The Allegation of Unfair Academic Closures:
Allegations leveled against Israel
include that they suppress academic freedom and that Israelis imprison
Palestinian students for non-violent dissent.
Britain’s Association of University Teachers (AUT) rushed through and
approved two motions calling for boycotts of two Israeli universities on
Friday, April 22? 2005, in a blitz procedure timed, on the eve of the Jewish
holiday of Passover, to exclude Jewish members from the conference. To evaluate these allegations we will
consider the report of two neutral organizations, the World University Service
(WUS) and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) who sent a mission of enquiry to the West
Bank and the Gaza Strip to investigate academic freedom there[i]
and a letter by a British scholar on the Middle East who protested the boycott.
According to the report of the WUS and
ICJ:
“The
six principal institutions of higher education in the West Bank and Gaza have
all been founded, or else upgraded to university status, since the beginning of
the Israeli occupation in 1967: indeed, almost all of the expansion of higher
education has taken place since about 1972.
It is still continuing. The
Israeli authorities appear to have given permission, either at the beginning or
retrospectively, for all the institutions to open, and have co-operated with
them in several ways.
The
rate of expansion of higher education has indeed been remarkable. In 1967, apart from a few small colleges
some of which formed a nucleus for later growth, there was little in the way of
higher education inside the West Bank and Gaza. By 1977-78 2,763 students were enrolled at the four main
institutions: Birzeit, An Najah, Bethlehem and Hebron. By 1983-84 there were 11,046 at the six we
visited, and some 14,000 altogether if the smaller colleges are included…”
The authors wrote:
“At
Birzeit, by chance, we witnessed two events symptomatic of problems in the
occupied territories… [O]ur car overtook a stationary bus carrying Birzeit
students: the bus had been stopped by Israeli soldiers and all the students had
to get out to have their identity cards checked… later that same morning the students organized a demonstration in
the street just outside the old buildings of the university: this was to
commemorate or rather reassert Palestinian condemnation of, the UN General
Assembly Resolution of November 29, 1947 – the Partition Resolution that
outlined a plan for the partition of Mandated Palestine west of the River
Jordan between a Jewish state and an Arab state… The demonstration was peaceful and impressive, and there was no
Israeli attempt to stop it. “
Why demonstrate against the partition plan? That plan was meant to give Israel a state and the Palestinian
Arabs a state that would coexist side by side.[ii]
This demonstration could only be against the existence of Israel yet the
Israelis did nothing to stop it. What
the authors personally witnessed was Israel tolerating extreme dissent.
The authors heard second hand about another student demonstration that
took place on January 31, 1984 at Birzeit University which was followed by a
military ordered closure of the old campus for three months. (Birzeit had both
a new and old campus)
. A statement issued by the Public Relations
Office of Birzeit on 4 February said:
On the afternoon of January 31, the army came to the University where a
peaceful student gathering was being held inside the campus… ”
Israel in an
official announcement issued on 2 February explained their reasons for the
closure. as follows:
“The
Military Government decided today to close the old campus of Birzeit University
for a 3 months period, following violent disturbances and grave violations of
public order which took place at the campus on January 31st
1984. In the course of these events,
some 400 students gathered at the campus, paralyzed the studies, raised PLO
flags, rushed into the nearby streets and laid road blocks, set tires on fire
and stoned the security forces which came to enforce order at the scene…
The
IDF and the Civil Administration will not permit students who are motivated by
the PLO and activated by hostile elements to exploit the institutes of higher
education in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza district for the purposes of
incitement and hostile activities.
Conclusion:
The Israeli argument that they closed Birzeit in response to violence is
more consistent with the author’s observations than the allegation that Israel
imprisons students for non-violent dissent.
Reply from Denis MacEoin who has the
petition on line to reverse AUT boycott.
I am a former AUT member who previously taught Arabic
and Islamic
With that background, I wish to protest in the strongest
possible terms to the manipulated and biased vote at your recent conference,
demanding that AUT members boycott two (and possibly three) Israeli
universities. The arguments put forward in favour of this boycott are, quite
frankly, egregious and thoroughly based on ignorance, naivety, and an
incredible urge to turn facts on their heads. None of this should happen within
a union made up of academics, least of all in a country which was once famed
for its dedication to academic freedom, to careful sifting of the facts, and to
the experience of international co-operation at all levels of academic work.
The real problem for me is that the arguments advanced by
the pro-boycott lobby (which might otherwise be described as a pro-Palestinian
lobby, and even, at heart, an anti-
I am horrified by this hypocrisy that singles out one of
the most open and just democracies in the world for vilification as racist and
oppressive, while allowing dictatorships and theocracies to get off scot free.
I thought the whole purpose of academic work was to set people free by exposing
lies and making the truth clear. Now I see my fellow-academics bent on an
exercise that runs wholly counter to that ideal, where university teachers lie
to their colleagues and to the public, distorting reality so badly that future
trust in our profession will be eroded to the point of no return.
I write to add my voice to the many protests you have
already had. The AUT must reconsider this issue at the earliest opportunity.
First, members must be given access to less biased accounts of
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Denis MacEoin
[i] Roberts, A, Joergensen B., Newman F., Academic Freedom Under Israeli Military Occupation, Report of WUS/ICJ Mission fo Enquiry into Higher Education in the West Bank and Gaza
[ii] U.N. Partition Plan of 1947 for Palestine, http://www.mideastweb.org/unpartition.htm