BRIT PROF DEFIES ISRAEL BOYCOTT

AUT prof. arrives at Haifa Univ. for conference
Professor Gregory Gutin, of the University of London’s Royal Holloway, is in Israel for a two-week visit in order to attend an international conference hosted by Haifa University’s Department of Computer Science. Gutin told The Jerusalem Post that his visit “should show that not every member of AUT is going to accept the boycott.” Gutin’s participation in the conference has been approved by the head of department of computer science at the Royal Holloway.

Reflecting on the academic boycott of Israeli universities, Gutin said that the boycott is “an expression of anti-Semitism,” adding: “It has little to do with human rights, because otherwise they’d call for boycott of most universities in the world, including British ones for the war in Iraq. It says much more about some British academics rather than Israeli ones.”

“They are very keen to condemn the only democratic country in the Middle East, and are happy to accept anything from the rest of the Middle East. The organizers of the boycott are not true scholars free from prejudice and are not objective,” said Gutin.