Scholars for Peace in the Middle East Board of Directors, UK Leadership and BDS Task Force Condemn UCU Academic Boycott of Israel Campaign Vote and Rejection of EU Definition of Anti-Semitism
CHICO, Calif., June 22, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Board of Directors of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME), SPME Task Force on Boycotts Divestments and Sanctions and Leadership of SPME-UK, representing nearly 60,000 academics world-wide:
1) Strongly condemns the Union of College and Universities (UCU) vote on May 29, 2011 to promote the campaign to academically boycott Israel, despite advice from its own legal counsel, which has advised it may be an illegal action based on discriminatory practices as well as being well beyond the scope of the charter of the union. Also in the past, nearly 60,000 academics worldwide, including 50 Nobel Laureates, have registered their opposition to such campaigns and have stated publicly to members of the offending unions that if, indeed, one boycotts Israeli colleagues and academic institutions, they shall be boycotting us as well. SPME will work to revive this commitment from scholars worldwide.
2) Strongly condemns the UCU voting to disassociate itself from the European Union (EU) Working Definition of what constitutes anti-Semitism on May 30, 2011, which signals to all that the Union does not take anti-Semitism seriously. In rejecting this working definition the UCU is promoting a hostile, anti-Semitic study and work environment for Jewish and Israeli students and faculty in colleges and universities throughout the UK who support the right of Israel to exist within safe and secure borders and who challenge those who would demonize, delegitimize and hold Israel to a double standard despite the Union's protestations and rationalizations to the contrary.
3) Commends and will support those British academics who challenge, fight and obstruct these motions and who will defy these adopted decisions. SPME will work with those colleagues to challenge these actions within the union, within academic institutions and legally, if necessary.
4) Urge our academic colleagues from around the world to express their protests to these serious breaches of academic freedom and hostile threats to Jewish and Israeli colleagues in the UK and in Israel. As SPME has repeatedly reminded its academic colleagues in the United Kingdom and elsewhere since initial boycott campaigns by the UCU's predecessor unions, academic boycotts are antithetical to academic freedom and promoting peace.
As a Board, Task Force and SPME Chapter Leadership, we affirm resistance to these actions and will mount a campaign once again worldwide to get others to join such an effort.
SPME is committed to work with colleagues in academic institutions worldwide to reverse this grievous act and to condemn it wherever it may be practiced and adopted.
For Further Information Contact: Peter Haas, President SPME [email protected]; Edward Beck, SPME BDS Task Force Chair, [email protected]; Howard Kahn, SPME UK Co-Chair, [email protected] or Samuel Edelman, SPME Executive Director, [email protected]
SPME Board of Directors
Peter J. Haas
SPME President
Case Western Reserve University
Judith Jacobson
SPME Vice President, Internal Relations
Columbia University
Stanley Dubinsky
SPME Vice President, External Relations
University of South Carolina
Edward S. Beck
SPME President-Emeritus
Chair, SPME Task Force on Boycotts Divestments and Sanctions
Walden University
Ruth Contreras
SPME Secretary
Vienna Natural History Museum (ret.)
Shlomo Dubnov
SPME Treasurer
University of California-San Diego
Samuel Edelman
Executive Director, SPME
California State University- Chico
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Jonathan Adelman
University of Denver
Steven Albert
University of Pittsburgh
Leila Beckwith
University of California-Los Angeles
John R. Cohn
Member, SPME Task Force on Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions
Thomas Jefferson University
Richard Cravatts
Boston University
Donna Robinson Divine
Smith College
Awi Federgruen
Columbia University
Joel Fishman
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
India E. Garnett
United Church of Christ
Richard Landes
Boston University
Kenneth Marcus
Institute for Jewish and Community Research
David Menashri
Tel Aviv University
Don Morris
California Polytechnic Institute-Pomona
Tammi Rossman-Benjamin
University of California-Santa Cruz
Barry Rubin
GLORIA Center, Interdisciplinary Center
Herzliya, Israel
Philip Carl Salzman
McGill University
Ralf R. Schumann
Institute for Microbiology and Hygiene
Charite-Universitatsmedizin
Berlin, Germany
Ernest Sternberg
State University of New York- Buffalo
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Howard Kahn
SPME Co-Chair United Kingdom
Heriot-Watt University (ret.)
Ashley Grossman
SPME Co-Chair United Kingdom
University of Oxford
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SPME Task Force on Boycott Divestments and Sanctions
Edward S. Beck
Walden University
Chair, SPME BDS Task Force
Steven Weinberg
Nobel Laureate
University of Texas-Austin
Roger Kornberg
Nobel Laureate
Stanford University
Alan Dershowitz
Harvard University
Ian Troen
Brandeis University
Judea Pearl
University of California-Los Angeles
Charles Small
Yale University
Gerry Leisman
F. R. Carrick Institute for Clinical Ergonomics, Rehabilitation and Applied Neurosciences and
Academic Center of Nazareth and the Galilee
Guy Kornberg
Stanford University
Adam de la Zerda
Stanford University
Available Topic Expert(s): For information on the listed expert(s), click appropriate link.
Samuel Edelman
http://www.profnetconnect.com/sam-edelman
For Further Information Contact: Peter Haas, SPME President, [email protected] , Edward Beck, SPME President Emeritus, Chair BDS Task Force,, [email protected] or Howard Kahn, SPME- UK Co-Chair, [email protected]
SOURCE Scholars for Peace in the Middle East
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