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Last update - 10:11 09/08/2007
U.S. university heads slam U.K. boycott of Israeli academe
By Tamara Traubmann

Three hundred U.S. college and university heads signed a petition denouncing the call by Britain's University and College Union to consider a boycott of Israeli educational institutions in May. The UCU move has been criticized by faculty members throughout the world as well as British government institutions.

The New York Times Wednesday ran a full-page paid advertisement against the boycott, signed by some 300 college and university presidents. "Boycott Israeli Universities? Boycott Ours, Too!" the ad declared.

The signatories include presidents of leading U.S. universities, including Princeton, Northwestern and MIT. The ad was paid for by the American Jewish Committee.

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The signatories were endorsing a statement that Columbia University President Lee Bollinger issued shortly after the UCU resolution was passed: "As a citizen, I am profoundly disturbed by the recent vote by Britain's new University and College Union to advance a boycott against Israeli academic institutions. As a university professor and president, I find this idea utterly antithetical to the fundamental values of the academy, where we will not hold intellectual exchange hostage to the political disagreements of the moment. In seeking to quarantine Israeli
universities and scholars, this vote threatens every university committed to fostering scholarly and cultural exchanges that lead to enlightenment, empathy and a much-needed international marketplace of ideas.

"At Columbia I am proud to say that we embrace Israeli scholars and universities that the UCU is now all too eager to isolate  as we embrace scholars from many countries regardless of divergent views on their government's policies. Therefore, if the British UCU is intent on pursuing its deeply misguided policy, then it should add Columbia to
its boycott list, for we do not intend to draw distinctions between our mission and that of the universities you are seeking to punish.

