'We're all Israeli academics'
Non-Israeli academics vow to 'decline any activity from which Israelis are excluded'
The call came two weeks after Britain's University and College Union (UCU) voted to pass a resolution calling on its members to "consider the moral implications of links with Israeli academic institutions."
The petition, initiated by Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) , has been signed by numerous Nobel Prize lauriates an array of fields, including Elie Wiesel. It has so far received over 4,000 signatures.
"We all agree that singling out Israelis for an academic boycott is wrong. To show our solidarity with our Israeli academics in this matter, we, the undersigned, hereby declare ourselves to be Israeli academics for purposes of any academic boycott. We will regard ourselves as Israeli academics and decline to participate in any activity from which Israeli academics are excluded," the petition declared.
Speaking to Ynetnews, SPME's President, Edward S. Beck, a Psychology Professor at Minnesota's Walden University, said the petition was "not a counter-boycott."
"This is a solidarity statement which says, 'if you boycott Israel, you are boycotting me too!'" he said.
"The leading institutions from where people are signing are Columbia, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, UCLA, University of Toronto, Universities in the UK and other fine institutions. That speaks volumes. The fact that we have 15 Nobel Laureates and four college presidents Penn State, Tufts, Miami and Brandeis, with Bollinger of Columbia issuing a statement is significant," he added.
On its website, SPME said its members agreed "with Thomas L. Friedman who wrote, 'Criticizing Israel is not anti-Semitic, and saying so is vile. But singling out Israel for opprobrium and international sanction out of all proportion to any other party in the Middle East is anti-Semitic, and not saying so is dishonest.'"
The petition has also been endorsed by the UK-based Academic Friends of Israel group, headed by lecturer Ronny Fraser.
"Thousands of university academics worldwide have joined Nobel Laureates Alexi Alexeyevich Abrikosov, Claude Cohen- Tannoudji, David Gross... Elie Wiesel and Frank Wilczek as well as Alan Dershowitz in endorsing the following solidarity statement with Israeli academics," Fraser told colleagues in an email.
"The Academic Friends of Israel is proud to be associated with this initiative and urges all academics especially those in the UK to click on the link below to sign the petition," he added.
