Reply #16: Don't put words in my mouth! [View All]

[richards1052]

"so i take it, your for the idea that academics and others must first pass a "moral test" based on a certain groups version of morality?"

You have violated an unwritten rule I've read others advocate for here: don't assume the viewpt. of someone you're arguing with; don't put words in their mouth. If you want to know my views on something--ask. Don't tell me what I believe. It's cheap & easy grandstanding. Not to mention that yr comment was snarky as well as a poor attempt at wit.

I really wish it were so that Israeli academics as a group did universally condemn the Occupation. If that were so I would oppose a boycott on principle. Personally, I think a boycott is using a sledgehammer when a scalpel in what's really necessary. But as http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/39503.html">Mark LeVine points out in his discussion of the boycott question:

"...It is undeniable that the Israeli academy as a whole--that is, institutionally--has been complicit in the occupation. The movement back and forth of mid-level and senior military and intelligence personnel from active duty service to academic institutions, which I've witnessed first hand during my affiliations with Isareli universities, is a major contributor to the normalization of the occupation within Israeli society, especially among educated Israelis, almost all of whom have served in the army (which has the highest rate of active/combat service of any army in the world). It is worth asking what those who oppose the boycott think should be done about this relationship. Do they think it's okay for people involved in systematic violations of international law to move in and out of academia without censure or sanction? I, for one, do not, although I am doubtful whether a blanket boycott on all academic institutions--and what does 'institutions' mean, universities as a whole, schools, departments, individual professors or students who actively participate in the occupation through their work for the government?--will achieve the desired goal."