Response to Special Editorial (Vol. 83, Pt. 5, p. 1001)

Dear Sirs,

The proposed boycott of Israeli scientific institutions may be rightly criticised on several grounds. For one, it would be a serious error to close channels of communication with enlightened sectors of Israeli society. Among these are several academics who would want to see a just peace in the Middle East based on a two-state political settlement in which the rights of both populations are upheld and respected, and in which both Israelis and Palestinians enjoy a right to self-determination, in line with several UN resolutions and with the international consensus.

Nevertheless, some information concerning the complex context and timing that shaped the call for the boycott is needed and should not merely be dismissed in less than a sentence (‘in support of one side in the Middle East conflict’) implying that it stems from ‘deep-seated sources of hatred and prejudice’. It is important to remind ourselves that the reasoning at the root of the proposed discontinuation of the co-operation with official Israeli institutions (which, by the way, does not exclude ties with individual Israeli academics) is the belief that the recent military reoccupation of Palestinian territories in the West Bank and Gaza by the Sharon governmentish in defiance of UN resolutions and the Geneva Convention, and the dramatic increase in human rights violations needed a response from the international community.

To date, hundreds of signatures have been obtained from academics worldwide (details are available on ) and, remarkably, a number of Israeli academics have signed the European petition calling for a moratorium on European support to the Israeli academia. One of them is Tanya Reinhart, professor of linguistics at Tel-Aviv University, who explains in a long and detailed letter her reasons for joining this type of action ().

It is argued that Israel itself has been guilty of curtailing academic freedom in the occupied territories for decades wit