Ik kreeg zojuist onderstaande e-mail van Elad Ratson, een Israelische vriend van me. Lees maar mee, en teken!

Dear Friends,

I rarely use the mass e-mail feature on my G-Mail account but this time i really had to.

Last Wednesday, the British University and College Union (UCU) had passed a motion presenting the question of a boycott on Israel’s academics for discussion by all its members.

Among the amendments added to the proposal and approved by the union was a clause pledging the group to campaign for "a moratorium on research and cultural collaborations with Israel via EU and European Science Foundation funding until Israel abides by UN resolutions."

The vote was preceded by a heated discussion in which Israel was repeatedly referred to as an apartheid state, engaging in crimes against humanity in the Palestinian territories. The union representatives said the situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip did not allow spectators to stand idly by.

As part of the motion, the congress will disseminate Palestinian trade unions’ request for a boycott against Israel in all the union’s offices.

As an MA student for Political Science in Tel-Aviv University i am both angry and disappointed. You see… I chose to further my education in Israel from a deep belief i can bring some of the ideas i have been fortunate to absorb both on my journeys around the globe and on my studies abroad. As a student I was raised to hold the academia as the lighthouse for social change; the Canadian education i received served only to fortify that.

It is for that reason why i am truly puzzled by this attempt made by the British UCU to isolate and condemn academic quest of any kind (not just Israeli). I am disappointed because my fellow academics in Britain had, in a way, condemned me without never asking the opinions of my friends and i about the conflict they appear so eager to amend.

I wonder what good will come from shutting our voices, the voices of numerous young Israeli academics in numerous fields who contribute a constant and bold contribution to further our humane endeavor for a better life to us all.

If you share my frustration please let your voice be heard.

Bellow is a link to an online petition to stop the academic boycott, please help keep our academia here in Israel out of the Middle East mess.

http://www.petitiononline.com/stopucu/petition.html.

Yours,

Elad