Linguists against boycotts

[Shalom Lappin]

The statement below deals with an issue that is of importance to all
linguists. Please respond as you feel is appropriate. Thanks.
                                                      Shalom
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                Academic Boycotts in Linguistics



    Several months ago a number of European academics initiated a
campaign to boycott cooperation with Israeli universities and other
research institutions as an expression of oppostion to Israel's military
response to the Palestinian intafada. A counter-boycott protest soon
followed, and the controversy over this issue has become intense.
Until recently we would not have considered writing to the Linguist
List on this matter, as it was a general problem of the relation
between politics and academic life. However, it has now become a
matter which concerns linguists directly. Several weeks ago Dr.
Mona Baker, Director of the Centre for Translation and Intercultural
Studies at the University of Manchester Institute for Science and
Technology (UMIST) dismissed two Israeli scholars from the editorial
boards of translation journals which she edits. She removed Professor
Gideon Toury of the Dept. of General and Comparative Literature at
Tel Aviv University from the board of Translator: Studies in
Intercultural Communication, and Dr. Miriam Shlesinger of the Unit
of Translation and Interpreting Studies at Bar-Ilan Universtiy from
the board of Translation Studies Abstracts. Her stated reason for
doing this is that she thought that it was an appropriate way of
implementing the boycott.

    In our view, academic boycotts in general and Dr. Baker's mode of
observing this one in particular are entirely unacceptable for at least
two obvious reasons. First, they are directed at scientific
researchers who have no direct connection to government policy.
These actions target people without reference to their views or actions,
but solely on the basis of the fact that they live and work in a
particular country whose government the supporters of the boycott
object to. In this respect academic boycotts are no less racist than the
exclusionary policies that they purport to oppose. It is interesting
to note in the present instance that Dr. Shlesinger is a past chair
of the Israeli branch of Amnesty International and a long time critic
of Israel's policies in the occupied territories. Second, this boycott
is acutely discriminatory in that it focuses exculsively on Israel, and
takes no account of the severe human rights abuses and brutal military
interventions committed by other countries, often on a larger scale.
So, for example, no academic boycott has, to the best of our
knowledge, been applied to Russia in response to its war in Chechnya,
to Serbia when Milosevic pursued his campaign througout the former
Yugoslavia, or to China in reaction to its long standing occupation of
Tibet and its problematic human rights record at home. Most tellingly,
we do not recall anyone seriously attempting to launch a boycott of
American academic institutions despite the many controversial military
adventures that the United States has engaged in over the past several
decades. It is difficult to avoid the suspicion that the current group
of boycott enthusiasts would be less than anxious to give up lucrative
sabbaticals and research opportunities at American institutions.

    Most of us strongly oppose Israel's continued occupation of the West
Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. However, we do not regard an academic
boycott of Israeli universities or researchers as an acceptable means
for expressing one's objections to the policies and actions of the
Israeli government. We agree with Noam Chomsky's view that one does
not boycott people or their cultural institutions as an expression
of political protest, particularly when the actions of other governments,
often one's own, are no less worthy of opposition. We call on our
colleagues to oppose this and all other academic boycotts. We urge
them not to engage in discriminatory behaviour of this kind.

Emmon Bach
Dept. of Linguistics, University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Mark Baltin
Dept. of Linguistics, New York University

Ted Briscoe
Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge

Denis Bouchard
Dept. of Linguistics, Universite du Quebec a Montreal

John Carroll
Cognitive and Computing Sciences, University of Sussex

Robin Cooper
Dept. of Linguistics, Goeteborg University

Ann Copestake
Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge

Elan Dresher
Dept. of Linguistics, University of Toronto

Joseph Emonds
Graduate School, Kobe Shoin University,
(emeritus, Dept. of Linguistics, University of Durham)

Elisabet Engdahl
Dept. of Linguistics, Goeteborg University

Gregor Erbach
DFKI, University of Saarland

Chris Fox
Dept. of Computer Science, University of Essex

Jonathan Ginzburg
NLP Group, Dept. of Computer Science, King's College, London

Jane Grimshaw
Department of Linguistics and Center for Cognitive Science,
Rutgers University

Philip Hauptman
Dept. of Linguistics, University of Ottawa

Mark Hepple
NLP Group, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Sheffield

Caroline Heycock
Dept. of Linguistcs, University of Edinburgh

Erhard Hinrichs
Laboratory for Computational Linguistics,
University of Tuebingen

Paul Hirschbueler
Dept. of Linguistics, University of Ottawa

Norbert Hornstein
Dept. of Linguistics, University of Maryland, College Park

Ray Jackendoff
Dept. of Psychology, Brandeis University

Ed Keenan
Dept. of Linguistics, University of California at Los Angeles

Andrew Kehler
Dept. of Lingistics, University of California at San Diego

Ruth Kempson
Program in Formal Grammar and Computational Lingistics,
Dept. of Philosophy, King's College, London

Tibor Kiss
Dept. of Linguistics, University of Bochum

Dimitra Kolliakou
Dept. of Linguistics, University of Newcastle

William A. Ladusaw
Dept. of Linguistics,
University of California, Santa Cruz

Shalom Lappin
NLP Group, Dept. of Computer Science, King's College, London

Jacqueline Lecarme
CNRS, France

Robert Levine
Dept. of Linguistics, Ohio State University

Jean Lowenstamm
Dept. of Linguistics, Universite de Paris 7

Robert May
Dept. of Logic and Philosophy of Science,
University of California at Irvine

Wilfried Meyer-Viol
Program in Formal Grammar and Computational Lingistics,
Dept. of Philosophy, King's College, London

Anna Morpurgo Davies
Somerville College, Oxford

Glyn Morrill
Departament de Llenguatges i Sistemes Inform`atics,
Universitat Polit`ecnica de Catalunya, Barcelona

Barbara Partee
Dept. of Linguistics, University of Massaschusetts at Amherst

David Pesetsky
Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, MIT

Massimo Poesio
Dept. of Computer Science, University of Essex

Anne Rochette
Dept. of Linguistics, Universite du Quebec a Montreal

Patricia Shaw
Department of Linguistics, University of British Columbia

Stuart Shieber
Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences,
Harvard University

Ed Stabler
Dept. of Linguistics, University of California at Los Angeles

Mark Steedman
Division of Informatics, University of Edinburgh

Martin Stokhof
Dept. of Philosophy, University of Amsterdam

Tim Stowell
Dept. of Linguistics, Univesity of California at Los Angeles

Enric Vallduv?
Dept. of Translation and Interpreting,
Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Nigel Vincent
Dept. of Linguistics, University of Manchester

Bonnie Webber
Division of Informatics, University of Edinburgh

Moira Yip
Dept. of Linguistics, University College, London