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3,000 Academics Denounce Boycotts of Israel in New Letter
Anti-Israel students continue to protest at an encampment supporting Palestinians on the Columbia University campus, during the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in New York City, US, April 25, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Caitlin Och
Nearly 3,000 scholars have signed an open letter which condemns academic boycotts of Israel and calls on university officials to protect the academy from the caprices of politics.
Circulated by several higher education nonprofits, the letter comes amid anti-Zionist students and faculty clamoring for universities to sever ties with Israel and adopt the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement (BDS), a demand that was at the center of an explosion of “encampment” protests which roiled campuses across the country at the end of spring semester.
Formally launched in 2005, the BDS campaign opposes Zionism — a movement supporting the Jewish people’s right to self-determination — and rejects Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish nation-state. It seeks to isolate the country comprehensively with economic, political, and cultural boycotts as the first step toward its eventual elimination.
Official guidelines issued for the campaign’s academic boycott state that “projects with all Israeli academic institutions should come to an end,” and delineate specific restrictions that adherents should abide by — for instance, denying letters of recommendation to students who seek to study in Israel..
An overwhelming majority of Middle East scholars support boycotting Israel, according to a survey published in November 2022, which found that 91 percent of 500 responding experts from the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) and the American Political Science Association (APSA) “support at least some boycotts” of Israel.
The new letter says such an action would sanction discrimination against Israelis and undermine the university’s mission to foster viewpoint diversity.
“Pressure from anti-Israel protests and the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement has already led to pervasive exclusion of Israeli scientists and students,” it says. “Recently, over 60 Israeli academics from various disciplines have testified to an ‘unprecedented global boycott,’ including canceled invitations to lectures, rejections of scientific papers on political grounds, the freezing of collaborative research projects, disrupted guest lectures, withdrawn co-authorships, and more.”
It continues, “We urge faculty-facing organizations in our countries, including the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT), the National Conference of University Professors (NCUP), the German Association of University Professors and Lecturers (DHV), and other groups committed to an open academic community, to assist us in this effort and to forcefully denounce pernicious trends that are undermining the bedrock principles of the academy.”
The letter has been signed by professors from several prominent universities, including Yale University, Columbia University, University of Maryland, Stanford University, and Northwestern University.
“We believe that the academic boycott of Israel, and ostracizing of the country’s scientists and students from international educational spaces, is detrimental to the core values of academic freedom and the open exchange of ideas,” Miriam Elman, executive director of the Academic Engagement Network — a higher education nonprofit which endorsed the letter — said in a statement issued on Monday. “Our open letter seeks to address these harmful trends and galvanize support from the scholarly community to uphold the principles that are foundational to scholarly pursuits.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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Beersheba Resident Arrested on Suspicion of Espionage for Iran
Doron Bokobza, who was indicted after Iran recruited him to collect intelligence Photo: i24/ Social media / 27A
i24 News – An indictment was filed against a resident of Beersheba, Doron Bokobza, who contacted Iranian intelligence and offered to sell them information including secrets to the nuclear research facility in Dimona.
In February, Bokobza was arrested on suspicion of committing security offenses, involving contact with Iranian police intelligence agents and carrying out tasks for them in exchange for money. He claimed to have access and knowledge of the nuclear facility.
According to the indictment filed against him, last December, Bokobza approached an Iranian recruiter via the Telegram app, writing: “I am Israeli, I want to cross over to you.” When asked by the recruiter why he was interested in doing so, the defendant replied that it was due to the government and his difficult financial situation.
Bokobza allegedly photographed military installations and transferred information to the Iranian handlers several days later.
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Captive IDF Soldier Nimrod Cohen Identified from Horn Video Hamas Released
Nimrod Cohen, an IDF soldier who was kidnapped on October 7, 2023, by Gazan terrorists and has been held for more than 500 days. Photo: Hostages and Missing Families Forum
i24 News – The family of the Israeli soldier Nimrod Cohen, held captive in the Gaza Strip, said on Saturday that they had identified their son in the video published the day before by Hamas.
In this recording, Eitan and Iair Horn, Sagui Dekel-Chen, and other hostages whose faces have been blurred can be seen. The Cohen family says they recognized Nimrod, who appears wearing a t-shirt and bearing a characteristic tattoo.
In the video broadcast with the agreement of the Horn family, brothers Eitan and Iair are seen embracing. Iair Horn, freed on the 498th day of the war, declares: “They are making me leave my little brother here, to die,” while his brother Eitan, still in captivity, adds: “It is illogical to separate families in this way.”
“Get everyone out and don’t separate families, don’t destroy our lives,” Eitan said in the video. “Tell mom and dad to continue the protests and for this government to sign phase two to bring us all home.” He addressed the Prime Minister directly: “[Benjamin] Netanyahu, if you have a bit of heart, sign, sign today.”
Father Yehuda Cohen said during a demonstration of hostage families that his “son Nimrod is a soldier who was kidnapped from a burning tank. He is alive and he, like all the hostages, begs us from this hell to save them now. All of them, and all at once.”
“We are addressing President Trump – there are still 59 hostages in Gaza who are living a Holocaust,” he added. “Netanyahu is trying to sabotage your agreement, Mr. President. He is the one creating the current crisis in the negotiations. Don’t let him fail the agreement.”
About two weeks ago, Cohen revealed in an interview with Channel 12 that the family had received a message from Nimrod. “We got news from him last week, from two hostages who spent eight months with him in the tunnels,” the father explained. “I’m doing fine, don’t worry about me. I love you,” Nimrod conveyed to his parents through the former captives.
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Israel’s Right-Wing Camp Hails Order to Block Goods from Entering Gaza
Jewish Power party leader Itamar Ben-Gvir speaks following the announcement of exit polls in Israel’s general election, at his party headquarters in Jerusalem November 2, 2022. REUTERS/Corinna Kern
i24 News – Israel’s right wing hailed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision on Sunday to halt goods and supplies from being brought to the Gaza Strip, demanding that hostages continue being released.
“I welcome the decision to halt the humanitarian aid, if it is implemented,” said former national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir. “The decision has finally been made – better late than never. This should be the policy until the last of the hostages is returned. Now is the time to open the gates of hell, to shut off the electricity and water, to return to war, and most importantly, not to settle for just half of the hostages, but to return to President Trump’s ultimatum all the hostages immediately or hell will break loose on Gaza.”
Ben Gvir referred to US President Donald Trump’s warning that “all hell” would break out if all the hostages are not returned, while saying that it was ultimately Israel’s decision.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, another right-wing firebrand, said that “the decision we made tonight to completely halt the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza until Hamas is destroyed or completely surrenders and all our hostages are returned is an important step in the right direction.”
He called for Israel to continue until “complete victory.”
Meanwhile, the far-right Order 9 movement, which opposed the entry of goods including humanitarian assistance into Gaza, said that its activists “reached the Kerem Shalom crossing area and it is indeed closed. We will stand guard that it will indeed remain so until the last of the kidnapped are returned”
“The transfer of aid that has strengthened the murderous terrorist organization Hamas for the past year and a half will stop until all the kidnapped are returned,” the movement said. “For many months, we have fought tooth and nail against the terrible failure to transfer aid to the enemy, which has now become clear that it will strengthen it for many months to come. We are now on the ground and will continue to stand guard well, and to ensure that this severe harm to the kidnapped will stop.”
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