Who says academics are irrelevant in the modern age? Israel’s Neve Gordon continues to cause waves after calling for a boycott of his own country over its discriminatory and “apartheid” regime in the occupied territories.
The President of his institution, Ben Gurion University, wrote the following:
”¦The severity and scope of the [Gordon’s] attack are unprecedented, both because of the article’s extremist line, which is perceived by many readers as an act of treason against the state of Israel”¦
”¦I am personally deeply disgusted by it.
What a poor woman. Not disgusted by anything Israel does. No, against one individual who speaks his mind. The truth remains that most Israeli academics either remain silent over Israeli crimes against the Palestinians or actively collude in them.
Gideon Levy in Haaretz unloads on the hypocrisy:
Israel, and with it most of the international community, imposed a boycott on 1.5 million Gazans only because they did not vote for the right party in the democratic elections that the international community demanded.
A country that constantly demands boycott from the world and also imposes boycotts itself, cannot play the victim when the same weapon is turned against it. If the election of Hamas is cause for boycott, then occupation is a far more potent cause. The fact that Israel is living a lie – pretending that the occupation does not exist, that it is just, temporary and unavoidable – does not make the struggle against it any less legitimate. So let us admit the truth: The occupier deserves to be boycotted. As long as the Israelis pay no price for the occupation, the occupation will not end, and therefore the only way open to the opponents of the occupation is to take concrete means that will make the Israelis understand that the injustice they are perpetrating comes with a price tag.
Despite the bleating from the occupiers, the global boycott campaign is picking up pace and I support it 100%. Desperate times call for desperate measures.