Taking the Gloves Off: New Initiative Says ‘Enough’ to the Boycott of Israeli Academics

Everyone has a breaking point.

For UCLA Professor Judea Pearl, that breaking point came when a new report revealed an alarming rise in the boycott of Israeli academics across Europe and other Western countries, including the United States.

Among the most egregious examples, BDS activists are pushing to sever ties between the European Union and Israeli academic institutions, something Pearl finds anathema to academic culture.

Pearl has joined forces with two Israeli partners– David Harel, President of Israel’s Academy of Science, and Moshe Vardi, Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at Rice University– and the team decided it was time to take the gloves off.

They have already recruited 65 members of three National Academies (NAS, NAE and NAM), among them 10 Nobel Laureates, to issue a statement that essentially says, (as Pearl wrote in an email): “If your Institution boycotts our colleagues in Israel, count us out, we will decline any invitation to speak on your campus.”

The public statement asserts that “academic boycotts, in all their manifestations, [are] fundamentally antithetical to the essence of scientific exploration, carrying harmful consequences to the global scientific community, to the junior scholars whose careers are derailed, to the boycotting institutions themselves, and to society at large.”

It’s a sign of how far the anti-Israel animus has gone that they had to add this obvious point: “The boycott issue is quite separate from whatever views one has regarding Israel’s government and its actions.”

We may be able to tolerate an irrational mob that goes after anything associated with Israel, but academics whose lives revolve around the search for truth and knowledge?

It’s no surprise, then, that Pearl and his partners are standing with their academic brethren and are ready to take the hits:

“In solidarity with our Israeli peers, we declare our unwavering professional and academic alignment with Israel’s scientific community, and state our wish to be treated in the exact same manner as all our colleagues residing in Israel – subject to the very same restrictions, institutional barriers, and consequences that such discriminatory practices entail.”

In other words, if you’re not boycotting us here in America, then you have no right to boycott academics in Israel. And if you do, you will bear the consequences.

“While we remain committed to constructive engagement with the academic and scientific community worldwide,” the statement concludes, “we will decline invitations from any institution that imposes restrictions, whether implicit or explicit, on Israel’s academic and scientific community.”

The movement to boycott the world’s only Jewish state has a long and shameful history. Never mind the hypocrisy of singling out one country while ignoring brutal, murderous regimes that make Israel look like a summer camp. And never mind the stupidity of boycotting a country that is at the forefront of scientific innovation and excellence.

No, the singling out of Israel for special punishment was always inherently discriminatory and unjust. It just became so ubiquitous many of us simply got used to it.

Now, prominent academics who believe in justice are saying “enough” and giving the boycotters a taste of their own medicine.

We can only hope that the medicine will help Israel boycotters see the light of reason so they too can reach their breaking point.

To see the declaration, please visit: https://www.change.org/p/against-academic-boycotts