tuluum's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PETITION AGAINST INTELLECTUAL DISCRIMINATION! On Dec 16, the renowned French University Paris VI decided to stop all collaboration with Israeli universities and requested the European Union to do the same. This initiative is reminiscent of the pre-holocaust period when Jews where progressively banned from professional sectors paving the way to ban them from the surface of the earth. Go to http://217.174.203.80/contreleboycott/index.php3?lang=angl and add your name to the petition protesting this ban. ***Petition Text*** TOWARDS AN EXCHANGE OF KNOWLEDGE AND AGAINST THE BOYCOTT We have learnt, to our dismay, that a motion asking the European Union not to renew its exchange program with Israel was approved by the Administrative Council of Pierre and Marie University Paris VI, on December 16, 2002. A similar motion is on the agenda of the Administrative Council of Paris University VII Denis Diderot for next January 7. This proposal is aimed at officializing a sweeping process of exclusion which has profound implications for individuals and institutions: it excludes researchers from scientific committees, conferences and scientific journals, it excludes consideration of international research projects and academic hosting programs for university faculty, and it places a ban on international student exchange programs. Israeli university and research institutions, which are independent organizations as regards the State, are in no way accountable for the political decisions made by the Israeli government, whatever they are. A unilateral termination of exchanges would, however, isolate and turn the members of these institutions into outcasts. Is this in fact the real purpose of the motion? This initiative runs counter the intellectual and ethical tradition of the University, whose role the world over is to foster the exchange of ideas, the free circulation of knowledge, and not hand down pronouncements of exclusions or bans whose goal and outcome is to stigmatize and to place researchers and teachers on a black list solely because of their nationality.
Beyond being unacceptable in terms of the principles that govern the intellectual community as a whole, this initiative would be counter productive and in contradiction to its stated aims. It so happens that these Israeli academics who are being targeted for exclusion from the international scientific community have been involved, within Israeli democratic system, in the search for an equitable and peaceful solution for the Israeli and Palestinian peoples and have been the prime movers in spearheading the peace movement. Despite the long and bloody conflict, many continue to work in this direction and maintain exchanges with Palestinian academics, thus sowing the seeds of future coexistence. The individuals who approved this motion, despite their virtuous protestations to the contrary, have entered clearly into a logic of rejection and war which would only reinforce the perception among Israelis that the whole world is blindly and unreasoningly against them and that even the most moderate stances are neither heard or heeded by the international community or academia. We thus demand that the Administrative Council of the University of Paris VI withdraw their motion and reject its content, and the Administrative Council of University of Paris VII to reject the motion which will be submitted to it in the near future. Similarly we ask all our universities to take concrete steps to promote dialogue between Israeli and Palestinian academics.
**************************************************************************** Current Clix Ranking: 64 | Previous Clix Ranking: 68 8:09 a.m. - Sunday, Jan. 26, 2003 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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