Saluting the Action group for boycott of Israel at the KTH in Stockholm
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), representing a wide consensus in the Palestinian academy, salutes our Swedish colleagues at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm for their principled support for the cause of justice in Palestine by issuing a call for the academic boycott of Israel, endorsed by more than two hundred members of the academic community in Sweden.
The Action Group for boycott of Israel at KTH , the initiator of the Call, has joined a growing network [1] of campaigns advocating and implementing academic boycotts against Israel. As in the boycott against South African apartheid, the Israel boycott is based on the proven logic of effective solidarity with the oppressed as the most morally and politically sound contribution to the struggle to end oppression and to promote the cause of justice, freedom and equality for Palestinians.
The role of the Israeli academy in planning, implementing, justifying and whitewashing Israel’s grave violations of international law and Palestinian rights is by now well documented.[2] From weapons development to fabricating archeology to partnership with the military-security establishment to promoting racist perceptions of Arab society and the “Arab mind,” the Israeli academy is one of the main pillars of Israel’s multi-tiered system of colonial oppression and apartheid.
PACBI particularly appreciates the unequivocal adoption by the KTH Action Group of the basic demands articulated in the 2004 PACBI Call for the academic and cultural boycott of Israel [3]. The KTH Call urges Swedish academics to refuse academic collaboration or participation in joint projects with Israeli universities; refrain from attending or co-sponsoring conferences and other academic activities held at Israeli universities; suspend all forms of funding, subsidies and scholarships to Israeli universities; promote divestment from Israel by academic institutions; and foster initiatives that directly support Palestinian educational institutions and ensure opportunities for Palestinian students and faculty.
We are certain that this outstanding expression of solidarity and support for the Palestinian BDS movement will galvanize academics across Sweden as well as in other countries to issue similar calls for the boycott of the Israeli academy and its complicit institutions.
PACBI
[1] http://pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=1382
[2] http://www.alternativenews.org/images/stories/downloads/Economy_of_the_occupation_23-24.pdf