Dear Sally Hunt,

I am appalled to read that the UCU has furthered the campaign for a British academic boycott of Israeli universities.

Leaving aside the question of whether academics ought ever to be boycotting their colleagues in other countries, the singling out of Israeli universities for such (in)consideration speaks to a blindness for which the kindest word is--blindness. Why Israeli and not Iranian, Sudanese, Saudi or Chinese universities, all collaborators in the egregious policies of their respective governments?

The UCU resolution is neither a scholarly nor a politically sober gesture, but merely a skewed piece of theatrics.

Sincerely,
Todd Gitlin

Professor of Journalism and Sociology
Columbia University
and Acting Chair
Ph. D. Program in Communications

Graduate School of Journalism
Room 201F
New York, NY 10027
Phone: 212-854-8124
Fax: 212-854-7837
E-mail: tg2058@columbia.edu

www.toddgitlin.net