Sir, – I am against a proposed Irish boycott of Israeli universities (Letters, November 4th). Preventing those Israeli scholars who have bravely stood up to the crimes of their government and the erosion of the rule of law from accessing EU/other research funds through their institutions is completely counter-productive.
Neither is it consistent: Irish universities have continued to develop lucrative partnerships with institutions in the Persian Gulf. There is no freedom of expression in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Academics who show dissent have been tortured and given long prison sentences.
Gulf regimes have been responsible for the indiscriminate bombing of Yemen. Violations of international humanitarian law have exacted a catastrophic toll; thousands of civilians have been killed in air strikes or because they have been denied access to essential medical supplies and food as a result of a blockade on Yemen’s ports.
Yet there have been few calls for a boycott on universities in Saudi Arabia or elsewhere in the Gulf region.
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Rather than bluntly targeting all Israeli universities, we should continue to support those academics who continue to fight for human dignity including by working with them on EU and other research consortia. – Yours, etc,
Dr EDWARD BURKE,
University College Dublin.
Sir, – The letter from more than 600 academics in relation to the conflict in Gaza was very interesting both for what it said and for what it conspicuously didn’t say.
In a letter which stretched to more than 500 words, the authors somehow managed to avoid using the word “Hamas” even once, referring only to unnamed “Palestinian armed groups”. They describe Israel’s actions as “genocide” a total of 11 times. In contrast, they describe the murders of 1,400 civilians by Hamas on October 7th as mere “criminal attacks”.
Would it really have cost the signatories anything to single out Hamas for criticism by name? Or to at least concede that the killing of Israeli citizens is just as wrong as the killing of Palestinians?
Coming as they do from hundreds of signatories – including 36 professors and more than 260 holders of doctorates – these forms of words were clearly carefully and deliberately chosen, and a conscious decision made that certain facts should not be conceded.
The attempt to minimise the crimes of Hamas, and to expound at length on the wrongs committed by Israel, provides a chilling insight into the minds of a large number of people who are charged with leading academic discourse in our major academic institutions.
Aside from the moral bankruptcy of their position, they have shone a light on a quite extraordinary level of groupthink which appears to exist on international affairs in our third level sector. – Yours, etc,
BARRY WALSH,
Clontarf, Dublin 3.
Sir, – Eugene Tannam puts the case for Israel’ s existence quite bluntly. Surrounded on all sides by Arab/Muslim states, it is Israel, the size of Munster, that is, once more, fighting for its life. This time, it is Hamas terrorists whose aim is not a two-state “solution” but the total annihilation of the Jewish state. – Yours, etc,
ENA KEYE,
Rathfarnham, Dublin 14.