You're Fired - Because You're Israelis

[Rogan Josh]

I also agree that it was wrong to sack them.

One should note however, that they were not fired because of their nationality, but because they work for Israeli institutions. It is fairly acceptable in academic circles to restrict boards of journals or international studies to the members of certain institutaions. So, from a proceedural standpoint, removing Israeli institutions from the list of 'acceptable' institutions is OK.

To my mind though, institutions should only be boycotted on academic grounds - not political ones. In physics at least the Israeli Universities are top notch, so the sackings were completely wrong and abhorent.

I should watch what I am typing here because I am currently sharing my office with a visitor from Tel-Aviv University....

[Faeelin]

This professor should be fired. Now, please.

Politics do not belong in the academic field. Especially such a volatile issue.

[BeBMan]

Re: You're Fired - Because You're Israelis

Of course it´s wrong to fire them due to political differences.
There´s not much to discuss.

[Seeker]

Totally wrong.

The sphere of academic inquiry should at least attempt to keep up the thin veneer of a pretence of being apolitical.

[Dr Strangelove]

So why doesn't someone call for a boycott of the two offending journals? How are they financed? If they're publicly financed then the government ought to withdraw funding. If they're financed by sales then a boycott should bring them down and we'll see Prof. Baker in bankruptcy court.

In the US a professor making a decision so obviously motivate by racial hatred, even thought the enterprise was not univrsity related, would face expulsion from the university.

[MikeH]

It's nothing to do with racial hatred. Even though I don't agree with the sackings, it's about disaproval with the way the Israeli government is acting in Palestine.

The anti-semetic thing is just so wrong.

[MikeH]

The equivalent would be not employing academics who work for South African institutions during apartheid.

[Roland]

"In the US a professor making a decision so obviously motivate by racial hatred, even thought the enterprise was not univrsity related, would face expulsion from the university."

You mean, like from Bob Jones University ?

[Sirotnikov]

they were not fired because of their nationality,

Read:

The pair, she said, would have been able to keep their jobs if they had left Israel for Britain and severed all ties with their homeland.

READ: Stop being Israeli nationals.

Are you dumb or just anti-semitic?

[MikeH]

They still didn't say stop being jewish, it's not an anti jewish thing.

[JohnIII]

Originally posted by MikeH
They still didn't say stop being jewish, it's not an anti jewish thing.

No, it's anti-semitic, today's most popular smear.

[Rogan Josh]

Originally posted by Sirotnikov

they were not fired because of their nationality,

Read:

The pair, she said, would have been able to keep their jobs if they had left Israel for Britain and severed all ties with their homeland.

READ: Stop being Israeli nationals.

Are you dumb or just anti-semitic?

I didn't mean 'nationality' in that sense. I meant, they were not fired because their homeland was Israel. Or in other words, they were not discriminated against on a personal level for the makeup of their genes. There was no objection to them being Jewish or Israeli by birth - only being associated with the Israeli state.

Look at the US in the cold war. Would it have been usual practice to have Russians on the boards of American journal? Only if they left the USSR and cut off all ties with their homeland I think. (This actually led to a lot of scientific discoveries being made twice.)

There is really nothing different here. (I still disapprove because it inhibits the pursuit of learning.)

So tell me Mr Sirotnikov (what a good Iraeli name that is...), are you just dumb or anti-christian (or anti-anglo-saxon if you want to think of it as a racist thing)?

[Tolls]

Strangelove:
"If they're financed by sales then a boycott should bring them down and we'll see Prof. Baker in bankruptcy court. "

I'm not sure how they're funded, but they're both sub-1000 circulation.

[Imran Siddiqui]

So tell me Mr Sirotnikov (what a good Iraeli name that is...), are you just dumb or anti-christian (or anti-anglo-saxon if you want to think of it as a racist thing)?

[Adalbertus]

Firing people is pure nonsense. If you achieve something by this, it is to make them extremists. Which is the least this region of the world needs. Sure, getting rid of Sharon is a necessary condition for a lasting peace, but by no means sufficient. And Israel is a democratic country, so Israelis have the right and the duty to learn this themselves. Someone from a foreign country can't help in this process by not talking to them.