The AUT Boycott

Here's a great article at Opinion Journal by a senior lecturer (and peacenik) at the University of Haifa, which has been boycotted by the bigotted and utterly crazy British Association of University teachers: Israelis Need Not Apply.

The article reveals the lie which the nakedly biased AUT used as a pretext to boycott the University of Haifa. You see, the AUT were very upset that the university challenged a thesis by a graduate student, Teddy Katz, about an alleged massacre of 200 villagers perpetrated by the Hagana. It turns out that the thesis was based on the creative hallucinations of Katz, who has admitted to placing words in the mouths of the people he interviewed. Katz has since recanted his argument, and has apologised to the Haganah veterans.

"On May 15, 2002," the AUT boycott document declares, "Dr. Ilan Pappe, senior lecturer in Political Science at Haifa University, was sent a letter notifying him that he faced trial and possible dismissal from his position. . . . These accusations related to Dr. Pappe's efforts to defend a 55-year-old graduate student, Teddy Katz, whose Master's thesis was under attack by an Israeli veteran's organization because it documented a massacre of 200 unarmed civilians by the Haganah (the pre-state army of Israel) at a village called Tantura, near Haifa." This, to put it plainly, is false. Mr. Katz's thesis was based almost solely on transcriptions of oral interviews he conducted with elderly Palestinian former residents of Tantura, who allegedly witnessed a massacre of their kin by Jewish soldiers. When veterans of the Israeli army force that attacked Tantura sued Mr. Katz for libel, a district court ruled that the empirical evidence was grossly manipulated in the course of transliterating the tapes. Mr. Katz had put words in the mouths of his interviewees that were never uttered. He agreed to apologize to the veterans, telling the media that radical activists--including Dr. Pappe--had led him astray.

The article also questions the real agenda behind the stance taken by the AUT.

It is obviously a far greater sin than wholesale brutality, or else the AUT would have boycotted Chinese universities before and after Tiananmen Square, or Russian universities as the occupation of Chechnya grew bloody. Israel is singled out because it's easy game--and because the AUT is not really in the business of promoting peace or reconciliation. It is in the business of delegitimizing Israel.

If you don't believe that anti-semitism is the stanchion behind the AUT decision, then consider the web site of Sue Blackwell, the British lecturer who presented the motions calling for the boycotts. Her interests include Holocaust denial, anti-Jewis conspiracy theories of unrivalled Jewish power, and Israeli hatred: The Academic Ban- Nazi Connection.

The Web site of Sue Blackwell, the Birmingham lecturer who presented motions calling for boycotts of Israeli universities, contains a recommended link to a Web site owned by an anti-Semitic neo-Nazi activist. Wendy Campbell, who owns the MarWen Media Web site, has promoted Holocaust denial and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories discussing "unrivaled Jewish power."

Here's a picture of the utterly deranged Sue Blackwell, signalling the Palestinian V for Victory sign. (Pic via LGF).

(Link via LGF).

Comments

[Jodi]

She looks balanced, fair, and reasonable...no?

[Anti-UN]

She thinks Israel were going to ethnically cleanse (genocide) the Palistinians!

Head Heeb writes

"If the word "Zionism" has been defined to its extreme, then the term "genocide," in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has undergone exactly the opposite metamorphosis. The definition of genocide is well established in international law. Article 6 of the Rome Statute defines it as follows:

... any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

The key phrase is the one defining the mens rea - that, in order to constitute genocide, an act must be undertaken "with intent to destroy" a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. There is a notable lack of intent among Israelis to destroy the Palestinian ethnic/national group as such. Even the far-right Herut does not advocate the physical or cultural destruction of the Palestinians. Instead, Herut advocates mass deportation, which is arguably a crime against humanity but is not genocide. And the mainstream of Israeli politics, which rejects transfer and recognizes the inevitability of a Palestinian state, is devoid of any desire to destroy the Palestinian people.

The term "genocide" was never intended to encompass killings in battle or anti-terrorist curfews. It is possible to question the legality of such things, but calling them "genocide" is an unconscionable trivialization of the term. It is an insult to the 800,000 Tutsi killed in Rwanda, or the millions who now face starvation in Matabeleland as a result of the Zimbabwe government's food distribution policies."

[Anti-UN]

sorry..posted this to the wrong entry.

[Katherine]

you know, that outfit reminds me of winnie mandela - they look similar no? Oh ho ho...

[DWYD]

Whoa!!!

Let us set the record straight here. First point that should be mentioned is that the current occupants of Israel have no lineal claim the the Israelite nation of the Torah. They are of Khazarian ansestry, which is well documented. They converted to "Judaism" in the 8th century. They have no legitimate claim to Israel. They were placed there in by the US and Great Britain after WW2. The uncivilised African as you characterize "Beta Israel" were practicing the original true Hebrew doctrine long before the Khazarian conversion. The Khazars are the children of Japeth and as a consequence are not even "Semetic" much less Israelite. To be fair though I beleive the majority of people living in Israel beleive they are true Israelite descendants, the conversion being that powerful. However the truth always comes to light. The true descedants of the Israelites in these days if the Torah is to be taken seriously, Have no idea who they are, and only now are waking up to the startling truth. The "placement" of the Khazars in the promised land is not the fullfilment of the prophesy of the return of the Israelite people to the promised land, but a hoax. There are 13 tribes of Israelites, and I have yet to hear anyone in Israel claim any tribe but Judah. They have a lot more people to admit, and some to expel. They did not do anyone any favors by accepting "beta israel" into a land that they belong. If Beta Israel is authentic then this is just the beginning.

[Jona]

^
|
|
What the hell is he on about?

[Gilead]

"They are of Khazarian ansestry, which is well documented. They converted to "Judaism" in the 8th century. They have no legitimate claim to Israel. They were placed there in by the US and Great Britain after WW2."
Well documented??? "judaism" "placed there" - what are you talking about?
I suggest you read some basic history before you come forward with these childlike comments. Or alternatively take prescribed psychiatric medications.

Dr. Asseo

[Abu Sharmuta Bin Sharmuta]

FWIW, I think the word "khazar" is hebrew or yiddish for "pig" (Arabic too?)