"Boycott us, then, for we gladly stand together with our many colleagues in British, American and Israeli universities against such intellectually shoddy and politically biased attempts to hijack the central mission of higher education."
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  1.   THE boycott what a joke! like the Brit journalists union 02:10  |  PETERSM 09/08/07
  2.   AIPAC ! The central mission of universities indeed ! 02:13  |  lakshmi 09/08/07
  3.   Now for the predictable responses 02:15  |  Slibovitz 09/08/07
  4.   Oh ! Looks like Tosefta is in trouble again 02:22  |  Danite 09/08/07
  5.   Arent US Colleges anti-semitic 02:29  |  JC 09/08/07
  6.   Bad P.R. for Israel 02:35  |  Wendy 09/08/07
  7.   Don`t have to be Jewish 02:58  |  truth 09/08/07
  8.   Racist British union should suffer fate of other racists 03:22  |  David 09/08/07
  9.   Why did AJC pay for it if it widely supported? 03:34  |  Tim 09/08/07
  10.   Who didn`t sign 03:51  |  George Jochnowitz 09/08/07
  11.   LAKSHIMI.Apartheid the behaviour of Arabs against blacks in Sudan 04:03  |  PETERSM 09/08/07
  12.   TIM the AJC paid for the Advertisement NOT the content 04:12  |  PETER SM 09/08/07
  13.   JC who said" anti semitic"?Lots of Arab money goes to US colleges 04:17  |  PETER SM 09/08/07
  14.   RE: previous post 04:22  |  J 09/08/07
  15.   What`s going on over there? 05:09  |  APS 09/08/07
  16.   J Re" Boycotting debate".Did you mean Pres.Carter? 05:12  |  PETER SM 09/08/07
  17.   Hebron Jews routinely harass and bully Palestinians 05:25  |  David 09/08/07
  18.   #14 J of Canada 05:42  |  Lynn 09/08/07
  19.   George Jochnowitz Who DIdn`t Sign 05:58  |  Sign 09/08/07
  20.   Tim -- do you deny 06:37  |  Gina 09/08/07
  21.   To #9, US support 08:22  |  Mark 09/08/07
  22.   Mr. Laksmi, the Palestinias were "liberated" in Gaza 08:38  |  Johnson 09/08/07
  23.   George Jochnowitz #10 Did you look down to see what other thing 08:49  |  S 09/08/07
  24.   David UK 09:16  |  Hannah 09/08/07
  25.   A SENSE OF BROTHERHOOD 09:39  |  indrajaya 09/08/07
  26.   #25 indrajaya - what brotherhood do you prefer? 10:14  |  Shlomo 09/08/07
  27.   Harvard, Notre Dame and Yale Did Not Sign 10:40  |  Semsem 09/08/07
  28.   To all people justifying the boycott... 11:16  |  Avishai 09/08/07
  29.   # 28, AVISHAI 11:28  |  indrajaya 09/08/07
  30.   #29, Indrajaya 11:54  |  Avishai 09/08/07
  31.   JC my last information was 1967, but... 12:00  |  MaryRose 09/08/07
  32.   Academic boycotts are bad! 12:01  |  H50 09/08/07
  33.   Impact on British Academic reputation 12:03  |  Vernon Marriott 09/08/07
  34.   The cost to the world of a possible boycott 12:19  |  Hannah the star 09/08/07
  35.   A question about 9 Tim 12:20  |  MaryRose 09/08/07
  36.   TWISTED `LIBERALS` 12:31  |  SM 09/08/07
  37.   Israeli universities should proclaim opposition to occupation 12:39  |  Tim 09/08/07
  38.   Tim #9 12:45  |  Niall 09/08/07
  39.   Semsem #28 12:46  |  Redidivus 09/08/07
  40.   #36 SM 12:49  |  Indrajaya 09/08/07
  41.   #28 Avishai 12:50  |  Indrajaya 09/08/07
  42.   #18 Lynn 12:52  |  Indrajaya 09/08/07
  43.   # 40,41, FAKE INDRAJAYA ALERT 12:54  |  indrajaya 09/08/07
  44.   Hannah the bereft of mind , now impostering. 12:54  |  Akiva Patysh 09/08/07
  45.   H50 where has Israel called for accademic boycott of those places 12:59  |  PETERSM 09/08/07
  46.   boycott is not political 13:00  |  miriam 09/08/07
  47.   It`s a free speech issue 13:01  |  Natallie Durson 09/08/07
  48.   h50 - you missed the point 13:01  |  scallywag 09/08/07
  49.   indrajaya - a sense of brotherhood 13:02  |  scallywag 09/08/07
  50.   Lakshmi annoying us all, again,with aipac conspiracy shmear 13:03  |  Akiva Patysh 09/08/07
  51.   david - hebron jews 13:03  |  scallywag 09/08/07
  52.   tim - enlightened scholars 13:07  |  scallywag 09/08/07
  53.   lakshmi - "liberation of palestine" 13:09  |  scallywag 09/08/07
  54.   Skeletons in the British closet 13:09  |  Jonathan 09/08/07
  55.   More College Presidents Sign Petition Since Ad 13:09  |  Signers 09/08/07
  56.   SM of Ramat Gan 13:15  |  Akiva Patysh 09/08/07
  57.   Boycott Kadima`s convergence policies , Boycott Bush`s 2 States s 13:46  |  Joseph E . 09/08/07
  58.   USUAL OF AMERICANS 13:56  |  MARCO 09/08/07
  59.   # 40, 41, FAKE INDRAJAYA ALERT 14:04  |  indrajaya 09/08/07
  60.   H50 # 32 14:07  |  ChanahS 09/08/07
  61.   about Petitions and numbers. 14:07  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 09/08/07
  62.   Marco 47 14:13  |  ChanahS 09/08/07
  63.   THE BOYCOTT IS PART OF TONY BLAIR`S LEGACY 14:23  |  Ian 09/08/07
  64.   The boycott issue is not going to go away 14:23  |  Ben Alofs 09/08/07
  65.   Funny 14:42  |  Tamir Palestine 09/08/07
  66.   Hipocrites! 14:57  |  Nik Miller 09/08/07
  67.   Keep it up! 15:03  |  Ali bin Abu ibn Abd 09/08/07
  68.   Please UK end your boycott. Jews have had enough of begging you 15:05  |  Tamir Palestine 09/08/07
  69.   They would be even more credible if they would protest closures 15:07  |  Dr. Gideon Schwarz 09/08/07
  70.   Apartheid and its discontents 15:10  |  Tosefta 09/08/07
  71.   I advise the The United British Imbeciles 15:17  |  17 09/08/07
  72.   WHEN will the BBC leave Israel and move its HQ to Gaza? 15:18  |  PETER SM 09/08/07
  73.   #69 Dr. Gideon Schwarz 15:19  |  Birzeit University 09/08/07
  74.   Johns Hopkins 15:19  |  Joe 09/08/07
  75.   Genuine decency 15:22  |  Ben Azai 09/08/07
  76.   tamir palestine - new york times 15:24  |  scallywag 09/08/07
  77.   Tamir Palestine 15:28  |  Nik Miller 09/08/07
  78.   Some liberation 15:36  |  Mohan 09/08/07
  79.   BEN ALLOFFS it will not go away because Arabists like you keep 15:37  |  PETER SM 09/08/07
  80.   MARCO.POOR Arabs haven`t got enough money to counter AIPAC 15:42  |  PETER SM 09/08/07
  81.   Why "Tamir Gaza" calls himself now "Tamir Palestine"? Tamir West 15:49  |  Vittorio 09/08/07
  82.   ben alofs - some questions 15:54  |  scallywag 09/08/07