Boris Johnson MP, Tory spokesman on higher education, has attacked the University and College’s Union boycott of Israel as "disgusting and one-sided.” Writing on his blog, he describes the Israel-Palestinian situation as "nightmarishly difficult" with "faults on both sides" and questions why the UCU haven't led boycotts of other regimes:
“Where is the UCU denunciation of the Palestinians who have been detaining a BBC journalist for more than a month? I do not notice UCU voting to sever contacts with Iran, where students have recently been hanged for opposition to the regime. Come to that, I don't see any condemnation of the leftist tyrant Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, who has just taken a hostile TV station off the air. What kind of point is UCU trying to make?”
Lord Coe, visiting Israel, has also condemned the boycott.
Watch Benjamin Netanyahu condemn the boycott:
Well done Boris. Sometimes I'm ashamed to be British.
Posted by: Jennifer Wells | June 07, 2007 at 20:40
Watch Benjamin Netanyahu condemn the boycott
No thanks. People like Netanyahu are among the reasons why Israel gets such a bad press.
The boycott is disgusting. We'd all agree that. However I've often thought that the Tories have appeared too biased on the issue.
I admire the courage and creativity of the Israelis but we must not be blind to the faults of some of their more way-out elements, who would be a lot less bold if everything they do and say weren't underwritten by America.
It would have been far more impressive if Cameron had taken a stand on this issue, but as ever he leaves it to one of the sidekicks - in this case a man whom nobody takes seriously.
As for all that twaddle about Chavez etc. one might well ask why Johnson is happy to stand up for Israel while slagging off Liverpool, Portsmouth, Papua New Guinea and so forth.
Posted by: Traditional Tory | June 07, 2007 at 21:06
it is bad, but worse, and scarcely reported, was the reciprocal plan for a boycott on the entire nation of Great Britain by Israel. University lecturers might be silly lefties, but they do not represent the whole of the UK, and the attack on Britain, one of Israel's few allies, is hardly endearing.
See
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1180867542263&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Posted by: mike | June 07, 2007 at 21:25
Boris is spot on. This boycott is a disgrace and those participating in it should be ashamed of themselves
Posted by: TaxCutter | June 07, 2007 at 22:04
The UCU are a disgrace.
Interestingly, we just had the best attended Conservative Future event in several years. We had 200 people attend the Conservative Future joint event with the Conservative Friends of Israel.
The youth wing of the Conservative Party is completely behind Boris Johnson on this issue.
Posted by: Mark Clarke (Conservative Future National Chairman) | June 08, 2007 at 05:24
University lecturers might be silly lefties, but they do not represent the whole of the UK
That is simply untrue. You imply that this Conference is representative of its membership......not even the BMA can claim that.
These are activists from places like Brighton "University" and Teacher Training Colleges who peddle their infantile politics to a waiting media - most of their members are concerned about short-term contracts, funding cutbacks, and whether they can find pensionable employment.
The lunatic left once employed a man called Triesmann as its Communist figurehead running NATFHE - he is now a Foreign Office Minister......let us not forget the Charles Clarke, Jack Straw and other idiot student politics activists
Posted by: TomTom | June 08, 2007 at 07:28
So the youth wing of the party has been taken over by the far right? This has happened before.
David Cameron has made some very encouraging and concerned statements about the oppression of the Palestinians. Here's hoping he will have no truck with these extremists.
If necessary they should be closed down again like they were before.
Posted by: Caring Conservative | June 08, 2007 at 07:30
Well done Boris.
The situation in the Middle East is desperately sad. I do wish organisations like the UCU and others would stop making matters worse by continually attacking Israel in this disproportionate manner while turning a seemingly blind eye to the actions of other nations in the region.
Posted by: Richard Hyslop | June 08, 2007 at 08:18
"So the youth wing of the party has been taken over by the far right? "
So if you're not anti-Semitic you're 'far right'?
I'm one academic happy to condemn this boycott. Makes me glad I'm not a Union member.
Posted by: Simon Newman | June 08, 2007 at 08:20
Well put, Simon. I'm always intrigued by the wilful blindness of people like Caring Conservative. Israel has plenty of faults but it is the only functioning democracy in the Middle East and non-Jews enjoy far better civil rights there than in the corrupt despotism of the Palestinian Authority, Syria, Iran and even states such as Jordan and Egypt. Let's not even talk about minority rights in Saudi Arabia....for the simple reason that there aren't any.
Hence people lie Caring Conservative end up sounding like those Cliveden Conservatives who in 1938 made a big fuss about the plight of the Sudeten Germans who had the "misfortune" to live in an essentially democratic state, Czechoslovakia. We all know what the sequel to that was.
