1,200 academics charge BDS ‘violates the very principle of academic freedom’

1,200 academics challenge boycott of Israel by signing petition that charges BDS being unfairly prejudice and for stifling academic freedoms.

By i24news

After upward of 350 anthropologists from around the world have endorsed a boycott of Israel and its academic institutions, some 1,200 academics signed a pro-Israeli petition calling to oppose such measures.

Boycott Israel, BDS ( Twitter )

Boycott Israel, BDS – Twitter

“We, the undersigned academics, (faculty, full time and part time, academic staff including librarians, researchers, post doctorates, technicians and technologists, administrators, and trustees) vigorously support free speech and free debate but we oppose faculty or student boycotts of Israel’s academic institutions, scholars and students,” reads the petition, posted on the website of the Faculty for Academic Freedom.

“The BDS movement es against Israeli institutions, professors, and students for no other reason than their nationality and the policies of their government,” the document charges. “Thus BDS violates the very principle of academic freedom.”

BDS stands for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions.

The anthropologists’ statement was posted on Oct. 1 on the website jadaliyya.com.

Earlier in 2014, over 50 members of the US Congress have signed a bi-partisan letter censuring the decision by the American Studies Association to take part in an academic boycott of Israel.

 

View original i24news publication at: http://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/46627-141009-academics-slam-bds-as-vio