British Academicians with integrity

After railing against the British Association of University Teachers' passage of a resolution calling for boycotting Israel's premier universities, it's only fair to note that the AUT has been ripped by many of its members and the British professoriat:

The Association of University Teachers (AUT) has received a flood of protests, accompanied by an increasing number of resignations, following its decision to adopt boycotts against Israeli universities last Friday.

The backlash, which may take the form of mass resignations from the union, has seen an outpouring of protests by Jewish and non-Jewish academics across Britain.

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The outpouring of opposition to the AUT's boycott motions comes after 262 academics signed a letter to The Guardian newspaper last week expressing support for "continued collaborations in science, technology, health, education, human rights and myriad other fields," adding that "such interactions have already contributed to the reduction of tensions and advancement of cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians by developing joint grassroots projects and academic ventures."

Some reactions from Jerusalem Post readers are worthy of a quick look:

Mladen Andrijasevic; Beersheba, Israel: From 9/11/2001 to 4/01/2005 there have been more than 2036 major Islamist terrorist attacks around the globe. During that period there were 7 non- Islamist attacks perpetrated by ETA, Maoist terrorists in Nepal and Corsican separatists. That is, Islamists were responsible for 99.65 percent of all the terrorist attacks. Since September 2000 there have been 143 Palestinian suicide bombers who exploded among Israeli civilians. There is no doubt whatsoever that they deliberately chose to kill civilians in buses, shopping malls and cafes.

And yet with all the above facts known to the AUT they chose to boycott Israeli universities. This is sheer madness or pure anti- Semitism. A proof that anti-Semitism is a form of madness.

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David Cohen, St. Louis, US: The fact that English university professors participating in the AUT's boycott can engage in such intellectually bankrupt activity is proof positive that they should be fired for lacking the intelligence and professional ethics required to hold their academic positions. They are a laughable bunch of imbeciles. Unfortunately, their objectives are anything but laughable...

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Jerry Levin, Baltimore, Maryland, USA: I find it interesting this boycott is undertaken on the 100th anniversary of the publication of Albert Einstein's groundbreaking theories. He of course was subject to a boycott in 1933.

HT: LGF