Academic freedom in Israel and Palestine

摘要

Many readers of this journal will, like me, have colleagues whose research we respect, with whom we have collaborated, and among whom we have friends. Yyet, these relationships have been overshadowed by the human rights abuses inflicted against the Ppalestinians, Iisrael’s flouting of UuN resolutions and its indifference to international law. Iin 2002, this unease was given public expression with the call for European researchers to cease collaborating with Iisraeli academic institutions through the Framework Pprogramme until Iisrael made serious moves towards a just and lasting peace. Hundreds of academics signed. Hanna Nasir, president of the leading West Bank university, Birzeit, sent a brief e-mail thanking the signatories: “We thought Europe had forgotten us.” Iin the years that followed,and especially after Iisrael’s invasion of Ggaza, the academic boycott has become a small part of a growing movement of civil society who are angry, even despairing, at the failure of international institutions and governments to rein in Iisrael.