BMJ  2007;335:125 (21 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.39266.509016.AD

Feature

Head to head

Should we consider a boycott of Israeli academic institutions? No

University College London, London WC1E 6AU

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

First of all I should declare a conflict of interest. I am a Jew and a Zionist. However, before anyone issues a Fatwa, let me explain. I consider myself a secular Jew who abhors the fanaticism among West Bank settlers. I support a two state solution. The Palestinians must have self determination; 60 years of statelessness after the British mandate is enough. This position is held by all my Israeli academic friends and colleagues. These academics are the very constituency the boycotters are targeting and are disproportionately represented in the peace camp. How can alienating this group enhance the peace process?

The Israeli universities and research institutes are no more agents of Israel than Oxford or Cambridge are of the United Kingdom. And they are not responsible for repression of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories—a policy which is universally unpopular. Furthermore, it is nonsense to suggest that you can target the institution without damaging the individual.

Multicultural society

Let me also dismiss the big lie that Israel is an apartheid state. Israel is a multicultural mosaic with Jews, Muslims, Christians, and other faiths. Druze, Bahá'í, and Armenian Christians chose to live there after persecution in Muslim countries. Only malign commentators can be blind to the Arabs who form 20% of Israeli citizens. They are free to vote and express their views (including the right to campaign against the state itself) and serve in the cabinet. Arab judges hold high office and Arab newspapers argue the Palestinian cause. Mosques are respected: if only such sensitivity for Jewish values was shown by the Palestinian gangs who destroyed all the synagogues when Israel withdrew its occupation forces from Gaza.

My first hand experience of Israel started as a young surgeon in 1963-4. I worked in northern Israel in a hospital serving Arab villages, kibbutzim, new immigrant townships, and ancient communities of Arabs and Jews in Nazareth, Afula, and Tiberias. A fifth of the doctors and nurses were Arabs, trained at the expense of the Israeli government. Arab and Jewish patients were treated with the same respect in adjacent beds. This is still true in all Israeli hospitals. It is also a lie to suggest that the Israel Medical Association is complicit in the ill treatment of prisoners.¹

I would go even further and state that Israel provides more academic freedom for Arab scholars than anywhere else in the Middle East. There are numerous examples of Palestinian and Israeli collaborations. For example, the Israel Cancer Association funds initiatives that benefit both Israeli and Palestinian patients and their families. These include the Breast Care Centre at the Holy Family Hospital in Nazareth, which holds joint sessions with Israeli Jewish and Arab women and Palestinians who share common experience as survivors of breast cancer. Hadassah Hospital and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem provide outreach programmes for the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Poor children from the territory get free, state of the art treatment, often supported by the Peres Foundation. Ben Gurion University of the Negev has launched the joint Israel-Jordan-Palestine project for improvement of motor skills in children with cerebral palsy and also funds the work of Ohad Birk (Israeli Jewish), Izzedelin Abuelaish (Gaza Palestinian), and Khalil Elbedour (Israeli Bedouin), who have unravelled rare genetic disorders among Negev Bedouin, where consanguineous marriages are not uncommon.

Universities must encourage a spirit of inquiry, where members join in dialogue, with freedom of expression, learning from each other's narratives. As Malcolm Grant, provost of University College London put it: the boycott "betrays a misunderstanding of the academic mission which is founded squarely on academic freedom of inquiry and freedom of speech" Lord Adonis went further in the House of Lords²:

Not only would a boycott be inconsistent with the spirit of openness and tolerance that should inform public life. It would also be counterproductive. Education plays a vital role in developing and aiding understanding between different people. It is therefore all the more important to keep open channels of communication with academic and educational institutions in the Middle East during these difficult times.

Finally, we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that this call for a boycott damages the reputation of British academia in the eyes of the wider world.³

Balance and cooperation

There are two narratives concerning the tragic history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Both have verity, yet they are recounted as if one had the monopoly of truth. To accept one side only and delegitimise Israel shows either ignorance or malice. For a balanced account interweaving the competing narratives I commend City of Oranges, which tries to look at the history of Jaffa, a microcosm of the wider conflict, from both sides.⁴

Instead of boycott, might I suggest a more constructive approach, emulating my late brother, David? David died eight years ago while president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. His last act was to establish a sick children's clinic in Gaza. His family continue this legacy through the David Baum International Foundation at the college. Like David, I believe passionately that we can all do our bit for peace by building bridges between British, Israeli, and Palestinian academics and physicians. Through this collaboration and dialogue the health and welfare of all will improve, leading to increasing mutual respect and trust; sowing seeds for a peaceful solution ahead of any "road map."

However, if you still support the boycott, remember to stop using laptops with Pentium processors, and do not transfer files using USB hub drives, both of which are the fruits of Israeli academic inventions.

---

Competing interests: As stated at the start of this article.

