By Professor Gad Barzilai, Pruzan Chair of Jewish Studies; Chair of Samuel and Althea Stroum Jewish Studies Program, University of Washington
Morris Malakoff’s article on the event organized by Kadima, whether Israel should be boycotted, has competently described some of the controversy between Prof. Neve Gordon and me. Unfortunately, one reader among many, and one among about 100 people who attended the event, was disappointed (Letters, March 12). She thinks that I did not defend Israel as I should have done as a chair of the University of Washington Jewish Studies Program. She raises skepticism whether I, an Israeli who served his country and has been a leader of academic units in Israel at Tel Aviv University, can educate her son to love Israel. What an irony.
First, let us clarify the facts. Neve Gordon, a professor from Ben Gurion University, is calling to boycott Israel as long as it continues to occupy the 1967 territories. On the other hand, I rendered a lecture of about 35 minutes explaining why a boycott is a wrong way to end the Israeli post-1967 occupation. In a detailed lecture I explained all the deficiencies of a boycott and explicated why a boycott on Israel is illegal, unethical, and certainly counterproductive. To cast doubt on my academic position is to condemn about 90 percent of Israeli Jews, who live in Israel, and who hold a similar position.
But your dissenting reader thinks differently — for her, advocacy of Israel is to blindly support whatever its government is doing and whatever deficiencies its policy may entail. My country does not need such destructive advocacy, nor advice from a reader who thinks that ending the Israeli occupation is anything short of saving Israel from destroying its democracy. For me, as a proud chair of the UW JSP, the only way to help Israel is to tell the truth, even if one reader doesn’t like it.