Kesher Talk

Richard Dawkins regrets signing onto academic boycott of Israel: Prof. Mona Baker, who fired two Israeli academics for the crime of being Israeli, is one of the signatories of a British-led petition sporting more than 700 (mainly European) academics. It was launched by Prof. Steven Rose of Britain's Open University. Signatories include some of the most eminent Oxford professors, including Colin Blakemore and Richard Dawkins. This organized "academic boycott" is part of a campaign to suspend European Union funding of Israeli universities (though not, of course, the EU's generous financing of Yasser Arafat). Surprisingly, 10 Israeli academics have also signed the petition.

One of the petition's original signers, Richard Dawkins of Oxford University, has since written the following to a member of HonestReporting:

I publicly expressed my regret at having signed the original letter. When I signed it, it was a measure of desperation... Steven Rose put the petition in front of me and I signed it (along with many others including Israelis, and Jews including Steven Rose himself) as an immediate gesture of solidarity with the Arabs of the occupied lands. Only later did I think through the implications of an academic boycott, and... hence my later recantation.

This does not make me think much higher of Dawkins, but it is a start.

On the brighter side, other academics are organizing a petition against the petition.

posted by Howard @ 7/23/2002 04:48:22 PM