“A little sincerity is a dangerous thing and a lot of it is absolutely fatal.”
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$">~ Oscar Wilde

So, the leading union of British lecturers has decided to impose an academic boycott on three Israeli universities, Hebrew U., Bar-Ilan and Haifa, on the grounds of what the Association of University Teachers defines as their collaboration with the crimes of the occupation.
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$">What are these crimes?
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$">Hebrew University, for allegedly stealing land belonging to a Palestinian family; Haifa University, for allegedly threatening the job of Professor Ilan Pappe, a leading advocate of the dissolution of Israel as a Jewish state; and Bar-Ilan University, for supervising degree programs at the College of Judea and Samaria in the West Bank.
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$">Though academics never let facts stand in the way of reality, let us as least inject some nevertheless.
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$">Hebrew University, which has a student body that is 30 percent Arab, is accused of having grabbed land belonging to the Al Helou family. In fact, repeated court proceedings have found in favor of the university, and the dispute has now been settled through direct negotiations.
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$">In the case of Dr. Pappe in Haifa, the university has continually said, and is on official record, guaranteeing that his position is secure,
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$">As for Bar-Ilan, that university's supervision of three percent of its courses at a college situated in the West Bank is obviously unforgivable, but then why have we not heard anything about the Palestinian universities where Hamas, recognized internationally as a terrorist organization, controls all university departments.
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$">Oh yes. I forgot. Slaughter is okay. Occupation is not.
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$">Even Jerusalem’s Al-Quds University, a Palestinian institution, opposes the boycott. Its dean says the university is “informed by the principle that we should seek to win Israelis over to our side, not to win against them... to build bridges, not walls.”
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$">Some 27 years ago, I worked on Irwin Cotler’s Commission on Economic Coercion and Discrimination that helped bring to an end the attempted enforcement of a boycott of Jewish interests in Canada by Arab states. That was a boycott worthy of a fight. It involved the complicity of Canadian banks issuing negative certificates of origins. That was an enemy. These British lecturers are merry pranksters by comparison.
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$">Don’t misunderstand — obviously these British professors are venal and vicious people that need to be opposed and will be defeated. The outrageous bias is clear. There’s no boycott of China, which is one massive slave labour colony; nor Cuba that allows no political dissent; nor even Saudi Arabia that still beheads adulterous wives. But Israel, where Arabs not only have equal rights, but willingly engage in the political process, sit in Parliament; represent Israel as diplomats and even serve as judges, is targeted. Jews, on the other hand, cannot even get visas to most Arab lands.
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$">The reason for a bit of humour in this situation is that these academics seem to be living in a time warp. Haven’t they heard? There is going to be a Palestinian state. The Israelis are withdrawing. Besides Gaza, Israeli television screens have been filled lately with images of Israeli soldiers lassoing settlers out of certain West Bank outposts. Hello British academics! Is anyone watching or reading anything?
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$">Now we understand that the Israeli withdrawal will force these “free-thinkers” to find another reason to hate Israelis or Jews or anyone else remotely pro-American. It could get very difficult for them because the Pax Americana actually seems to be working. Can you imagine ye Dons of Albion that the citizens of Arab lands formerly led by tyrants are actually voting…and liking it. Hey, maybe there is something to moral relativism. The west, and America in particular, has been relatively right.
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$">These lunkheads are also worthy of some pity as well as contempt. They seem to be a bit behind the headlines. Last May, Israeli and Palestinian academics from Hebrew University, Haifa, Al Quds, Hebron and Bethlehem met in Rome and resolved to work together in such vital areas as the natural sciences, economic development and the preservation of cultural heritage. So what’s up with with the British docs?
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$">Now never let it be said that the British are not civilized. The British government opposes the boycott, Britain's ambassador to Israel, Simon McDonald said that “The British government opposes academic boycotts in general and this boycott in particular.”
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$">The AUT also exempted from the boycott those “Israeli academics and intellectuals who oppose the colonial and racist policy of their state.” So decent of them. It almost brings a tear to one’s eye remembering the brave actions of Pope Pius XII who convinced Mussolini to exempt converts from his anti-Jewish laws. An apt comparison, since the last time Jews were officially boycotted in academia was in 1930s Germany.
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$">One other aspect of this idiocy cries out for some compassion for these Brits. You see, they truly like to be virginal in their thinking. And to maintain their intellectual purity they are prepared to go to almost any lengths. So we should start a drive to help these boycotters through the drastic transition of their lives. Why, you ask?
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$">Well, as Douglas Davis of UK’s The Spectator has so pithily pointed out, they will all have to give up their computers, interactive digital televisions, mobile phones and detached mouses. In addition, they will have to stop using the British Library which has been computerized by Ex Libris; never have the benefit of the video capsules used in coloscopies and intestinal exams and a myriad of other conveniences of the modern age. Why?
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$">Because all the above have been developed and /or produced in part or in whole by the academic genius and cutting edge technology of that despised Zionist entity known as Israel. Is everyone feeling better now across the pond?
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$">At least the British proctologists can still keep their hands in.

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