Statement by Rhodes Scholars

Statement by Rhodes Scholars on Proposed UCU Boycott of Israeli Universities

The United Kingdom’s University and College Union has recently encouraged its members to consider abandoning all links to Israeli academic institutions. As Rhodes Scholars, we find this proposed boycott to be unjustified and an egregious violation of the basic rules of the academic community.

Freedom of speech and inclusion of all parties who are committed to pursuing truth are essential values in academic life. Encouraging boycotts of universities and their professors violates these fundamental values. Differences must be rationally discussed, not silenced through such exclusionary tactics.

Singling out Israeli universities for censure also suggests an unjust double standard and unfair prejudice against the Jewish State.

We urge the University and College Union to abandon this effort immediately.

Statement Signatories

James Eli Adams Associate Professor & Director of Graduate Studies Department of English Cornell University	Mark David Agrast Senior Fellow Center for American Progress Washington, D.C.
T.A. Barron, Author	Thomas C. Berg St. Ives Professor University of St. Thomas School of Law
James Braden, Attorney San Francisco, California	Fred Cohen University of California at San Francisco
Kalman J. Cohen, Professor Emeritus The Fuqua School of Business Duke University	John V. Fleming Fairchild Professor Emeritus Princeton University
David S. Goldbloom, MD, FRCPC Professor of Psychiatry University of Toronto	Joel K. Goldstein Vincent C. Immel Professor of Law St. Louis University School of Law
Peter J. Kalis, Attorney	James H. Merrell Lucy Maynard Salmon Professor of History Vassar College
Thomas W. Merrill Charles Keller Beekman Professor ColumbiaLawSchool	Joseph Nye, Former Dean Kennedy School of Government Harvard University
Betsy L. Roe Central College	David H. Roe, President Central College
Thomas D. Rowe, Jr. Elvin R. Latty Professor of Law Duke University	Dr. Larry J. Sabato Director, Center for Politics University of Virginia
Andrew W. Savitz Author of The Triple Bottom Line	Kurt L. Schmoke, Dean Howard University School of Law and former Mayor of Baltimore, Maryland
David Vitter, United States Senator	R. James Woolsey Former Director of Central Intelligence
Edwin M. Yoder Jr. Author and Editor

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AMERICAN JEWISH CONGRESS RELEASES ANTI-BOYCOTT STATEMENT FROM RHODES SCHOLARS

By American Jewish Congress

June 26, 2007 - New York, NY - The American Jewish Congress today released a statement by prominent Rhodes Scholars protesting the proposed boycott of Israeli academics and academic institutions by the British University and College Union.

AJCongress President Richard S. Gordon said, “We are pleased that prominent Americans have joined us in confronting the blatant anti-Israel bias of the British university lecturers union, on the grounds that academic boycotts violate fundamental academic values including freedom of speech and because singling out Israel results from an unfair double standard.”

In the statement, the Scholars call the proposed boycott “unjustified and an egregious violation of the basic rules of the academic community.”

The statement also criticizes the University and College Union on the grounds that “Singling out Israeli universities for censure...suggests an unjust double standard and unfair prejudice against the Jewish State.”