Progressive Zionists Condemn Call for Academic Boycott of Israel

Ameinu

 

Media Advisory: For Immediate Release
New York, NY, February 5, 2009 CONTACT: Hiam Simon (212) 366-1194, hiam@ameinu.net
Progressive Zionists Condemn Call for Academic Boycott of Israel

 

New York, NY: Ameinu, the progressive Zionist organization, condemns the U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel and the support for that boycott by such organizations as "Jewish Peace News.".

 

"This boycott models itself on the failed 2007 initiative of the British Academic Union," Bob said. "Ameinu has a long record of supporting an end to the occupation and a two-state solution that includes free intellectual exchange. This boycott initiative does the opposite. It uses the Gaza conflict as a pretext to stifle academic freedom and delegitimize Israel."

 

Bob added, "Scholars and artists are some of the strongest voices in the Israeli peace movement. Cutting these individuals out of the international dialogue hurts, rather than helps, the cause of Israeli- Palestinian peace."

 

Bob noted that the statement being circulated to enlist support for the boycott failed to mention the thousands of rockets and mortars fired into Israel since the Gaza withdrawal in 2005. "This boycott call," Bob added, "can in no way be described as supportive of peace.'"

 

Ameinu calls for universities to reiterate their 2007 opposition to the previous boycott. It also urges individual scholars to oppose the boycott by obtaining affiliation with one or more Israeli academic institutions. "The procedure is easy," said Bob, "They should simply send their CVs to the provost of the Israeli institution and ask to be listed as Affiliated Faculty."

 

About Ameinu Ameinu, the leading progressive Zionist organization in the United State, is dedicated to promoting a negotiated peace between Israel, the Palestinians and the Arab states, and to social and economic justice for all in Israel and America. Ameinu reinforces Jewish continuity through support for Habonim Dror, the Labor Zionist youth movement, and the Union for Progressive Zionists national campus organization.

 

 

 

Ameinu
Hiam Simon
email: executive@ameinu.net
212 366-1194