i lia PA R K ON IVIIDDLEI3ELT *************** New No Grand Terminal Special of u i P 1 0I N ligations I Firing of Israeli academics fuels debate I One smoin $ l4El I Tax = $700/241 Ms Tint I $ 38 Pius 30% Airport I One Coupon per Visit. No Other Dhcounts Apply. Aiwa I Employees not eligible. Exp. 12-31 I *Old 41 1ttileOfiCd I &Imo \1 7 4 ocoo•o txr,,,,cit Exit 198 frout1-94 Merit Rd. South I • Continuous FREE 24 Hr. Swint to Exitinq & Midfield Terminal • Door-to4;toor Serrke • Minutes to oil Terminals • Easy ininui off 1-94 & 1-275 I 9601 Middlebelt Road 1-800-447-PARK www.us-park.com lee Portraits Williali; Aksel www.williamakselart.com (248) 356-7812 email waicsel@williamakselart.com : B&W and oil/alkyds CLICK, CALL, DATE it's that easy www.detroitjewish news. com click on "Personals" Questions? 800.694.2269 2002 28 Collegiate Bias over use of political boycotts. JOE BERKOFSKY Jewish Telegraphic Agency r New York City or Bar-Ilan University sen- ior lecturer Miriam Shlesinger, the entire "sad" affair began in April when a longtime colleague e-mailed her a plea to join a boycott of Israeli academics. The surprising message came from her old friend, Mona Baker, at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology in England. The e-mail alerted her about an April embargo of cultural and scientif- ic links with Israel that a few British academics had launched to pressure Israel to withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza Strip. But Shlesinger told Baker she could- n't back the boycott "because academic life should be separate from politics," Shlesinger said this week. The exchange led to an even more surprising event that touched off an international furor in academic circles over questions of blacklisting, intellectu- al freedom and anti-Israel motivations. It also has become a lighting rod for an increasingly strident debate about the use of boycotts to protest Israel policies. In June, Baker asked Shlesinger and Gideon Toury, a professor of transla- tion studies at Tel Aviv University, to resign from the boards of two transla- tion studies journals that Baker pub- lishes and edits. The Cairo-born Baker, also a professor of translation studies, said she was acting in the spir- it of the anti-Israel boycott. Since her colleagues represented Israeli institutions, she could no longer work with them, Shlesinger was told. When Shlesinger and Toury refused to step down, Baker fired them. "It's sad, because it's so counterpro- ductive and futile," said Shlesinger, whose son-in-law was killed in an ambush by Hamas gunmen. "If I were to lie down in front of tanks in Jenin, I would still be an Israeli. I am being dismissed because I am Israeli — not for anything I've done or said," said Shlesinger, who chaired the Israeli chapter of the human rights group Amnesty International from 1990 to 1993 and has been a Peace Now activist almost since its founding in the early 1980s. The firings set off intense criticism, especially in the United States, where academics have largely lined up in sup- port of Shlesinger and Toury and have questioned a series of attempts in Europe to isolate Israel and Israeli academics. Last week, the Association of Jewish Studies (AJS), based at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., denounced the removal of the Israelis and urged Baker to reinstate them. Miriam Shlesinger, a Bar-Ilan senior lecturer in Ramat Gan, was fired from her job working for a British academic journal. "Political issues should not intrude on academic concerns and the intellectual pursuit of truth," said Aaron Katchen, executive director of AJS. Katchen called Baker's decision "egregious" and "unacceptable" and said she should be reprimanded if the Manchester Institute finds she violated any school policies. Institute officials would not comment on the controversy, though they posted a statement on the school's Web site saying "the Israeli academics should not have been removed" and they were con- ducting "an internal inquiry." Since e-mailing its protest last week, AJS has received "several dozen" responses from its 2,000 members against the firings. Stephen Greenblatt, a professor at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., and a leading scholar on Shakespeare who is president of the Modern Language Association, wrote letters to the New York Times and London Telegraph, among others, blasting Baker's move. Noting that Baker's two journals to which the Israelis contributed concerned cross-cultural communication, Green- blatt said in a telephone interview: "It's rather difficult to have intercultural communication if you exclude a whole country on the basis of nationality." And if Baker's intent is to hasten Mideast peace, he said, her actions will accomplish the opposite. Hopes for peace lie "in the fostering of relation- ships, even between people who haven't spoken to one another." Several commentators have also said boycotts are not likely to help the peace process because they isolate the very people — liberal intellectuals and aca- demics — who support peace initia- tives. Shlesinger herself reiterated that academics' politics have no connection to their work. "Even if Professor Toury and I were right-wing or we were set- tlers, we still shouldn't be fired from an academic journal," she said. - Just what motivated Shlesinger's col- league and longtime friend remained unclear. Baker could not be reached for comment, but several British media reports said she had become increasingly sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and was upset over Israel's Operation Protective Wall, which was launched in response to.a wave of deadly suicide attacks. It was in early April, shortly after Israel's operation began, that professors Steven and Hilary Rose of England's Open University launched the cam- paign to boycott Israeli academics. Their campaign, which also calls for an embargo on European funding of Israeli scientific and cultural institu- tions, has attracted more than 700 backers from 20 countries, including 10 Israelis, according to a list on their Web site. Advocates of a boycott say such actions can make a difference, with some citing the boycotts against the for- mer apartheid regime of South Africa. Reactions to the academic ban against Israelis have ranged from out- right support in England, where the British Association of University Teachers and the lecturers union have lauded the move, to opposition by a German scientific society, the Berlin- Brandenburg Scientific Academy. In response to the boycott efforts, three professors at Hebrew University in Jerusalem initiated a countermea- sure, which has gained at least 13,000 signatures. ❑