Par Adam Horowitz, le 26 Mai 2009. Retrouvez l’article sur son blog « Mondoweiss« . The growing movement for an academic boycott of Israel has been criticized as limiting academic discourse and….
Par Adam Horowitz, le 26 Mai 2009. Retrouvez l’article sur son blog « Mondoweiss« .
The growing movement for an academic boycott of Israel has been criticized as limiting academic discourse and debate. Defenders of the boycott point out that the discourse is already limited by Israeli occupation policy which shuts down Palestinian universities arbitrarily, and that Israeli academia’s work advances the occupation. Today, the Jerusalem Post has a story that will surely enter the debate. The Post is reporting that the Israeli High Court of Justice has supported the Israeli military in establishing a « non-security related criteria for granting Palestinian post-graduate students permits to enter Israel to study at Israeli universities. »
From the article « High Court accepts IDF criteria for Palestinian study in Israel »:
The criteria included the following:
• Only PhD and Masters students will be considered and only if there is no practical alternative to studying in Israel
• Preference will be given to applicants to programs focusing on regional cooperation or developing coexistence and regional peace. The Education Ministry must testify as to the nature of the program
• Palestinians will not be allowed to study professions that have the potential to be used against Israel.
• The applicant will have to provide the army with a detailed request from a recognized academic institution explaining the grounds on which the institution wants him to study there
• There will be no further examination if the applicant has a security or criminal record.
• The army will take into account the age of the applicant and his personal status.
• The army, at its own discretion, may refuse to consider an applicant even if the student meets the above criteria.
Several Israeli universities have written Defense Minister Ehud Barak protesting the measure saying that establishing the criteria « constitutes a gross and harmful intervention by military elements in purely academic considerations. »