From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Ilan Pappe | The Guardian | 24 May 2005 lan Pappe, whose case was a focus of the lecturers' boycott vote, appeals to UK colleagues not to back down The Association of University Teachers' decision to reconsider its motions on the academic boycott of Israel seems to confuse procedure and principle. I am not a trade union activist, neither am I a British citizen, but I understand there may - or may not - have been procedural, and even tactical, errors in the way the decision was taken.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Polly Curtis & Matthew Taylor | The Guardian | 24 May 2005 It started with a vote at an academic union conference and escalated into an issue that inflamed passions around the globe. This week the boycott of two Israeli universities is to be reconsidered. Which way will it go? Report by Polly Curtis and Matthew Taylor There are issues about which academics argue, then there are things the rest of the world discusses.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Yaakov Lappin | The Jerusalem Post | 22 May 2005 A central London rally organized by the British Palestine Solidarity Campaign on Saturday heard Respect Party MP George Galloway advocate a general boycott of Israel, as well as other speeches calling for Israel's destruction. Dark gray clouds poured heavy rain on London's Trafalgar Square, as a crowd waving Palestine flags and anti-Israel banners filled the square to hear speakers shout vitriolic anti-Israel speeches.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) OREN BEN-DOR | Counterpunch | 21 May 2005 I write as an ex-Israeli, who happens to be a British academic. I write because experience has taught my conscience the harm that results from silencing free historical debate, the danger inherent in not letting the Other's voice challenge national heroic myths. All my education in Israel was one sided, treating the Other as the enemy, the murderers, the rioters, the terrorists -- without alluding, in any way, to their pains and longings.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) PACBI | 16 May 2005 French-language version available here. By Monday 16th May, 2005 over 100 Palestinian social movements, NGOs and civil society groups had endorsed the statement released by the Grassroots Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, re-asserting the call for a comprehensive academic boycott of Apartheid Israel. The statement backs the initiative taken by the Association of University Teachers (AUT) to boycott two Israeli Universities and to consider calls for a complete academic boycott of Israel.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Hilary Rose and Steven Rose | Socialist Worker Online | 21 May 2005 The boycott of Israeli academic institutions is a vital part of the struggle for justice for the Palestinians, write Hilary Rose and Steven Rose The AUT lecturers’ union passed resolutions in April calling for a boycott of two Israeli universities. One, Bar-Ilan, had a subsidiary college in the illegal Israeli settlement of Ariel, in the occupied West Bank.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Baruch Kimmerling | Haaretz | 18 May 2005 The moment I first heard that the British Association of University Teachers (AUT) was planning on boycotting Israeli universities and faculty, I expressed my opposition to the notion in every possible way. I even tried to influence my colleagues in the U.K. and elsewhere - recently the American lecturers' union has been considering a similar idea - to refrain.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Mazin Qumsiyeh | Tikkun Magazine | May 2005 Divestment and boycotts of Israel are a moral necessity to bring peace. Divestment and boycotts are non-violent tools intended to challenge situations of injustice and war and thus advance justice and peace. There are always issues raised about the use of such non-violent tactics. These issues include effectiveness, morality, harm done to occupied people, motivations, and precise formulations.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Al Jazeera | 14 August 2005 A five-million-strong US church has rebuked Israel for building a separation barrier along the West Bank, becoming the second major US Protestant denomination to reject policies implemented by the Jewish state. The resolution titled "Peace Not Wall" was adopted on Saturday on a 668-269 vote by members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America at their convention in Orlando, Florida, despite pleas from Jews to refrain from the move.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Haaretz | 6 August 2005 A Presbyterian committee accused five companies of contributing to "ongoing violence that plagues Israel and Palestine" and pledged to use the church's multimillion-dollar stock holdings in the businesses to pressure them to stop. The move Friday follows a vote last year by leaders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to put economic pressure on companies that profit from Israeli policy in the West Bank and Gaza.