenders is to say that such people are not proper Jews—that they are "self-hating Jews." Jewishness thus becomes transformed from a cultural or religious identity into an ideological position.

Boycott

The result of the debate in our union may not be a decision to boycott. If that is the outcome, however, it will not be because most members are unconcerned about the plight of the Palestinians. It would be because an alternative, and equally effective, proposal for their aid and support, and for opposition to the policies of the Israeli state, had emerged.

Moreover, the boycott would be of Israeli academic institutions only. We would not sever links with our Israeli colleagues, which would be counterproductive. Individual and group collaboration and publication on joint projects could continue, as long as such projects were not formally sponsored by Israeli institutions.

The fundamental issue is not a boycott as an end in itself. It is how to raise the current outrages to national and international prominence. Whether an institutional boycott is the most appropriate tactic will remain an open question. What is not, and cannot be, open is whether it is appropriate to debate and discuss the pros and cons of the tactic.

If Israeli academic institutions are complicit in the inhuman and dehumanising treatment of the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, doing nothing (or nothing effective), would also make us complicit, if only by default. We cannot turn away and say, "Business as usual."

---

Competing interests: None declared.

Where do you stand on the issue? Vote in our poll at www.surveymk.com//s.aspx?sm=zrDgLYed7wn_2fe_2bcR2lC4Pw_3d_3d

References

1. Summerfield D, Green C, Karmi G, Halpin D, Cutting P, et al . Israeli boycotts: gesture politics or a moral imperative? Guardian 2007 Apr 21. www.guardian.co.uk/israel/comment/0,,2062435,00.html
2. World Food Programme. Projected 2007 needs for WFP projects and operations. Occupied Palestinian Territory. www.wfp.org/appeals/projected_needs/documents/2007/ODC.pdf
3. British Committee for the Universities of Palestine. Why boycott Israeli universities? London: BRICUP, 2007.

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Articles

Academic boycott of Israel: follow-up to the BMJ's debate

Fiona Godlee
BMJ 2007 335: 234-235. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Should we consider a boycott of Israeli academic institutions? No

Michael Baum
BMJ 2007 335: 125. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Delamothe, T., Godlee, F. (2009). What to do about orchestrated email campaigns. BMJ 338: b500-b500 [Full text]  
• Summerfield, D. A (2007). Royal Society of Medicine under attack by pro-Israel doctors. BMJ 335: 842-842 [Full text]  

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Is boycott a valid academic response?

Anthony Papagiannis
bmj.com, 20 Jul 2007 [Full text]

BMA views

Vivienne H Nathanson, et al.
bmj.com, 20 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Don't boycott Israel

Hugh Mann
bmj.com, 20 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Are BMJ members to also boycott therapies from Israeli Universities

Leonard Bernstein
bmj.com, 20 Jul 2007 [Full text]

is this the role of the bmj?

charles simenoff
bmj.com, 21 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Israel Boycott

nigel de kare-silver, et al.
bmj.com, 21 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Priorities

Joel G Naftalin
bmj.com, 21 Jul 2007 [Full text]

No to the Boycott

Julian Hirsh
bmj.com, 21 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Once again, why only Israel

Mark Berelowitz
bmj.com, 21 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Unrestricted jurisdictions for British academics?

Adolfo E Talpalar
bmj.com, 22 Jul 2007 [Full text]

A Boycott is Essential

Tony Greenstein
bmj.com, 24 Jul 2007 [Full text]

BMJ readers make their voices heard

Joy S Wolfe
bmj.com, 24 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Make love not boycott

Boris Gorbis
bmj.com, 22 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Little Boys Boycott - Adults Talk

Simon A P Jenkins
bmj.com, 24 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Is your justice blindsided?

Ehud Emanuel
bmj.com, 22 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Collective Punishment

John R. Cohn
bmj.com, 22 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Can I join BMJ armed wing?

Orian S Shirihai, et al.
bmj.com, 22 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Pro Israel Lobby out to silence a genuine debate

Nadeem Zafar Jilani
bmj.com, 24 Jul 2007 [Full text]

My comment when I voted (only slightly edited)

Brian Robinson
bmj.com, 22 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Why this now?

Irvin A Lampert
bmj.com, 22 Jul 2007 [Full text]

How about we boycott your journal instead?

David B. Rosenberg
bmj.com, 23 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Boycott, an idea that is replete with madness

Kenneth Polin
bmj.com, 23 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Physician Heal Thyself

Hamid Haeri
bmj.com, 23 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Bizarre argument

Peter C. Zhen
bmj.com, 23 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Why is this nonsense in the BMJ?

Robert A. Lange, MD, MBA
bmj.com, 23 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Democracy in Israel and the responsibility of the individual citizen

Nikolai A Manassiev
bmj.com, 23 Jul 2007 [Full text]

The BMJ at it again

Morris S Odell
bmj.com, 23 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Re: Should we consider a boycott of Israeli academic institutions?

