From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Hilary Rose and Steven Rose | The Guardian | 15 July 2002 The carnage in the Middle East continues; today a suicide bomber, tomorrow an Israeli strike on Palestinians with helicopters, missiles and tanks. The Israelis continue to invade Palestinian towns and expand illegal settlements in the occupied territories. Ariel Sharon refuses to negotiate while "violence" (ie Palestinian resistance) continues. Our own government sheds crocodile tears at the loss of life while inviting a prime minister accused of war crimes to lunch and providing his military with F16 spare parts.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Shahid Alam | Counterpunch | 31 July 2002 In early April 2002, moved by the massacres in Jenin and the wanton destruction of civilian infrastructure in West Bank cities by invading Israeli forces, two British academics, Hilary Rose and Steven Rose, circulated a call-posted at www.pjpo.org-for an academic boycott of Israel. This campaign was directed mostly at European academics, and so when it reached me nearly two months later, in the first week of July, there were only six American academics among the signatories.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Ronnie Kasrils and Victoria Brittain | The Guardian | 21 December 2002 Bethlehem is a familiar talisman of peace in Christmas festivities, but this year the innocent image is gone, perhaps for ever. Today Bethlehem's residents are entombed in their houses 24 hours each day. When the Church of the Nativity was besieged for weeks by the Israeli army in April - the International Red Cross refused entry; misinformation about priests held hostage put out by the Israeli government; wounded Palestinians incarcerated by Israeli forces; others killed and dozens deported to Europe or bussed to Gaza - Bethlehem became, like Sharpeville, a name for injustice.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) BBC News | BBC News | 16 August 2002 Plans for Scotland's Under-21 football team to play a friendly against Israel have triggered an angry response from pro-Palestinian campaigners. Those opposed to the game going ahead have written to the Scottish Football Association (SFA) in protest against the policies of Israel in the Middle East conflict. The Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) is calling for a boycott of the game - but the Scottish Federation of Supporters Clubs (SFSC) said the game should go ahead as planned.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Uri Avnery | CounterPunch | 24 February 2003 "Don't eat Belgian chocolate," the Israel consul in Florida ordered the large Jewish community there. In Israel, anti-Belgian curses reached an ear-splitting new crescendo. Miserable Belgium! Mad Belgium! Megalomaniac Belgium! And again and again, Anti-Semitic Belgium! Neo-Nazi Belgium! The Israeli ambassador was, of course, recalled from Brussels. No wonder, how can Israel keep an ambassador in the world capital of anti-Semitism?
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Polly Curtis | The Guardian | 26 February 2003 A distinguished pro-Israeli Jewish academic will tonight come face to face with the author of an academic boycott of Israel in an attempt to settle a bitterly contested issue that has divided academia. Professor Geoffrey Alderman, vice-president of academic affairs at the American InterContinental University in London, and a robust critic of the boycott, will meet Professor Hilary Rose, a visiting research professor at City University London, and one of the main architects of the original call for sanctions, in a debate chaired by the Campaign for Academic Freedoms and Standards (Cafas).
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Monique Chemillier-Gendreau | Le Monde | February 14, 2003 The affair of the "boycott of Israeli universities" supposedly declared by the administrative council of the University of Paris-VI (Pierre-et-Marie-Curie) in December 2002 was the subject of serious high stakes controversy which it is imperative to clarify. Calls to criticise this position were circulated and strong pressure was brought to bear (albeit without success) on members of the university's administrative council to reverse their positions.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Neve Gordon | The Nation | 14 February 2003 "Among the Judenrat wannabes is your old friend and mine, Neve Gordon," wrote a Haifa University professor in one of his articles. "Gordon," the professor continued, "is a fanatic anti-Semite from the monochromatic (Red) Department of Politics at Ben-Gurion University." The contemptuous adjectives did not, however, satisfy the angry professor, so in another commentary he urged his readers to harass me.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Andrew Jakubowicz | Sydney Morning Herald | 8 February 2003 Should a country's intelligentsia be ostracised because of their government's actions? Andrew Jakubowicz examines the international call by academics to boycott their Israeli colleagues. Every morning my computer opens with two email lists - one, from a colleague in Beirut, recounts the latest horrors experienced by the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation; the other, by a colleague in Sydney, recounts the latest horrors experienced by the Israelis in the face of Palestinian terrorism.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Charlotte Hasse | Ha'aretz | 6 February 2003 An Oxford bookshop which is boycotting Israeli publishers is behaving in a "totalitarian" way equivalent to burning books, says a leading Californian publisher of New Age books. Jo-Ann Deck, publisher for The Crossing Press in Berkley, California, describes the ban on Israeli publishers recently issued by the Inner Bookshop in Oxford as a "terrible tragedy" that damages the notion of free speech.