500 scholars call for boycotting Israel

Over 500 Middle East studies scholars and librarians have called for the boycott of Israeli academic institutions over the regime’s atrocities against the Palestinian people.

“…silence about the latest humanitarian catastrophe caused by Israel’s new military assault on the Gaza Strip – the third and most devastating in six years – constitutes complicity,” they said in a petition on Friday.

They also slammed world governments and mainstream media for not holding “Israel accountable for its violations of international law.”

“We, however, as a community of scholars engaged with the Middle East, have a moral responsibility to do so,” the petition said.

“The ongoing Israeli massacres in Gaza have been ghastly reminders of the complicity of Israeli academic institutions in the occupation and oppression of Palestinians. Tel Aviv University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Bar-Ilan University, Haifa University, Technion, and Ben-Gurion University have publicly declared their unconditional support for the Israeli military,” it said.

The statement came days after more than 250 anthropologists signed another petition endorsing the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement to boycott Israeli academic institutions in protest at Israel’s systematic human rights violations against the Palestinian people.

Israel unleashed aerial attacks on Gaza in early July and later expanded its military campaign with a ground invasion of the Palestinian territory. Over 2,130 Palestinians lost their lives and some 11,000 were injured. Gaza Health officials say the victims included 578 children and nearly 260 women.

According to Israeli sources, more than 70 Israelis were also killed. Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, puts this number at more than 150.

DB/HMV/HRB