British academic union: boycott Jews; ignore terrorists
Melanie Phillips runs down a shocking story from the conference of the “University and Colleges Union”, which represents university professors in Britain:
Today, the Universities and Colleges Union is discussing whether universities should single out Israeli and Jewish scholars for active discrimination.
Yes, you read that correctly. The UCU is debating a motion which not only raises the spectre yet again of an academic boycott of Israel but demands of Jewish and Israeli academics that they explain their politics as a pre-condition to normal academic contact.
The motion she describes passed the UCU’s board, despite a couple of legal opinions describing it as harassment. At first I read Phillips’ description of the resolution as requiring a sort of loyalty oath, but that’s not quite it:
7. colleagues be asked to consider the moral and political implications of educational links with Israeli institutions, and to discuss the occupation with individuals and institutions concerned, including Israeli colleagues with whom they are collaborating;
8. UCU widely disseminate the personal testimonies of UCU and PFUUPE delegations to Palestine and the UK, respectively;
9. the testimonies will be used to promote a wide discussion by colleagues of the appropriateness of continued educational links with Israeli academic institutions;
In other words, all professors are asked to constantly harangue their Israeli colleagues about Gaza and the Palestinians, and also to pressure their non-Israeli colleagues to harangue and ostracize their Israeli colleagues. And plans are underway to boycott Israeli academics and colleges altogether. Because the UCU has noted the “apparent complicity of most of the Israeli academy”, Israeli scholars’ careers are fair game.
More here. If this all sounds a little “Red Scare” to you, check out their eleventh demand:
11. Ariel College, an explicitly colonising institution in the West Bank, be investigated under the formal Greylisting Procedure.
Not blacklisting, mind you–we prefer the much nicer, more modern “greylisting”. It’s fascism with a smiley face.
_____________________
But that’s not all the UCU’s been up to. Also on their plate was a request from the government to tell MI5 about potential terrorists studying in British universities:
Lecturers have voted unanimously to oppose government plans urging them to fight against extremism on campuses.
They had been asked to monitor and report suspicious behaviour amongst Muslim students.
But at the University and Colleges Union annual conference in Bournemouth, delegates rejected the demands, saying they amounted to spying on students.
Why? You’re going to love this:
“Universities must remain safe spaces for lecturers and students to discuss and debate all sorts of ideas, including those that some people may consider challenging, offensive and even extreme.
“The last thing we need is people too frightened to discuss an issue because they fear some quasi-secret service will turn them in.”
Gotcha. Reporting terrorists to the police violates a “safe space” for discussion. But creating an environment where Israeli academics are harassed, ostracized and threatened, browbeaten into accepting the UCU’s position through a twenty-four hour Two Minutes Hate? Why, the UCU says that’s just your patriotic duty!
P.S. Check the end of that last linked article for another view of jihad on British campuses.
__________________
{Post by See-Dubya. Hat tip on the Melanie Phillips piece to the Jawa. More on the decline of Britain here.}
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If someone attempted to apply a PFUUPE designation to me,
they’d have to catch me first!
Sounds like more liberal anti-semitism, under a new guise. These guys are so good at cloaking their bigotry that it’s scary. Consider also how most blacks think the democrats actually have their best interests at heart.
too bad they took away everyone’s guns.
Is lgm the head of the UCU?
It’s providential that the UK is no longer a world power, in light of their growing anti Semitism and Islamization.
Big men, making such a big impact.
Why not make it easy? They can just force them to wear a star to identify them. Then they could take the ones who don’t comply to “camps” where they can be “re-educated” to have the correct opinions as approved but the board in assoication with the local mosque of course.
You forgot that they will need a special number as well. I am thinking a tattoo on their arm???
Indeed. It’s not like they have to “reinvent” the wheel. There is precedence.
Today, the Universities and Colleges Union is discussing whether universities should single out Israeli and Jewish scholars for active discrimination.
“Now sew on this Star of David and get in the bloody boxcar old boy.”
At this rate, don’t be surprised if they kick all of the Jews out of Britain like they did during the Middle Ages.
This is getting scary. These Commie dhimmi boobs can tell themselves all they want they are not anti-Semites but they are nonetheless singling out Jews (ANY Jew, not just Israelis) in way they do not single out anyone else. Not Chinese academics, Sudanese or Syrian academics, or Saudi academics.