Sean Wall
bmj.com, 24 Jul 2007 [Full text]

No boycot.

Leonard S. Fagan, M.D., F.A.C.O.G.
bmj.com, 24 Jul 2007 [Full text]

self fullfilling argument

al stein
bmj.com, 24 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Proposed boycott

Michael Bar-On
bmj.com, 23 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Why always Israel?

Dr Jonathan F Bernstein
bmj.com, 23 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Unfair to Israel

Patrick M Young
bmj.com, 24 Jul 2007 [Full text]

An effective academic boycott of Palestinians already exists.

Tahseen Chaudhry
bmj.com, 24 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Fundamentalism is fundamentalism by any name

Elizabeth Marsh
bmj.com, 24 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Why only Israel

Mark Berelowitz
bmj.com, 24 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Proving Bias in your motion

M J Levine
bmj.com, 24 Jul 2007 [Full text]

What's good for the goose.......

A. Mark Clarfield
bmj.com, 24 Jul 2007 [Full text]

I thought the BMJ was a medical journal

Ian Rivlin
bmj.com, 24 Jul 2007 [Full text]

And Now For The Real Issue

Andrew M Fink
bmj.com, 24 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Brainwashing. Stalin - Hitler style.

val pepper
bmj.com, 24 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Today, an historical perspective

Eric S. Shinwell
bmj.com, 24 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Educate how?

David S Halpin
bmj.com, 24 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Unjust Boycott

Michael J. Szanto
bmj.com, 24 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Boycotts that are based in misconception

Michael Stone
bmj.com, 24 Jul 2007 [Full text]

South Africa parallel

Samer R Abdelnour
bmj.com, 24 Jul 2007 [Full text]

If it looks like Anti-semitism...

George A Werther
bmj.com, 24 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Bigotry pure

Ehud Schwammenthal
bmj.com, 24 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Re: The BMJ at it again

Brian Robinson
bmj.com, 24 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Continued BMJ bias

Jonathan Hasleton
bmj.com, 24 Jul 2007 [Full text]

bigger problem or just rhetoric

Patrick Hudson
bmj.com, 24 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Boycott Israeli Academic Institutions to highlight injustice and denial of human rights

Edward Morris
bmj.com, 24 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Selected for trial on a political issue

A. Michael Denman
bmj.com, 24 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Don't open your mouth if can't say anything nice

Albert J. Kirshen
bmj.com, 25 Jul 2007 [Full text]

worried for the future

linda herzberg
bmj.com, 25 Jul 2007 [Full text]

What is a rational response?

Ann Robinson, et al.
bmj.com, 25 Jul 2007 [Full text]

the BMJ: pathognomic marker of Britain's history?

Noel D. Sturtz
bmj.com, 25 Jul 2007 [Full text]

We should boycott israeli medical and academic institutions

Amin Elhihi
bmj.com, 25 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Absolutely Not

Naomi F Solomons
bmj.com, 25 Jul 2007 [Full text]

An absolute disgrace--does the BMJ support terrorism?

louise Troostwyk
bmj.com, 25 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Education not boycott

Dr Charles Daniels
bmj.com, 25 Jul 2007 [Full text]

The case for an academic (and wider) boycott of Israel

Ben Alofs, et al.
bmj.com, 25 Jul 2007 [Full text]

The Elders of Zion: en bloc vote against the boycott.

Jeremy M Jacobs
bmj.com, 25 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Silencing dissent

Paul J Malin
bmj.com, 25 Jul 2007 [Full text]

No to the boycott

Jacob Amir
bmj.com, 25 Jul 2007 [Full text]

What timing?

Fred Johnston
bmj.com, 25 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Re: Israel Boycott

Hany M. El-Hosseiny
bmj.com, 26 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Anit-Boycott hysteria in the way of truth

Ghada Karmi
bmj.com, 26 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Should we consider a boycott of Israeli academic institutions? NO

Renato Caviglia
bmj.com, 26 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Two wrongs do not make a right

Mohammad Dakheel
bmj.com, 27 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Re: Once again, why only Israel

Saleem Abdallah
bmj.com, 27 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Overdue

Richard J Lyus
bmj.com, 26 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Re: We should boycott israeli medical and academic institutions

Saleem Abdallah
bmj.com, 27 Jul 2007 [Full text]

We must know the facts

Christopher J Burns-Cox
bmj.com, 26 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Re: Bigotry pure. Arabs in Israel do not enjoy equal rights in a constitutional manner

Ben Alofs
bmj.com, 27 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Medical Academic Institutions absurd

Robert Winkler, MD
bmj.com, 27 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Get educated not indoctrinated

Sharon Klaff
bmj.com, 27 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Irrelevant

Gerry Lewis
bmj.com, 26 Jul 2007 [Full text]

The logical fallacies are mind-boggling

Ilanit Meckley
bmj.com, 27 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Yes, We must support academic boycott of this Imperialist State

Zarina Bhatia
bmj.com, 27 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Just because we're a crowd

Ricardo Guido Lavalle
bmj.com, 27 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Why does the BMJ even consider a poll on a boycott?

