Hundreds of British academics are to boycott Israeli universities in protest at their “deep complicity” in their government’s “violations of international law”.The 343 university lecturers in subjects including chemistry, mathematics and political science said that they would not accept invitations for academic visits to Israel or co-operate with Israeli universities in any way. They said that they were “deeply disturbed by Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land” and accused the Israeli government of “intolerable human rights violations that it inflicts on all sections of the Palestinian people, and its apparent determination to resist any feasible settlement”. Ronnie Fraser, director of the Academic Friends of Israel organization, said in a statement that the number of signers represents less than a quarter of 1 percent of the 194,245 academics working in the United Kingdom, which he said constituted a “statistically insignificant minority”. The boycott comes less than a week after 150 British artists, including Harry Potter author JK Rowling, signed a letter opposing a cultural boycott of Israel and called for engaement with Israel to address Palestinian grievances. Luckily, similar moves have been reported in India as well where ten film-makers returned their national awards on Wednesday to protest against growing intolerance in the country. Earlier, noted Kashmiri writer and poet Marghoob Banhali returned Sahitya Akademi award against increasing attacks on minorities in India. Some Kashmiri students also refused to get degrees from Indian leaders in protest against atrocities on Kashmiris by occupation forces. Both India and Israel are the countries with poor human rights record and are known for their brutal attitude towards minorities especially Kashmiri Muslims and Palestinians, repectively. Lately, there have been a series of acts of violence against Muslims and other minorities in India on the issues of slaughter of cow and people-to-people contacts with Pakistan. The world has been condemning brutalities against Palestinians and minorities in India but unfortunately these two countries have adopted a contemptuous attitude towards global public opinion. They are persisting with their repressive policies and that has forced writers and poets, who are more sensitive and feel for people, to react to their policies. As governments of so-called civilized countries are not ready to intervene effectively on behalf of Palestinians and minorities in India just for the sake of their own interests, we hope other segments of the civil society in different countries would follow the footsteps of writers and intellectuals in boycotting Israel and India in different ways.
pk.shafaqna.com
