(no subject)
I just received this by email:
>Subject: PLEASE VOTE NO NOWSo I did, and in the "Tell us why you voted the way you did" box I wrote:
>
>Already publicised in the media, The British Medical
>Journal (BMJ journal of the British Medical Association
>BMA bless them!) decided this week to run a Comment
>column:
>"Head to head: Should we consider a boycott of Israeli
>academic institutions" with an online poll.
>
>You should know that this poll is OPEN TO ALL, and note
>that overnight the boycotters have increased from 5.6%
>(395 /7061) to now 21.5% (2942/13665)
>
>Please vote now on the link.
>http://www.bmj.com/
>and VOTE NO.
Firstly, why pick on Israel? Many other countries in the world have far worse human rights violations than Israel does. Israel's behaviour may be flawed, but it is a democracy, and with a Supreme Court that has been known to rule in favour of pro-Palestinian groups (sometimes against the government), and it is only trying to protect its own citizens. If England had to deal with a constant influx of Scottish suicide bombers, I doubt this country would acquit itself any better.FWIW, from a medical point of view, I was recently treated in an Israeli hospital myself, the medical staff of which were both Jewish and Arab (though obviously I don't know if the Arab staff were Israeli Arabs or Palestinians).
Secondly, hurting Israel hurts the Palestinians. Many Palestinians are employed in Israel; hurting the Israeli economy makes matters worse for Palestinians. (Indeed, as regards quality of life for Palestinians, launching the second intifada in 2000 was the worst thing they could have done.)
Thirdly, Israeli universities themselves collaborate with Palestinian universities; for example, the Hebrew University at Jerusalem has projects shared with Al-Quds University, the president of which is opposed to the boycott.
Fourthly and finally, the boycott is not the product of the Palestinians themselves, but of anti-Zionists in the west.
See here for some debunking of common myths about this boycott.