|
University Professors
call for a European boycott of research and cultural links with Israel
(see
the press release)
Despite widespread international condemnation for its policy of violent
repression against the Palestinian people in the Occupied Territories,
the Israeli government appears impervious to moral appeals from world
leaders. The major potential source of effective criticism, the United
States, seems reluctant to act.
However there are ways of exerting pressure from within Europe. Odd though
it may appear, many national and European cultural and research institutions,
including especially those funded from the EU and the European Science
Foundation, regard Israel as a European state for the purposes of awarding
grants and contracts. (No other Middle Eastern state is so regarded).
Would it not therefore be timely if at both national and European level
a moratorium was called upon any further such support unless and until
Israel abide by UN resolutions and open serious peace negotiations with
the Palestinians, along the lines proposed in many peace plans including
most recently that sponsored by the Saudis and the Arab League.
The list of Signatures (not included).
See
realated publications in Guardian
|