In the wake of the failed academic boycott attempt at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), NIJ reports that “Norwegian business tycoon Olav Thon has decided that due to the politicizing of NTNU he will no longer finance a professorate at that institution.” More here. Meanwhile, in case you don’t know who Mr. Thon is, or how much he is worth, here is some background from Forbes.
Archive for the 'academic boycott' Category
One of the drawbacks of writing about antisemitism and its anti-Zionist variant is that, too often, you feel like you’re living the same day over and over again. First there was the Encyclopedia of Race and Racism, now Bongani Masuku has reappeared.
I had the dubious pleasure of writing about this most foul of antisemites back in February; almost a year later, he’s turned up in the UK as an honored guest of academic boycott advocates BRICUP. There’s a must-read post by Alana Pugh-Jones on Engage, here. The essence of it: South Africa’s Human Rights Commission has found Masuku guilty of engaging in hate speech. However, since his targets were Jews, I’ll wager that Mike Cushman, Steven Rose, Jonathan Rosenhead and their BRICUP colleagues will be positively salivating at the thought of escorting him around British campuses.
I don’t think so, as I argue in this op-ed for the Jerusalem Post.
It’s good news. Dare I say, it’s great news. Here’s Ha’aretz (the typos are theirs:)
An academic boycott of Israel in Norway was averted on Thursday, when the executive board of the University of Trondheim unanimously decided to reject the controversial move. “The vote resulted in total victory,” said Professor Bjorn Alsberg, a member of the board of the Trondheim-based Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Alsberg, a chemistry professor, led a campaigned at the Norwegian city against the boycott.
Read the rest. Meanwhile, here’s a note from Kristian of the truly excellent NIJ blog, left in our comments, but deserving of the widest possible audience:
“What we just have seen is as rare as it is beautiful, with people standing up against an organized network of resourceful people who have been demonizing Israel for decades. This was a Norwegian thing and in the end, only Norwegians could solve it. Yet we could not have done so without all the international support. My heartfelt thanks to all of you.
Stay beautiful!”
A few developments in recent days could reasonably lead one to conclude that, come Thursday, the Board of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) will vote against the proposal for a blanket boycott of Israeli academia, culture and research. Perhaps most significantly, as relayed by the indispensable NIJ blog, Norwegian Minister of Higher Education and Research Tora Aasland, a member of the Socialist Left Party, “sees a boycott as a violation of legal practice.”
Continue reading ‘NTNU Boycott Campaign: Will They or Won’t They?’
Below is a statement from the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) opposing the proposed academic boycott of Israel at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).
Our friends and colleagues at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim will soon be voting on whether to initiate a boycott of Israeli academic institutions. Faculty members in Norway have already spoken out eloquently and on point about the reasons to defeat this proposal. Because the decision has the potential to have an impact on debates at academic institutions in many other countries, we would like to join our many Norwegian counterparts who oppose the action.
Continue reading ‘US Professors Oppose NTNU Boycott Campaign’
According to The Scientist magazine, which can be considered an authority on such matters, the Weizmann Institute of Science, located in Rehovot, Israel, comes in at number two on a list of the ten leading international academic institutions working in the life sciences. That ranking will doubtless be received with justifiable glee at the venerable Institute, but I wonder how it will be interpreted at another academic institution which didn’t make the list: the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), located in the city of Trondheim.
Continue reading ‘A-ha! Norwegian University is Latest Focus of Academic Boycott’
“The Zionists bareley (sic) showed up,” crowed one pro-boycott activist attending the University and College Union’s annual Congress in the British seaside town of Bournemouth. I won’t comment here - go instead to our friends at Engage who continue to expose the stench of antisemitism in this corner of British academia.
No sign yet of a major campaign in the UCU, the British academic union, to highlight the current plight of Burmese opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. We’ll keep you posted. Meanwhile, the UCU leadership is now denying earlier reports that some of the union’s trustees have gone to court this week to obtain an injunction to stop the union from going ahead with another debate about boycotting Israelis - while, as usual, not telling anyone what is going on. Update: read the new UCU motion and David Hirsh’s take on it here. Here we go yet again.
The boycotters are proffering advice on the upcoming elections to the national Executive of the Universities and College Union in the UK. Read David Hirsh’s take here.
I’ve never thought that the academic boycott campaign would catch on in any meaningful way on North American campuses. Even against the background of campus anti-Israel demonstrations which have occasionally turned violent, Israel apartheid weeks, divestment campaigns and the foaming pronouncements of certain faculty members, the idea that US academics would boycott their Israeli colleagues along similar lines proposed by the UCU in Britain has seemed about as probable as a Hamas fundraiser headlined by Jackie Mason.
One of the more sinister aspects of the academic boycott campaign against Israel in the UK was its demand that Israeli academics take a disloyalty oath: that in order to engage in international collaboration with other academics, they had to first disavow their government. That tactic has now been imported to Canada.
Continue reading ‘Israel Academic Boycott Urged by Canada Labor Leader’
It’s complicated, it’s exasperating, it’s a sorry tale of far left lunacy, and if I didn’t have Jon Pike to decipher it all for me, I would be feeling very confused.
Thankfully, Jon makes one thing very clear: “The 2008 round of the boycott debate is over, and the boycotters have lost. Again.” Go to Engage for his explanation of why.
Ed Morgan is a Professor of Law at the University of Toronto. In this fascinating column, he relates two recent experiences which persuaded him that rational, informed debate is not always the norm in the ivory tower.
Continue reading ‘Ed Morgan: The “One-State” Crowd Up Close’
I’ve followed, from a distance, the debate in the UK on a possible academic boycott of Israel and no other country pretty much from the start. I’ve paid as much attention to it as I could, I believe in the vital importance of trade unions and if I didn’t have some faith in the power of argument I wouldn’t be writing here.
