UK teachers' boycott may be overturned

The backlash to the decision of Britain's Association of University Teachers to boycott Haifa and Bar Ilan universities has continued to gain pace this week, as further protests, resignations, and calls for a national emergency session to overturn the boycotts have been issued, denting chances that the boycott resolutions will survive long enough to be implemented.

Chris Fox, lecturer in Computer Science at Essex University, told The Jerusalem Post that the 25 signatures by AUT local association members required to submit a motion calling for the repeal of the boycott resolutions were being collected.

snip

"The first academics to resign from the AUT, Shalom Lappin and Jonathan Ginzburg, have circulated an open letter calling on members to join them in breaking away from the union.

"For the past several years an ugly campaign of anti-Jewish provocation has been building on the margins of the Israel hate-fest that the boycott supporters have been promoting on campuses throughout the UK," they said in the letter.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1114741317358

..................................................................

Israel. I hope this boycott succeeds. Israel is the new version of South Africa under apartheid.

Do you know what it is to a victim of a boycott?

Let me re-phrase it: DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT IS TO A VICTIM OF A BOYCOTT?

Let me try it again: DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT IS TO A VICTIM OF A BOYCOTT?

I will give you the benefit of assuming that you are a person of good will – and did not know that the Arab League Boycott Office has maintained a "boycott" of Jews qua Jews under the cover of a boycott of Israel.

The Arab boycott was formally declared by the newly formed Arab League Council on December 2, 1945: "Jewish products and manufactured goods shall be considered undesirable to the Arab countries." All Arab "institutions, organizations, merchants, commission agents and individuals" were called upon "to refuse to deal in, distribute, or consume Zionist products or manufactured goods."

One thing I want to point out, as is evident in this declaration, the terms "Jewish" and "Zionist" were used synonymously by the Arabs. They are not participants in the DU Israel/Palestine forum. Thus, even before the establishment of Israel, the Arab states had declared an economic boycott against Jews. Hardly Liberal and Progressive!

The Arab boycott, operates at three levels: primary, secondary and tertiary. The primary boycott is a refusal by Arab states to conduct any economic relations with Israel. The secondary boycott denies Arab business to firms that "materially contribute to Israel's economic and technological development." Such firms are, in effect, "blacklisted" by Arab states. The tertiary boycott involves a denial of trade with firms that have "business ties" with blacklisted companies.

One of the effects is that United States, or British, or Canadian, or Australian citizens who are "Jewish" (I don’t know if they mean racially, religiously, self-identification, or surname. I have a friend who is a Jewish surnamed, second generation Unitarian, and he was deemed "Jewish" by the Boycott Office) are denied employment by companies that wish to engage in business in countries that support the "Boycott."

What does the boycott present a Jewish employee from doing? Or prohibit the employer from doing (Saudi Arabia interprets the boycott as "enterprise wide" – a Jewish employee anywhere in a large multi-national, multi-line of business, multi-division company "poisons" the whole company). The boycott rules themselves proscribe:

:
infrastructure development projects
securities offerings
international trade financings and transactions
mergers and acquisitions
bank financings
and the normal day to day business operations of a company including, by way of example

drilling oil
refining oil
maintaining a refinery
research and development back in Houston
seismic analysis

The United States has strong antiboycott laws:

1) The first law is the Export Administration Act ("EAA"), which, together with a set of regulations that interpret it, is administered by a special division of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

2) The second law is part of the Tax Reform Act of 1976 ("TRA"). The TRA and its interpretive guidelines are administered by the Department of the Treasury.

Broadly speaking, both the EEA and the TRA

1) require companies to report boycott inquiries and requests made by boycotting states, and

2) prohibit companies from certain activities that strengthen the unsanctioned boycott.

Moreover, in 1977, Congress passed a law creating the Office of Anti-boycott Compliance within the Department of Commerce, in response to the Arab boycott of Israel. The law prohibits U.S. persons from taking certain actions in support of an unsanctioned foreign boycott against a country that is friendly to the United States. Because Israel is an ally of the United States, and our government does not sanction the Arab boycott of Israel, the law prohibits actions that further or support the Arab League boycott of Israel.

Which industry, notwithstanding laws to the contrary, is the strongest adherent to the Arab League Boycott? The Petroleum Industry.

And which group takes a direct hit – chemists, geologists, and chemical and petroleum engineers – still today!

I am a PhD chemical engineer (that means petroleum refinery design, construction, and operation). I have never worked in the Petroleum Industry. They discriminate on the basis of race, religion, creed, national origin, gender, gender identity, age, and disability --- and they brag about and they joke about it.

So, tell me about your love of boycotts. I am a victim – born in the USA.

I am a victim – spent less then one sixteenth of one percent of my life in Israel – as a tourist. Heck – I spent ten times that much time in Japan!
I am a victim – never lived in Israel.
I am a victim – never served in the Israeli military – spent four years in the US military.

I am a victim – never got oil industry big bucks (oil industry engineers do even better then integrated circuit engineers did at the peak of the dot com bubble).


I am a victim - and I know victimhood --- and I am more sympathetic to the Palestinian victims of the Israeli occupation that many (I did not say "most" or "all") Palestinians are to the plight of the victims of the Arab League boycott -- and I am a darn sight more sympathetic to the Palestinian victims of the Israeli occupation that many (I did not say "most" or "all") self-identified Progressives and Liberals are to the plight of the victims of the Arab League boycott

www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=124&topic_id=88039#88157

you do a lot of research on me - (now, if you pull a "G2" you will know exactly who I am).

to keep this simple. As I previously said to another poster, the delusional often conflate an accurate memory with other, more grandiose flights of fancy.

But don't let me stop your imagination...

some of it I knew but you expanded on alot of it.

The Arab boycott, operates at three levels: primary, secondary and tertiary. The primary boycott is a refusal by Arab states to conduct any economic relations with Israel. The secondary boycott denies Arab business to firms that "materially contribute to Israel's economic and technological development." Such firms are, in effect, "blacklisted" by Arab states. The tertiary boycott involves a denial of trade with firms that have "business ties" with blacklisted companies.



Now ....if you changed your name to BUSH, the Saudis would looooove you.