Not-so-merry olde England

We can forgive Prince Harry his Nazi costume. He should have known better, it's true, but if anything, his gaffe sparked discussion about the nature of the men who wore Harry's costume decades before, knowing full well what it meant.

A recent Jewish Telegraphic Agency article on anti-Semitism at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies is more troubling. This past March, the school's student union elected as their first-ever honorary president none other than London Mayor Ken Livingstone, who'd come under fire for comparing a Jewish reporter to a Nazi concentration camp guard and then refusing to apologize. "Ken Livingstone," wrote the members of the student union, "has been at the receiving end of an unfair and totally biased media campaign aimed at discrediting his attempts at encouraging unity and diversity in London."

Shortly thereafter, the school's student magazine published an article entitled "When Only Violence Will Do," which discounted the idea of "innocent" Israeli victims, described Israel as a Jewish colony that should be dismantled and called for all Zionists to be "exposed."

These incidents are no isolated occurrences but rather part of a trend: The U.K.'s Association of University Teachers (AUT) recently voted to boycott Haifa and Bar Ilan universities. The move is one in a series of anti-Israel actions taken by the AUT, including supporting a call for "a moratorium on EU and European Science Foundation funding of Israeli cultural and research institutions until Israel abides by U.N. resolutions and opens meaningful peace negotiations with the Palestinians."

A link on the AUT Web site, at www.aut.org.uk, connects to that of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, where a letter datelined "18 May 2005/PSC/London-England" expresses full support of the decision and calls the AUT's motion "a historic moment in the global movement to isolate Apartheid Israel as a means of forging effective solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom, self-determination and sovereignty." The letter goes on to urge that the AUT "broaden the boycott until it is comprehensive of all Israeli academic institutions."

In the face of such blatant and malicious propaganda, the American Jewish Committee, in partnership with the American Society of the University of Haifa, has established an Anti-Boycott Fund that will "allow Israeli institutions injured by a boycott to use legal means not only to overturn such decisions, but to extract an apology." The AJC has committed $10,000 and will absorb all administrative costs. To donate, send a check payable to the AJC Anti-Boycott Fund to AJC Anti-Boycott Fund, 165 East 56th St., Eighth Floor, New York, NY 10022.

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