Posted by: Michael McGowan | June 08, 2007 at 10:58
Well said Boris, the UCU are acting like a bunch of Fascists, i'm surprised that they havn't got around to book burning.
The UCU have shown themselves to be intolerant, uncaring, self-centred and thoroughly despotic. What though is even more sad is their total lack of understanding of the Palestinian issue. The Arab world wants no solution to the problem, it serves as a constant cancerous sore, confounding realtionships with the West and Israel. It's leverage. The Arabs have no more regard for the Palestinians than the Jews, the difference is that the Arab world has the means to end and solve the problem.
I'm surprised, not, that many more people have not come out to excoriate the fundamentalists and extremists at the UCU, our government should be cancelling grants, instigating enquiries and demanding that they retract. The silence is deafening and a damning indictment of the left.
Posted by: George Hinton | June 08, 2007 at 11:19
Oh come on chaps (Simon & Michael) this person is the most obvious of trolls imaginable.Ignore him/her and they will go away.
The academic boycott is a disgrace and completely counterproductive. Are the academics really this narrow minded? The boycott says more about them than it does Israel.
Posted by: malcolm | June 08, 2007 at 11:20
Boycotts like this are based on the mistaken belief that if we side with the enemies of Israel, then Islamists might leave us alone.
As has already been proved, organisations that act in this manner are hugely mistaken.
That they would shun a state where free speech and democracy thrives, in favour of despotic regimes that hardly share the "oh so lefty" views of the UCU is beyond comprehension.
There are countries out there who sould be boycotted. Most of them are left-wing. Chavez is going down the lie of nationalising the country's media, meaning that in the future he will be able to do whatever he want without fear of being exposed.
This isn't a concern for the UCU, which says all you need to know about the so caled "academics".
Posted by: Neil Wilson | June 08, 2007 at 11:43
So if you're not anti-Semitic you're 'far right'?
Please let us not conflate being against the Israeli regime with being anti-Semitic.
The academic boycott won't be voted on by the membership until next year. It's a very poor idea.
Posted by: passing leftie | June 08, 2007 at 12:25
According to Wikipedia the term "regime" is usually used with a negative connotation, usually referring to a government not friendly to interests of Western governments, or a "dictatorship". Since when was Israel a "regime"? It is this subtle use of language that the left and some media use to give an impression of something that isn't there.
Israel is the only democracy in the middle east (excluding Iraq if you count it). These boycotts are based on ignorance and mis-information.
See my blog for an even more worrying boycott - http://racheljoyce.blogspot.com/2007/06/boycotts-of-israel-disgrace-for.html
Posted by: Rachel Joyce | June 08, 2007 at 19:24
Whilst not an admirer of Boris I'm glad to see
him saying something I agree with for a change .
Posted by: Bill | June 08, 2007 at 19:28
Just because most of the other 'regimes' around Israel are particularly unpleasant doesn't mean that the government of Israel is one we would particularly wish to praise, or live under.
I don't believe that these states are morally equivalent. Israel is, on balance, fairer and more democratic than the Arab states, but it is not popular with the general public and with good reason.
Oh dear, I'm beginning to sound like a Cameroon again, but I have long thought that Tories do themselves no good by their endless partisan support for one particular side in this ongoing foreign row.
Posted by: Traditional Tory | June 08, 2007 at 19:37
I see the usual zionist rabble have crawled out from the woodwork. Your first loyalty is clearly to Israel so why don't you all go and live there?
You and your Arab cousins could carry on your ancient trial blood feud to your hearts content over there without any interference from us goys.
I think I speak for most Anglo Saxon/Celtic Britons when I say that we are all heartily sick to death with the lot of you.
Posted by: true brit | June 09, 2007 at 23:32
I see true brit has some really constructive comments here. Obviously should be pm as true brit would sort it all out!
Posted by: a real true brit | June 10, 2007 at 10:03
Explaination why academics in the UK shouldn't have any dealings with Israeli academics. Tom Hickey wins the debate.
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/international_politics/israel+to+hit+back+over+boycott/556372
Many of the above postings are very damaging to the Tory Party. What year did we actually come under the Kenesset?
Posted by: Fred Baker | June 17, 2007 at 07:51
We didn't Fred - but as someone else has already pointed out, Israel is the only Western democracy in the Middle East. By the way, the link you've given here doesn't appear to work - but I think I can guess the gist of it.
On the subject of boycotts - frankly in general I find them an extremely childish form of protest. Usually I respond by deliberately buying everything on the list of products that the instigators of the boycott want me to avoid!!!
Posted by: Sally Roberts | June 17, 2007 at 08:40