The presidents of Israel's eight research universities are calling on a leading American academic organization to refrain from moving forward with plans to boycott Israeli academics. In a letter released Tuesday, the group said the American Anthropological Association's resolution to boycott Israel is "absurd" and aims to "incite and introduce hatred and racism" into Israeli academia. "This resolution presents a distorted view of Israeli reality," the letter said. "Israeli universities are open to all, Jews and Arabs alike, and promote full equality among faculty and students alike. "Academic discourse and research practices in Israel follow the ethos of academic freedom and are unbiased and devoid of ideological and political tendencies. Faculty and senior researchers, Arabs and Jews, are an integral part of the universities, and they work together, side by side, with one shared goal in mind -- the promotion of research and knowledge." The Israeli academics urged the AAA shelve its decision, saying those promoting an academic boycott on Israel were "interested parties, who for years have been leading an aggressive, slanderous, and demonizing campaign against the State of Israel. These politically-motivated and self-serving parties are deceiving you. "Ironically and absurdly, it is those who support boycotts that are trying to introduce politics, hatred and racism, to Israeli academia," the letter said. The American Anthropological Association adopted the resolution in mid-November with an overwhelming majority of 1,040 to 36 of some 1,400 AAA members participating in its annual conference in Denver. Some 30 Israeli anthropologists were present at the meeting, but were unable to promote a competing resolution, seeking to reject the boycott. The decision, a victory for the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement, will come up for a vote among all AAA's 12,000 members in April. If it passes, the association will be the largest organization to adopt an academic boycott of Israel.
While the move would spell a suspension of formal collaborations with Israeli academic institutions, it is not expected to affect individual academics.
