[Peace-discuss] [sf-core] Academic boycott of Israel?

[C. G. Estabrook]

American universities were known to be implicated in the murderous oppression and repression of the Vietnamese in the 1960s. 

If American universities had been boycotted, would that have had a valuable effect on the support those universities gave to their government?

A general university boycott, of the sort that's being proposed now for Israeli universities (i.e., by foreigners)?

I'm not sure, but I doubt it.


On Feb 23, 2015, at 7:39 PM, Brussel, Morton K <brussel at illinois.edu> wrote:

> Israeli universities have been shown to be  implicated in the oppression and repression of Palestinians ( apropos of your 2nd sentence). I don’t believe there would be much/any  displacement of effort if the BDS took that tack. Different groups are in place to do different things. If the universities were boycotted, that could have a valuable effect on the support those universities give to their government. 
> 
> These are not quantitative arguments; rather, they are  untested opinions. 
> 
> —mkb
> 
>> On Feb 23, 2015, at 5:35 PM, 'C. G. Estabrook' carl at newsfromneptune.com [sf-core] <sf-core-noreply at yahoogroups.com> wrote:
>> 
>> I think he's opposing academic boycotts not because they're unfeasible or impossible, but because they're a displacement of effort. Universities are not the cause of the oppression of the Palestinians - the governments of Israel and the US are.  
>> 
>> For those of us in Boston in the 1960s and 1970s, MIT was indeed an academic center of resistance to the war - as much or more than Harvard (down the street) at least until 1969. "University complicity" with the war (as was said) was clearer at MIT than Harvard. But in neither case was a general university boycott proposed, even after the building occupation at Harvard. (Full disclosure: at the meeting in which the occupation of Harvard's University Hall was decided upon, I voted against it.)
>> 
>> Chomsky says that "BDS is perfectly legitimate and has had considerable success." But he thinks that an academic boycott of Israeli universities is off-target and ineffective - if not counter-productive, in building resistance to BDS in general.
>> 
>> --CGE
>> 
>> 
>> On Feb 23, 2015, at 3:57 PM, Brussel, Morton K <brussel at illinois.edu> wrote:
>> 
>>> I disagree with Chomsky: Boycotting American Universities is simply not feasible or possible, but boycotting Israeli universities is feasible and could be an effective tactic.
>>> 
>>> His statement that MIT was the main academic center for resistance against the Vietnam war seems strange. I hardly ever heard of the MIT resistance, but I heard a lot about UC Berkeley and other academic centers’ resistance and conflict. 
>>> 
>>> One does what one can… Why is Chomsky so determined to derail BDS in this regard?
>>> 
>>> —mkb
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> On Feb 23, 2015, at 2:26 PM, 'C. G. Estabrook' carl at newsfromneptune.com [sf-core] <sf-core-noreply at yahoogroups.com> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> Noam Chomsky on the proposed academic boycott of Israeli universities:
>>>> 
>>>> [The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS Movement) is a global campaign attempting to increase economic and political pressure on Israel to comply with the stated goals of the movement: the end of Israeli occupation and colonization of Palestinian land, full equality for Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel, and respect for the right of return of Palestinian refugees <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boycott,_Divestment_and_Sanctions>.]
>>>> 
>>>> BDS is perfectly legitimate and has had considerable success. But is an academic boycott the right tactic? During the Vietnam War, the political science department at MIT was directly involved in developing counterinsurgency techniques. MIT was also the main academic center for resistance against the War. Would an academic boycott of MIT have been appropriate in the 1960s? I certainly didn’t think so. An academic boycott on Israel is one of the least effective tactics that one could think of. It shifts attention from the oppression of the Palestinians, and in particular our crucial role in it as Americans, to the question of academic freedom...
>>>> 
>>>> If one thinks an academic boycott is a relevant tactic, why not boycott American universities that are involved in the U.S. role in Israel? Nobody proposes that, and we have to ask why. The answer is because it will neither have a positive effect on policy, nor will it help educate and engage people in the United States to become more involved in a constructive way. The issue with regard to Palestine is not just Israeli policy, it’s U.S. government policy. If there’s going to be a change in policy with regard to the Palestinians, the U.S. role is the one aspect of policy that we can hope to influence directly.
>>>> 
>>>> [Q: if not an academic boycott, what tactics do you think would be more effective?]
>>>> Tactics such as boycotting products from the Occupied Territories—and maybe going as far as the European Union directive to break all contacts with institutions involved in the Territories. Or a targeted boycott aimed at Ariel University, which is right in the middle of the West Bank. That’s a tactic that can help people understand what the issues are in the West Bank and be effective in policy terms.
>>>> 
>>>> ...we should design tactics that focus on Israeli and U.S. policies and don’t shift attention to something more comfortable and irrelevant. And there are plenty of choices that do not have that negative consequence ... [critics of Israel policy inside Israel], the ones I know, at least, don’t regard the academic boycott as a sensible tactic. Unlike other BDS tactics, like boycotting products of settlements, such as SodaStream.
>>>> 
>>>> ...you can’t do everything, so you have to prioritize the things that are effective. In the case of South Africa, the educational and organizational groundwork was carried out extensively and successfully before targeted academic boycotts were implemented, and that’s crucial. That hasn’t been done here yet. We have a lot to do.
>>>> 
>>>> --CGE
>> 
>>