In July 2004, the Campaign issued a statement of principles, addressed
to our colleagues in the international community urging them to
comprehensively and consistently boycott all Israeli academic and
cultural institutions until Israel withdraws from all the lands
occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem; removes all its colonies in
those lands; agrees to United Nations resolutions relevant to the
restitution of Palestinian refugees rights; and dismantles its system
of apartheid. This statement was met with widespread support, and has
to date been endorsed by nearly sixty Palestinian academic, cultural
and other civil society federations, unions, and organizations,
including the Federation of Unions of Palestinian Universities'
Professors and Employees and the Palestinian NGO Network in the West
Bank. The campaign has also established an advisory committee comprised
of well-known public figures and intellectuals.
The Palestinian Campaign is inspired by the historic role played by
people of conscience in the international community of scholars and
intellectuals who have shouldered the moral responsibility to fight
injustice, as exemplified in their struggle to abolish apartheid in
South Africa through diverse forms of boycott.
During the past two years various calls for divestment, sanctions and
economic boycott of Israeli products as well as a boycott of Israeli
academic and cultural institutions have been issued by groups and
individuals in Europe, the United States, and elsewhere. These calls
recognize that Israeli academic institutions (mostly state controlled)
and the vast majority of Israeli intellectuals and academics have
either contributed directly to the Israeli occupation or at the very
least have been complicit through their silence. In April 2002 British
academics issued a call for a moratorium on European research and
academic collaboration with Israeli institutions. In France, an appeal
to the European Union not to renew its 1995 Association Agreement with
Israel was issued by the University of Paris-VI (Pierre-et-Marie-Curie)
in December 2002 and was endorsed by several other French universities.
Similar calls were published in Italy and Australia, while in the
United States, student and faculty groups at several universities
including New York University, The Massachusetts Institute of
Technology and Princeton launched divestment from Israel campaigns.
Most recently the Church of Sweden has called for a boycott of goods
produced by Israeli colonies in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the
Presbyterian Church in the United States has decided to divest from
Israel.
Boycotting Israeli academic and cultural institutions is an urgently
needed form of pressure against Israel that can bring about its
compliance with international law and the requirements for a just peace.
