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Discussing academic freedom

Updated: 17/Jan/2006 16:51

European Ambassador Ramiro Cibrian-Uzal

Photo: The European Commission's Delegation

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Bar Ilan University in Israel is to host an international conference on academic freedom at the end of January.

The conference, entitled “Academic Freedom and the Politics of Boycotts”, will examine the origins and development of academic freedom and look at the debate regarding legitimate limitations and exceptions of academic freedom.

It follows the unsuccessful attempt last April by the Association of University Teachers (AUT), a British Trade Union, to boycott Bar Ilan and Haifa Universities.

Other aspects of the conference will include examining the complex boundary between political and academic freedom and will look whether those who advocate academic boycotts in support of political agendas, are seeking to curtail the rights of free speech of those who have different views.

Panel discussions will also look at the context of boycott efforts in the framework of the ongoing political struggle in Britain and elsewhere related the Arab-Israeli conflict, including examination of the factors that gave rise to and sustained these efforts singling out Israel.

The role of anti-Semitism, the divestment campaign and the role of powerful non-governmental organisations will also be examined.

The panels will include diplomats such as British Ambassador Simon McDonald and European Ambassador Ramiro Cibrian-Uzal.

The closing discussion will examine the strategies that were employed in response to the boycott vote and the implications of these efforts for future efforts.

Professor Gerald Steinberg, chair of the conference committee, said: “The principles of academic freedom and equality among members of the scientific community have a long and revered history.”

“The right to follow the research trail and search for knowledge without regard to whose interests and power may be threatened is not an empty slogan to be tossed away by political and ideological fashion.”

The Conference’s Honorary Board includes world known authors A.B. Yehoshua, professor of literature at Haifa University, and Amos Oz, professor of literature at Ben Gurion University.

Attending the conference will be Professor Alan Dershowitz, from Harvard Law School, who will deliver a keynote speech to open the conference.

Also attending is Anthony Julius, Princess Diana’s former lawyer, who represented Deborah Lipstadt, who will also be attending, in her famous case against David Irving, the British Holocaust denier.

Others include Professor Anne Bayefsky, from Touro College in New York, who is known for her human rights website bayefsky.com dedicated to enhancing the implementation of the human rights legal standards of the United Nations and Professor Asa Kasher from Tel-Aviv University, winner of the Israel Prize for Philosophy in 2000.

The motion to boycott Israeli institutions was decisively overturned at a special meeting of the AUT special council in May 2005 and all boycott motions revoked.

In a statement Sally Hunt, AUT general secretary, said: “It is now time to build bridges between those with opposing views here in the UK and to commit to supporting trade unionists in Israel and Palestine working for peace.”