I understand completely. I mean those damn Israelis are always planting bombs in subways and……oh wait
Britian is so under the thumb of muslims in their country this does not surprise me. They just keep cratering to them as we here in the US are doing now. We had better wake up here or little by little we will be in the same fix.
L
Will they be asked to consider the moral and political implications of educational links with Palestinian institutions? How about institutions that are Syrian, Saudi Arabian, Egyptian, Chinese, Iranian, etc?
…
I didn’t think so.
Appeasement always works right up to the moment when they slit your throat.
You mean we’re not? It appears to me that at the University level at least, we are darned close.
This is the correct response. Boycott Israel? Boycott us, too!
I am so disgusted. So when are these anti-Jewish neo-Nazis going to discuss their associations with universities and academics from Saudi Arabia, or Syria, or Iran? You know, the countries that are state sponsors of the people who detonate bombs that are strapped to women with DOWNS SYNDROME, killing the women and scores of other innocent bystanders??? This is SO upside down - and that’s putting it mildly and nicely.
And this is exactly how western civilization will fall - at the hands of appeasers from within western society.
It’s almost like a mass stockholm syndrome..
OBL must be laughing his a55 off - he doesn’t need to lift a finger, we’re doing his job for him.
He’s just a head.
It’s called identifying with the aggressor. To keep from being brutalized by the aggressor, they become like them hoping to be seen as one of them rather than one of the victims.
Frankly, my guess is that the Israeli academy will not be missing anything if the Brits cut them off. In fact the average IQ and level of scholarship in Israel will go up by 10 points. Now if we can just keep OUR leaders from throwing Israel under the bus ….
Yeah, but where is his head? (Clue: It’s pretty dark there)
Churchill said it was like feeding the crocodile in hopes he would eat you last.
Funny you should use the term “under the bus” since that’s what Obama’s so good at…
.
Things like this demand that we reconsider what the motives of the Brits might be, in surrendering and pandering so consistently and openly to the jihaddis.
One is naturally tempted to attribute it to foolishness or timidity.
However we have to consider that many Brits may actively sympathize with the jihaddis — not in the sense of pitying a “victim”, but in the active sense of sharing their values and goals.
This hatred of and antagonism toward Jews — by no means unprecedented in British cultural life — is fairly good evidence of an active sympathy with jihaddi goals, and fifth columnist activity.
The most shameful aspect of Western-style appeasement — particularly when expressed via anti-semitism — is that scores of millions died in the last century as a direct consequence of it; and yet, even while there are still people alive today who went through the Hell-on-Earth it led to, there are many of their descendants who have already forgotten the lesson.
Formal education is like a parabolic curve of diminishing returns: One begins the process in fear, ignorance and superstition, then up to a point becomes more worldly and more learned. But there comes a threshold beyond which continued immersion in the “academic” environment begins to take it all back, until one finds himself standing at the starting point again.
Check of proof: in this country, two reliable donkey voting blocs are the uneducated, and the over-educated (”We can’t win this election with African-Americans and eggheads!” - Paul Begala). This phenomenon appears to be no different in the UK than it is here.
It was only a few short years ago that Oxford University had to discipline Professor Andrew Wilkie of Oxford for rejecting an Israeli student’s application to work in Dr. Wilkie’s laboratory because Dr. Wilkie said that he would be “uncomfortable” around an Israeli citizen. Wilkie not only rejected the Israeli student’s application but wrote an incredibly rude and hurtful letter to the Israeli student. Oxford University disciplined Dr. Wilkie and professors were put on notice that no more stunts like Wilkie’s were to be tolerated. I guess British professors simply don’t get the message. I wonder what is next in the world of British academia. Maybe it will be making all professors wear the khaffiyeh.
There is nothing new here. This particular academic union has tried it before and got slapped down before, but they are still hellbent on giving their country a black eye. Most likely, it will end as it did before, with much embarrassment to a formerly great nation.
nbarry–yeah, they’ve been pushing the boycott since at least 2006. Melanie Phillips is keeping an eye on them.
Enlisting faculty to harass their Jewish co-workers, however, seems a new and unwelcome escalation.
Yeah..it really is..too bad they are probably gonna try to get ours soon, too…just sayin..
