IRISH academics have signed a pledge to boycott israeli institutions until Palestinian rights are respected.
More than 130 from universities north and south have added their names to a campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDs) against Israel.
The move has been welcomed by israeli and Palestinian scholars who are visiting Ireland for the launch of a new campaign group, Academics for Palestine. "Israeli society has been united in its denial and rejection of international law and UN resolutions on the 1967 occupation," Israeli Professor Haim Bresheeth said at Queen's University Belfast yesterday. "For five decades it had shunned the international community on these and many other issues. It is time for the international community to shun Israeli society through BDs."
Prof Bresheeth was joined in Belfast by Dr Ghada Karmi, a Palestinian doctor of medicine and academic.
Dr Karmi said the boycott did not target Israeli individuals but institutions. Rather than a threat to academic freedom, she said, BDs affirmed its importance for Palestinians. "Coming to Ireland, where the term was invented, reminds us that, far from being a form of oppression or bullying, boycott is the weapon of the weak," Dr Karmi said. "Its chief importance lies in its ability to raise public awareness and arouse disapproval."