Summers Attacks British "Anti-Semitism"
Larry Summers is quoted in today's Financial Times attacking the decision by English academics to boycott Israeli academics who do not disassociate themselves from Israeli policies regarding Palestinians.
According to the Times, Summers said, “There is much that should be, indeed that must be, debated regarding Israeli policy. However, the academic boycott resolution passed by the British professors union in the way that it singles out Israel is, in my judgment, anti-Semitic in both effect and in intent.”
This is, of course, a reiteration of what Summers said in September 2002, when he criticized a petition urging American universities to divest from Israel as "anti-Semitic in effect if not intent."
The crucial difference, obviously, is that here Summers thinks the British boycott is
deliberately anti-Semitic—"anti-Semitic in both effect and in intent."
According to the FT,
Steven Rose, a neurobiologist at the Open University and a leading light in the boycott campaign, said Mr Summers’ remarks were “grotesque”.
“There is nothing anti-Semitic about putting pressure on Israeli institutions and their academic staff to fight against the illegal and anti-human rights policies of the Israeli state.”
I haven't thought about this enough—I was away when the boycott vote took place—to know precisely how I feel about the subject, but my instinctive reaction is that the move makes me uncomfortable. Boycotting academics because they refuse to renounce a point of view? That doesn't sound like the role of a professor. That sounds, in fact, deeply anti-intellectual.
However, whether the boycott is intentionally anti-Semitic is another matter, and that's a strong charge to make. I'd like to hear Summers explain his position more—perhaps at Commencement. This is a man who claims not to be afraid to use the bully pulpit. Well, here's his chance....
