PELTON

Pelton, Frohnmeyer disdain anti-Israel push

By Paul Haist

The presidents of two Oregon universities were among nearly 300 U.S. university presidents who signed an Aug. 8 full-page ad sponsored by the American Jewish Committee in the New York Times.

In that ad Columbia University President Lee Bollinger went on record in opposition to a British academic union’s call for a boycott of Israeli institutions of higher learning.

Willamette University President M. Lee Pelton was among the earliest signers of the letter.

University of Oregon President David Frohnmeyer joined Pelton and his friend and UO alumnus Bollinger, who is also an Oregon native.

Under the headline "Boycott Israeli Universities? Boycott Ours, Too!" Bollinger wrote, "As a citizen, I am profoundly disturbed by the recent vote by Britain’s new University and College Union to advance a boycott against Israeli academic institutions. As a university professor and president, I find this idea utterly antithetical to the fundamental values of the academy where we will not hold intellectual exchange hostage to the political disagreements of the moment."

Bollinger said the UCU action "threatens every university committed to fostering scholarly and cultural exchanges that lead to enlightenment, empathy and a much needed international marketplace of ideas."

"Therefore," he continued, "if the British UCU is intent on pursuing its deeply misguided policy, then it should add Columbia to its boycott list, for we do not intend to draw distinctions between our mission and that of the universities you are seeking to punish."

He concluded that the UCU was engaged in "politically biased attempts to hijack the central mission of higher education."

Willamette University’s Pelton told the Jewish Review, "Such a boycott is wrongheaded and runs counter to purposes of higher learning. Any academic institution worth its salt values civility, reasoned debate and discussion, respect for the dignity of others, tolerance and understanding as worthy of persons who are truly educated."

He added, "Teaching and classroom instruction are universally held as indispensable to our educational purposes and, as such, deliberate actions that disrupt or deny students access to them are unacceptable."

Subsequent to his adding his signature to the Bollinger letter, Pelton met with the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland Community Relations Committee Sept. 5 to discuss the boycott issue.

Frohnmayer said of the UCU action, "This purported boycott is odious because it strikes at the freedom of academic institutions to be purveyors and transmitters of knowledge. It is contrary to everything we should stand for as a university that believes in open and free inquiry."

He said that his signature on the AJC ad "represents the unanimous views of the senior administration at the University of Oregon," adding that it was "a careful but an easy call."

Frohnmayer, a former Oregon attorney general, praised his friend Bollinger as "a very principled guy and an international expert on academic freedom."

The controversy began on June 29 when the UCU’s Strategy and Finance Committee met to consider the necessary steps for members to be able to debate the arguments for and against an academic boycott of Israeli universities.

The boycott had been called for, according to the UCU Web site, by the Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees; the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions; the Palestinian NGO Network, West Bank; the Palestinian Writers’ Federation; the Palestinian League of Artists; the Palestinian Journalists’ Federation; the General Union of Palestinian Women; the Palestinian Lawyers’ Association; "and tens of other Palestinian federations, associations and civil society organizations."

This informal association of Palestinian groups issued a statement that concluded with this call (reprinted on the UCU Web site): "We, Palestinian academics and intellectuals, call upon our colleagues in the international community to comprehensively and consistently boycott all Israeli academic and cultural institutions as a contribution to the struggle to end Israel’s occupation, colonization and system of apartheid."

The UCU Web site stated, "This does not mean an academic boycott is in place, it means that individual branches will debate the pros and cons of boycott."

The firestorm of controversy that erupted around the world on news of the UCU boycott action led UCU Secretary General Sally Hunt to issue a letter to union members.

She wrote, "The boycott issue has…overshadowed UCU’s emerging work to link up Palestinian and Israeli academics and trade unionists. Let me be as clear as I can. I do understand the strongly held views on both sides, but I do not believe that the majority of members—whatever their personal views—see this issue as the major priority for our union."

She added, "I have also many times set out my personal view that members should be balloted before any implementation of an international boycott. I remain of that view and expressed it once again to the Strategy and Finance Committee."

Since the announcement of the UCU committee’s action, leaders of major British universities, like their counterparts in the United States, have gone on record in opposition to an academic boycott of Israel.