Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Way to go ADL!

The Anti Defamation League gave me a reason to smile.

I'm going to assume that if you're reading this blog, then you know that there is a call for an academic boycott of Israel by the the University and College Union. It calls on college lecturers to "consider the moral implications of existing and proposed links with Israeli academic institutions."

Moral implications? Oh yeah, because you see, Israeli academic institutions are morally wrong because everyone can be a student in them, no matter what religion or race or political affiliation the student might have (can you say as much about Birzeit University?). Or maybe it's that Israeli academic institutions are morally wrong because they are the birthplaces of incredible scientific and medical advances.
Ahhhh, no, sorry, I got it now, the Israeli academic institutions are morally wrong because they are Israeli. Israel will always be singled out as the bad guy, no matter how much good Israel actually brings to the world. And defenders of this boycott will say that this is Anti-Zionism, not Anti-Semitism, thinking that this gives them authority to single out the only Jewish country in the world.
(Btw, if you'd like to try and prove to me that the two are different, I'd love to to challenge you and show you why they are one and the same, at least in most cases)

Anyhow, kudos to the ADL, who came out with the anti-boycott campaign!

"If British journalists and university professors and doctors want to make a point for justice, there are 20 countries they could deal with," explained ADL National Director Abe Foxman. "If they included Israel in their critique, I'd say Israel doesn't belong, but I wouldn't call it anti-Semitism. But if the only country that is subject to criticism in the whole world is Israel, I call it anti-Semitism."

Very well said. I'm sure the ADL won't mind if I post some of the anti-boycott pictures, seen as the goal is for these images to be seen by as many people as possible. The boycott section of their site is down for a while, but I hope it'll be up and running again soon.



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