The actions are against the country Israel in response to what they see as its ongoing policy of human right violations. It is not against Jews.
I do not agree with what they’re doing. I personally volunteer my professional services to Israel from time to time. Still, there is no Nazi component to what this English organization is doing.
When I lived in Ireland, back in 2002, I was AMAZED at the amount of anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli feelings bubbling just below the surface. I remember thinking, wow, I see how the Holocaust could have happened here in Europe, and sadly, I could see something like that happening again - in Europe.
One anecdote: I was at a party of people close to my age (I was about 22 at the time), and speaking to an Irish guy about 9/11 (people were always asking me, as I was in Ireland in very early 2002). Here is the discussion we had:
Him: Well, you guys kind of deserved it.
Me: Why?
Him: Because of your foreign policy.
Me: Which policy in particular?
Him: Your support of Israel.
Me: I’m very proud of the fact that we stand with them, but -
Him: You know why your country supports Israel, right?
Me: (laughingly) Um, no, you tell me why my country supports Israel please.
Him: Because “the Jews” run everything.
Me: Someone hold me back because I’m talking to Hitler apparently and I’m going to hit him…
I told this story over and over to the Europeans I worked with and every time their response was the same: instead of shock, they ALL said, “But, isn’t that true?”
I was in Europe just recently, & was amazed at how little any of them know anything of or understand the U.S. They still live in their “born-to-your-class” mentality. They certainly do not much like each other, & still obsess over WW2. When a local complained that “America runs the world”, I suggested to him that without the U.S. intervening where & when needed, the Europeans would be back to killing each other in no time at all. The sheep always resent the shepard, except when a wolf is at the door. Since they haven’t got a clue about us, why do so many people here worry about their opinions?
Libertybelle, I had the same experience with a woman from Italy who was studying at my university for a year. She was charming, bright and great to hang out with at our campus area bars on Friday nights. Then one evening she heard something on the news about the MidEast and matter of factly she said that Israel was the new Nazi Germany. When I told her that her comments were offensive, she said she did not understand because everyone at her university in Europe believed this to be true and all the faculty members said so. In contrast, the most proIsrael students from abroad at my university were from Taiwan and Cambodia. I am sure that their experiences made them understand Israel better than coddled European kids who won’t graduate from university.
reland1 - They’ve been trying to take our guns for years - cold day when they do.
Strange that they don’t punish foreign academics in response to human rights violations in Egypt, Syria, Iran, Pakistan, China, Myanmar, Sudan, etc. Strange that they ignore human rights violations by Palestinian authorities. It’s rather one-sided, don’t you think, lgm? Why would they single out Israel and ignore far, far worse conditions in these other nations?
Shhhh, you can’t use logic with a troll
I’d be interested in the perception of students from India. It would seem to me that Indians would be more understanding of Israel’s precarious position, given their experiences with terrorism and their ongoing fued with their Pakistani neighbors.
May 29th, 2008 at 2:35 pm, lgm said:
Ah, but that’s the problem with this plan - there are NO built-in safeguards to prevent its devolution into a program of anti-semitic indoctrination and separtist bigotry.
I used to read the Brussels Journal regularly, but had to stop because the comments from the Euro readers were so breathtakingly anti Semitic (and matter of fact) that I couldn’t stomach it any longer.
From what I read and see, Europeans are very anti Semitic - they have not learned a thing from WWII and the Holocaust. And that infection has crossed the Atlantic to the leftards in this country.
I hate to sound apocalyptic, but I see a major clash building up, and the line drawn between opposing parties is becoming clearly drawn. I can’t help but think of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, and the war between good and evil as he drew it…
“…what can men do against such reckless hate?” - King Theoden
lgm:
You mean your services are legal in Isreal? I know they’re trying to outlaw it in Holland.
Is it any wonder that most fictional fantasy stories always has a very small group outnumbered and being undermined from within and without standing against the countless hordes of those who would send the world into eternal darkness?
Nudge nudge wink wink, of course they are not against jews. Its not like most israelis are jews or something like that.
