Chancellor Decries U.K. Group’s Israeli School Boycott Proposal

Chancellor Robert Birgeneau released a statement last Thursday condemning a boycott that a union of British universities is considering imposing on Israeli schools, saying that if it is enacted, UC Berkeley would stand in solidarity with the Israeli institutions.

Birgeneau’s statement comes in light of a consideration before members of the University and College Union to boycott Israeli schools because the proposal’s authors believe the schools to be complicit in the occupation of Palestine.

According to Birgeneau’s statement, the boycott goes against UC Berkeley’s policy of academic cooperation.

“Their threat to cut off all funding, visits, and joint publishing with Israeli institutions violates the fundamental principles of academic freedom and freedom of speech that are the hallmarks of great universities nationally and internationally,” Birgeneau said in his statement. “We hold these values most deeply at Berkeley, the birthplace of the Free Speech Movement.”

Birgeneau’s statement follows a similar one made by Columbia University President Lee Bollinger that also voiced disapproval of the boycott.

“I find this idea utterly antithetical to the fundamental values of the academy, where we will not hold intellectual exchange hostage to the political disagreements of the moment,” Bollinger said in his statement.

Both Birgeneau and Bollinger’s statements claim that if any boycott is put into effect, their respective institutions will stand in solidarity with the Israeli universities, in effect extending any boycott of the Israeli schools to UC Berkeley and Columbia.

UC Berkeley spokesperson Janet Gilmore said the chancellor’s involvement in the issue can be traced back to his presidency at the University of Toronto, where he took a similar stance.

“It’s important for U.S. academic leaders to speak out against (the boycott) because it violates the basic principals of academic freedom,” Gilmore said.

Gordon Gladstone, acting executive director of Berkeley Hillel, said he agrees with the campus stance.

“We would disagree with the decision of the boycott and we feel, like many people do, that it is inappropriate, unwarranted and quite frankly prejudicial,” Gladstone said.

However, he said he wishes the campus would take an equally vocal stance on what he said are other important issues, such as Sudan.

Yaman Salahi, a board member of Students for Justice in Palestine, said the use of boycotts by educational

institutions is not unfounded and that one was used in the 1980s in the case of South African apartheid.

He also said he was surprised and disappointed by the chancellor’s stance, which he said was not courageous or supported by the entire student body.

“The more difficult decision would have been about the role of Israeli universities in perpetually validating the occupation,” he said.

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