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. Blachar Y. Medical ethics, the Israel Medical Association, and the state of the World Medical Association; IMA president's response to the open letter in the BMA. BMJ 2003;327:1107.[Free Full Text]
2. Lord Adonis. House of Lords Official Report (Hansard) 2007;Jun 18:col 10.
3. Scholars for Peace in the Middle East. .www.spme.net/cgi-bin/display_petitions.cgi?ID=9
4. LeBor A. City of oranges; Arabs and Jews in Jaffa. London: Bloomsbury, 2006

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? Yes

Tom Hickey
BMJ 2007 335: 124. [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

Balance and co-operation, not boycott

Hazel Thornton
bmj.com, 21 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Boycott based on ignorance and prejudice

Robert Brody
bmj.com, 22 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Please do not let the facts confuse us

Ronny Shtarkshall
bmj.com, 22 Jul 2007 [Full text]

How about a boycott of the BMJ?

John D. Lantos
bmj.com, 23 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Academia should unite

Michael G O'Toole
bmj.com, 24 Jul 2007 [Full text]

more political than moral

peter h winocour
bmj.com, 24 Jul 2007 [Full text]

On Polls and Politics

Haim Haviv, et al.
bmj.com, 24 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Academic Boycotts

Michael D Cohen
bmj.com, 25 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Response and challenge to Professor Baum: what counts as evidence?

derek a summerfield
bmj.com, 25 Jul 2007 [Full text]

You must be kidding

Steven G. Morgen
bmj.com, 25 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Do you really want to boycott this

Gillian Kay
bmj.com, 25 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Gins, tonics and bitter lemons

Mark Struthers
bmj.com, 26 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Boycotting supporters are not suffering

Saleem, J Abdallah
bmj.com, 26 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Who should have more say in how oppression is challenged?

G Mir
bmj.com, 26 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Re: A stain on the reputation of the BMJ

Jeremy Segal
bmj.com, 26 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Who is listening?

Martin Wolfson
bmj.com, 26 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Oppose Israeli Academic Boycott

Gideon Kreiner, et al.
bmj.com, 26 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Antisemitism in disguise

Janet N. Rosenbaum
bmj.com, 26 Jul 2007 [Full text]

whose responsibility

winston m forman
bmj.com, 26 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Why pick on Israel?

Irving Cobden
bmj.com, 26 Jul 2007 [Full text]

BMA sponsored study visit to Palestine

Colin J Green
bmj.com, 27 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Baum misses the point

Robert J Shearer
bmj.com, 1 Aug 2007 [Full text]

Fighting for peace: E-polls, 'scientific debate'?, Hippocrates and conflict

Michael Cohen
bmj.com, 30 Jul 2007 [Full text]

What's better than a boycott?

Steven Ford
bmj.com, 31 Jul 2007 [Full text]

Re: What's better than a boycott?

Michael D Cohen
bmj.com, 1 Aug 2007 [Full text]

Re: Re: What's better than a boycott?

Steven Ford
bmj.com, 1 Aug 2007 [Full text]

How many Pentiums are needed to atone for Israel's carpet bombing of Lebanon

andrew Rouse
bmj.com, 4 Aug 2007 [Full text]

Unexceptional suffering

David S Halpin
bmj.com, 4 Aug 2007 [Full text]

Whose big lie?

Anton van der Merwe
bmj.com, 7 Aug 2007 [Full text]

Professor Baum, as a Doctor: please treat the cause not the symptom

Mamdouh EL-Adl
bmj.com, 12 Oct 2007 [Full text]

Professor Baum has not responded to my call to justify his exoneration of the Israeli Med Assoc.

derek a summerfield
bmj.com, 29 Aug 2007 [Full text]

Prof Baum has still not provided independent evidence to justify his exoneration of the Israeli Med Assoc: does it exist?

derek a summerfield
bmj.com, 11 Sep 2007 [Full text]

Re: Prof Baum has still not provided independent evidence to justify his exoneration of the Israeli Med Assoc: does it exist?

Jay Ilangaratne
bmj.com, 12 Sep 2007 [Full text]

Re: Prof Baum has still not provided independent evidence to justify his exoneration of the Israeli Med Assoc: does it exist?

Brian Robinson
bmj.com, 14 Sep 2007 [Full text]

The threatened academic boycott of Israel and the accusation that the Israel Medical association (IMA) is complicit in the torture of prisoners.

Michael Baum
bmj.com, 4 Oct 2007 [Full text]

Professor Baum still not answering and handing over to IMA

Christopher J Burns-Cox, et al.
bmj.com, 12 Oct 2007 [Full text]

Royal Society of Medicine under attack by pro-Israel doctors

derek a summerfield
bmj.com, 18 Oct 2007 [Full text]

Is freedom of opinion under attack?

Patrick Hudson
bmj.com, 21 Oct 2007 [Full text]

Re: Royal Society of Medicine under attack by pro-Israel doctors

Nicholas J Naftalin
bmj.com, 30 Oct 2007 [Full text]

Re: Is freedom of opinion under attack?

Mamdouh EL-Adl
bmj.com, 28 Oct 2007 [Full text]

Re: Is Freedom of opinion under attack?

Mamdouh EL-Adl
bmj.com, 6 Nov 2007 [Full text]

Torture and the Israeli Medical Association: request for correction

derek a summerfield
bmj.com, 21 Jan 2009 [Full text]

Online poll

Find out more >>