BRITAIN: A British academic has caused controversy by dismissing two scholars from her highly respected international journals because they are Israeli, the Sunday Telegraph reported.
Prof Mona Baker, from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, sacked Dr Miriam Shlesinger and Prof Gideon Toury from the boards of two academic journals she owns because of their nationality after they refused to resign, the newspaper said.
"I deplore the Israeli state. Miriam knew that was how I felt and that they would have to go because of the current situation," Prof Baker was quoted as saying.
"I am not against Israeli nationals per se. It is Israeli institutions as part of the Israeli state which I absolutely deplore." Her decision was her "interpretation of what a boycott of Israel means".
The two sacked academics worked for three years on the journals, which are related to the study of translation. Both work at universities at or near Tel Aviv.
The newspaper said the sackings had raised no public objections from British academics. But Prof Stephen Greenblatt of Harvard University, the president of the Modern Language Association of America, has written an open letter to Prof Baker protesting at her decision.
"An attack on cultural co-operation, with a particular group singled out for collective punishment, violates the essential spirit of scholarly freedom and the pursuit of truth," he wrote, according to the newspaper. "The pursuit of knowledge does not suddenly come to a halt at national borders.
"That does not mean that serious scholars must be indifferent to the world's murderous struggles, but it does mean that they are committed to an ongoing, frank conversation." - (AFP)