"Forum tackles controversial academic boycott topic"
December 6, 2007
The Eyeopener
Ryerson University (Canada)
On the Web at:
http://www.theeyeopener.com/article/3657
Written by Adrian Morrow
Hundreds of students and faculty packed the business building on Wednesday night for a forum on a proposal to boycott Israeli universities.
What started as a dour academic discussion soon grew into an impassioned and at times angry debate.
The academic boycott — proposed by two British unions of post-secondary instructors — would see universities cut ties with their counterparts in Israel in hopes of pressuring the country to settle its fight with Palestine.
South African professor Salim Vally equated the situation in Israel with apartheid and argued that, like the Canadian-led boycott in the ‘80s that helped end white minority rule in his country, an international boycott of Israeli universities would help ramp up the pressure on Jerusalem to withdraw from Palestine.
Vally and fellow panel-member Allan Sears maintained that a debate would also support Palestinian academics who were suffering a loss of academic freedom from having universities shut down and people unable to move freely within their own land.
The other panel members — professors John Caruana and Stuart Murray — countered that boycotting academics wouldn’t help the situation in Israel.
Murray said that, while he wasn’t opposed to taking action outside of academia, that universities shouldn’t be part of a boycott. He added that some Israeli academics are voices of dissent and a boycott could silence them.
During a raucous session of audience questions and comments, most of the room argued in favour of a boycott and of the Palestinian cause in general.
Students who’d come down from York spoke up at the debate, as well as at least two native Palestinians.
The comments drew fire from the few audience members who spoke against a boycott, one of whom stood up to say the forum wasn’t a debate, but a one-sided discussion.
Ryerson’s debate was the first major forum for the issue in Canada. Over the summer, President Sheldon Levy issued a statement, along with the presidents of several other universities, repudiating the call for an academic boycott.
Heather Kere, Vice President Education for the Ryerson Students’ Union, called for him to rescind his statement because he hadn’t consulted with students before issuing it. Kere and Levy organized and hosted the debate.
____________________________________
