Oxford Biochemistry Prof Calls Out the AAUP Over Embrace of Israel Boycott

Oxford Biochemistry Prof Calls Out the AAUP Over Embrace of Israel Boycott

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) is just the latest institution that has been taken over and corrupted by the radical left.

Michael Yudkin writes at Fathom Journal:

The Moral Collapse of the American Association of University Professors

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) was founded in 1915, and one of its first acts was to issue a Declaration of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure. If you read the Declaration today and are determined not to be distracted by its quaint language and its exclusive use of the masculine gender, you’ll find a robust declaration of the value of academic independence. ‘If education is the cornerstone of the structure of society and if progress in scientific knowledge is essential to civilization, few things can be more important than to enhance the dignity of the scholar’s profession, with a view to attracting into its ranks men of the highest ability, of sound learning, and of strong and independent character. (…) It is … the absolute freedom of thought, of inquiry, of discussion and of teaching, of the academic profession, that is asserted by this declaration of principles.’

The AAUP further clarified its understanding of the concept of academic freedom in 1940: ‘Teachers are entitled to full freedom in research and in the publication of the results. (…) Teachers are entitled to freedom in the classroom in discussing their subject’; but it was not until 1966 that it set out the norms that should govern the relations between academic colleagues. ‘As colleagues, professors have obligations that derive from common membership in the community of scholars. Professors do not discriminate against or harass colleagues.’ [italics added]….

AAUP’s August statement continues ‘We reiterate that academic boycotts should neither involve any political or religious litmus tests nor target individual scholars and teachers engaged in ordinary academic practices, such as publishing scholarship, delivering lectures and conference presentations, or participating in research collaborations.’ This remark is, at best, naïve. The AAUP knows very well that supporters of the academic boycott take their instructions from the organisers of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanction) movement, whose entire history is marked by attempts (often successful) to disrupt presentations by Israeli scholars and to prevent the publication of their articles and their participation in research collaborations. I think it’s safe to predict that when those who agitate for academic boycotts of Israel quote the AAUP’s new statement in support of their actions, they will omit to mention the caveat that excludes individual scholars from the boycott.

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