George Steiner
bmj.com, 27 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Say No to the Boycott

Rachel J Rose
bmj.com, 27 Jul 2007 [Full text]

I voted YES.....

Abe Bird
bmj.com, 30 Jul 2007 [Full text]

boycott of Israeli academic institutions

javaid khan
bmj.com, 27 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Tom Hickey is to be Congratulated

Wleed Haq
bmj.com, 31 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Bravo BMJ

Michael J Ingram
bmj.com, 27 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Should we consider a boycott of British academic institutions too?

Luiz Dratcu, et al.
bmj.com, 27 Jul 2007 [Full text]

No foot in the door, please

Mark B. Sobell, et al.
bmj.com, 27 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Arab Becomes Head of Israeli State Hospital-Boycott Him Too?

Adam Finkel
bmj.com, 27 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Truth of the matter

Sharon Klaff, et al.
bmj.com, 27 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Report of the UK Parliamentary Inquiry into Antisemitism and the anti-Israel boycott debate

Peter Simmons
bmj.com, 27 Jul 2007 [Full text]

If you boycott Israel, I will never read BMJ again

Jane M. Liebschutz
bmj.com, 27 Jul 2007 [Full text]

thanks for trying for sanity

Gary E. Goodman
bmj.com, 27 Jul 2007 [Full text]

...and let's our patients die

tommaso de pas
bmj.com, 27 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Ignorance

Mark B Suss
bmj.com, 27 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Say no to the boycott and its supporters

MARTIN HARRIS
bmj.com, 27 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Were those who campaigned exclusively on apartheid "anti-Afrikander" racists?

derek a summerfield
bmj.com, 28 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Typical British Response

David Ende
bmj.com, 28 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Shame on you

Rachel Toby Woolf
bmj.com, 29 Jul 2007 [Full text]

True dangers of suggested boycott of Israel's academia

Michael H Martin-Smith
bmj.com, 30 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Re: Typical British Response

Joseph Berger
bmj.com, 29 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Faux pas

Ricardo Kohan M.D. F.A.S.N.
bmj.com, 29 Jul 2007 [Full text]

the journey of a student from Gaza

Riyad Deis
bmj.com, 29 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Why the BMJ ran this debate

Fiona Godlee
bmj.com, 30 Jul 2007 [Full text]

May I sugest some additional candidates

Frank Tudos
bmj.com, 29 Jul 2007 [Full text]

No To Boycott

Dr Khaled Dik
bmj.com, 30 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Re: Were those who campaigned exclusively on apartheid "anti-Afrikander" racists?

Paul J Malin
bmj.com, 30 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Boycott is a synonym for delegitimisation

Albie Cukier
bmj.com, 30 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Israeli science doesn't boycott others - why should UK science do so?

Ari Elson
bmj.com, 30 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Antisemitism is singling out Jews even if you don't hate them

Zev Lidert
bmj.com, 30 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Should we consider a boycott of Israeli academic institutions? Yes & No

Imad Uthman
bmj.com, 30 Jul 2007 [Full text]

How to Build Medical Joint (BMJ) partnerships in the Middle East

David R Katz
bmj.com, 1 Aug 2007 [Full text]

Only one side of the story

Claude Bachmeyer
bmj.com, 2 Aug 2007 [Full text]

Re: Why the BMJ ran this debate

Paul J Malin
bmj.com, 1 Aug 2007 [Full text]

No boycott in international science

Giorgio Coen
bmj.com, 2 Aug 2007 [Full text]

What can Clinician-Scientists Bring to this Debate ?

A. Joseph Layon, et al.
bmj.com, 6 Aug 2007 [Full text]

The BMJ should not be a political forum

Bob Dunkley
bmj.com, 7 Aug 2007 [Full text]

A typical case of positive prejudice

Jose M Thalenberg
bmj.com, 9 Aug 2007 [Full text]

Science and morality

Dr. Abid Hussain
bmj.com, 9 Aug 2007 [Full text]

Let science be science

Roland Rosmond, et al.
bmj.com, 9 Aug 2007 [Full text]

Civilized Israeli Occupation

nizar Shakhshir
bmj.com, 25 Aug 2007 [Full text]

Humanity or hypocrisy

Barry Bub
bmj.com, 26 Aug 2007 [Full text]

Response to Dr. DA Summerfield

Michael Baum
bmj.com, 5 Sep 2007 [Full text]

Scientific Journals should not engage themselves in Political Polling

Yoram Blachar
bmj.com, 5 Sep 2007 [Full text]

Go and see the truth for yourself. I did.

Asad Khan
bmj.com, 7 Oct 2007 [Full text]

Online poll

Find out more >>