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BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL OPPOSES ‘ACADEMIC BOYThursday 30 Jan 2003
author: Kalman Rushdie
BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL OPPOSES ‘ACADEMIC BOYCOTT’ OF ISRAEL
The British Medical Journal, an internationally respected journal of science and medicine, has officially declared its opposition to the “academic boycott” against Israel that has been upheld by many European academic institutions.
"We start the new year with strong opposition to an academic boycott of Israeli scientists," wrote editor-in-chief Dr. Richard Smith in the “Editor’s Corner” column of the Jan. 4 issue. "The BMJ deplores these actions and does not support any sort of boycott.
“Our position is based primarily on support for the 'universality of science, ' which is enshrined in the International Council of Scientific Unions and explicitly rules out boycotts on the basis of citizenship, gender, religion, or color," Smith wrote.
Smith added that a boycott would only be plausible if Israeli academics were debasing science, as Nazis scientists did during the Second World War. "Nothing similar has happened in Israel,” Smith wrote. “In contrast, groups like Israeli Physicians for Human Rights, which includes Jews and Palestinians, are working hard to draw attention to suffering on both sides of the tragic conflict."
The European academic boycott is directed at Israeli academic institutions as a form of political pressure on the Israeli government. However, zealots such as British linguistics professor Mona Baker have abused the boycott’s emphasis on institutions rather than individuals, firing two Israelis employed at her linguistics journals purely on the basis of their Israeli nationality. Other academic journals have also refused to publish Israeli papers in the name of the academic boycott.