Of course you do…
Frankly, it suprises me that so many other people are taken aback at the anti-Semitism that runs rampant throughout Europe, as if it were something unprecedented. The Holocaust did not appear out of a vacuum; it was the result of not just years of festering anti-Jewish feelings and rhetoric, but the end product of generations of such feelings; Alas, it was not just Germany that harbored those attitudes - we know that France and Great Britain have had long histories of anti-Semitism. Invoke whatever phrase you want: “What Goes Around, Comes Around” or “The More Things Change, the More They Remain the Same” - today’s European anti-Semitism is a sad continuation of an terrible tradition. And as for what has been called “politically-correct” anti-Semitism in this country…well, others have spoken on this before better than I probably could…
Indeed. Actually, LOTR is a work of mythology, not fantasy. Tolkien set out to create a mythology for Britain, as the Greeks and Romans had theirs.
Pedantry aside, it is a classical scenario, isn’t it? And what strikes me is that those idiots on the side of evil do not learn from history or their mistakes.
They must suffer from some kind of strange blindness…
It’s the blindness of thinking they can actually win despite history and prophecy proving otherwise. I guess they figure since they have the much greater numbers that evil by force will overcome hope and liberty of the few in the grand scheme of things.
Something pro abortionists would never understand.
The clowns running the Academia are self-absorbed elites.
They think they have the answers for all problems facing the society. In their mind, the Palestinian conflict is due to the existence of Israel. May be they shoulf be forced to explain, if Jews are also responsible for raging conflicts in India, Thailand, Indonesia, Sudan, train bombing in Madrid and London,……all of these conflicts having one common denominator: fanatic faction from a Peace loving religion: Islam.
Fanatics and terrorists looking for oppoetunities to strike the Western targets probably love these clown because the elites are smoothing the hurdles for these fanatics to carry out their missions.
Yes, they do love them. They are their “useful idiots”. We have a few who troll here too.
This has all the signs of the 1930s. I suppose the next Holocaust will be inflicted by terrorists in the name of Allah and all those in the West who are so open-minded their brains have fallen out.
Considring I now attend college as a middle-aged man, I find it amazing that many of the same concerns on this thread are now seeping into our colleges.
At the University of Washington about a week ago they had a display of all the villages removed when Israel became a nation in 1948…they didn’t mention that the Jews predated them by thousands of years…(of course this isn’t anti-semitism yet) as the pro-Israel side on campus had a counter display arguing on their behalf as to why their state should exist at all
Sad they have to do that.
RE: #52
WernerP….yup…you’ve got that one right.
RE:# 33
LGM
I applaud your resistance to what they are doing in Britain. However I must ask you: If you had to put up with relentless attacks on your land (the current land and the original hard-to-defend sliver of land given to them in 1948) and people for generations, at what point would you take the kid gloves off…?
So pathetic it’s beyond sad. While Palestinians have been mired in a quagmire of hate, Israelis focused into making their half of a desert bloom. My sympathy for the Palestinians has waned as they’d rather hone swords than till soil and minds. A perceived raw deal is what you make of it, like how the Taiwanese exiled out to a tiny island, turned a lemon into lemonade – and they launched it without the kind of billions heaped on Palestine agencies who just spent it on guns and hate. Pity their children.
James Greenidge
Queens NY
You can always count on the police to protect you. Especially our new Security Service.
Work Will Make You Free.
Six showers, no waiting.
But no, it can’t happen here. Our Fascism has a Happy Face. Yes lgm we realize this is but sympathy for the Palestinians’ plight. The Grand PooBah Mullah of Jerusalem met with Adolph Hitler several times. Adolph Hitler too was a man of the Left despite some really bad history rewrites.
Have you own Favorite Damn Jew lgm?
We had a scrape with this sort of racist nonsense in ‘07 when the AAUP (American Assoc. University Profs.) was going to debate the issue. The mistakenly printed a highly anti Semitic article that was “not properly vetted” and managed to get published (from people that publish professionally, no less).
Fortunately, they published a report condemning academic boycotts, issued in response to a call by the British Association of University Teachers (AUT) in spring 2005 for a boycott of two Israeli universities, Bar-Ilan and Haifa.
Those British academes keep on trying, don’t they?
Here is a letter in response to the proposed conference on the boycott of Isreali universities. The second paragraph is particularly informative:
LGM, did you actually read what was written? They are trying to single out JEWS.
If it were Muslims or Blacks, you’d be having seizures.
That’s great if you volunteer, but discriminating against Jews is not something the Nazis started. However, it was a percursor to their later policies.
LGM