A brilliant offensive against the British academic boycott of Israel

Alan Dershowitz writes in the Wall Street Journal:

"As soon as [the British academics boycott of Israel] was reported, I helped to draft a simple petition in which signatories agreed to regard themselves as honorary Israeli academics for purposes of any boycott and "decline to participate in any activity from which Israeli academics are excluded."

Working with Prof. Steven Weinberg, a Nobel laureate in physics, and Ed Beck, the president of Scholars For Peace in the Middle East, we circulated the petition. I expected to gather several hundred signatures.

To my surprise, we have secured nearly 6,000 signatures, including those of 20 Nobel Prize winners, 14 university presidents as well as several heads of academic and professional societies. Three university presidents -- Lee Bollinger of Columbia, Robert Birgeneau of Berkeley and John Sexton of New York University -- have issued public statements declaring that if Israeli universities are boycotted, their American universities should be boycotted as well. Every day, I receive emails from other academics asking to be included as honorary Israeli academics for purposes of any boycott. We expect to reach at least 10,000 names on our petition.

It is fair to say, therefore, that the British boycott appears to be backfiring. British academics are on notice that if they try to isolate Israeli academics, it is they -- the British academics -- who will end up being isolated from some of the world's most prominent academics and scientists."

You can view signatories or add yourself to the list here:

An International Call To Academics and Professionals To Stand In Solidarity With Our Israeli Academic and Professional Colleagues

Fellow bloggers -- please help spread the word!

Comments

[Edward S. Beck]

Thank you for your kind words about our efforts. Please help us raise 10,000 academic signatures.