More bad news for AUT boycott/Sue Blackwell

In the Jerusalem Post today there was more bad news for the AUT boycott that was proposed by Sue Blackwell and approved on April 20. The president of Bar-Ilan University, Professor Moshe Kaveh said he expected the boycott to be overturned at the emergency AUT meeting to be held on May 26, 2005. He also stated that more than a thousand professors from across the world have signed on to their website and declared that "we want to boycotted along with Bar-Ilan".

The most telling hypocrisy of this anti-Israel fest is this:

The University of Haifa was boycotted for purportedly restricting the academic freedom of Ilan Pappe, a senior lecturer in the department of political science. However, the Post reported this week that Pappe admits AUT's claims against Haifa are baseless and that the boycotts real aim is to stop Israeli "occupation."

Just another example of self-righteous bigots using baseless claims to try to harm Israel. Thankfully it appears to have backfired on them.

I found this at the Bar-Ilan website. It is an exchange of emails on April 19. Bar-Ilan emailed the AUT and requested that a representative be allowed to speak for Bar-Ilan. This is part of the response that was received from the AUT:

It is worth noting that AUT's national executive is recommending to Council that the motion relating to Bar-Ilan University is not passed.

As with all such debates on motions at AUT Council, we would fully expect there to be a number of speeches made both for and against the motion.

As such, we are entirely confident that the debate will be both balanced and restrained.

"Balanced and restrained" my ass.

To share your views with the Association of University Teachers:

E-mail: hq@aut.org.uk

Telephone: 020 7670 9700 | Fax: 020 7670 9799

Association of University Teachers
Egmont House
25-31 Tavistock Place
London
WC1H 9UT

sally.hunt@aut.org.uk Sally Hunt General Secretary

president@aut.org.uk Angela Roger President