Boycotting the boycotters

A US university has protested a UAE university's boycott of Israel by boycotting them!

Last month, the NUJ voted to boycott Israel, and since then all sorts of predictable opprobrium has been heaped on them. All I reflect on is that in the moral indignation of whether or not a boycott is an acceptable political tool, there has not been a peep about the international sanctions that have been placed on the Palestinians, leading to a humanitarian disaster.

This was imposed last year for the people's decision to elect a Hamas government. Hamas are boycotted because of their past killings of Israelis. Meanwhile Israel carries on killing, occupying and building settlements but a boycott of the country isn't on the same moral plane for some reason.

Everyone's going to realise they have to talk to Hamas eventually, as Mary Ann Sieghart writes in the Times today:

Mr Blair could have applied the lessons he learnt in Northern Ireland – in particular, that he could not make peace by involving only moderates from the UUP and SDLP. It was the arrival of Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams at the negotiating table that made an agreement possible. The same boldness is needed now in the Middle East. Any negotiation will have to include Hamas as well as Fatah, the ultra-orthodox Shas party as well as Labour.

Comments

[DrM]

I suppose the UAE ought to just go ahead and give Israel recognition to please the judeofascists and their supporters.

[svend]

Good point about the double standard.

What irks me the most is the way critics have it both ways. The preach about non-violent protest instead of terrorism. This is non-violence.

Also, this sort of punitive campaign is contrary to this whole libertarian ethos that is otherwise rammed down everyone's throats. Let the almighty Market decide. Like any other customer, UAE ought to have the right to spend its money as it pleases, which includes boycotting trade partners of whom they disapprove. Or does Israel have a God-given right to Arab money?

Meanwhile, the US is imposing its own boycott (of Iran) on the rest of the world.