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Israeli Academics Brace for More Boycotts

Israeli Academics Brace for More Boycotts

December 26, 2013

Leadership, Awards & Events

The New York Jewish Week — Israeli university officials say the American Studies Association (ASA) boycott of Israeli academic institutions is unlikely, in the short-term, to exacerbate the decade-long “soft” boycott already being felt by many Israeli professors.

But they fear that larger, more influential groups will decide to join the boycott bandwagon, with possibly devastating results.

This recent boycott is view ed within the context of the larger boycott, divestment, sanctions (BDS) movement that likens Israel to apartheid-era South Africa. BGU President Prof. Rivka Carmi, M.D., worries that the ASA vote represents “a tipping point” in favor of the BDS movement.

She fears that the ASA boycott, which in theory targets universities rather than individuals, will encourage or force overseas universities to cancel Israeli study-abroad programs, joint degree programs and funding from abroad.

“I’m very concerned on an institutional level,” Carmi said. “The boycott gives people moral permission to exercise their [anti-Israel] positions.”

Carmi notes that BGU has close to 1,000 Arab students out of a student population of 18,000. What’s more, last year, 18 Jordanian students completed a three-year degree program in emergency medicine at BGU. They are now back in Jordan creating the country’s emergency medicine infrastructure.

BGU also has Palestinian and Jordanian students learning about water and energy use.

“If there is a boycott, these students will be the first ones to suffer,” says Prof. Carmi.

Read more on The New York Jewish Week website
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