This piece was published as the PACBI Column in the August 2010 issue of the BRICUP Newsletter.

This opinion piece has a story behind it. When Umberto Eco‘s harsh opinion piece against the cultural boycott of Israel appeared in the Italian newspaper L‘espresso [1], PACBI decided that a rebuttal was in order. Two PACBI members contacted the newspaper through an Italian colleague to ask that a rebuttal be published in the newspaper. After much negotiation and many emails exchanged with one of the editors, the rebuttal was pared down to a bare minimum, and the newspaper agreed to publish it on 2 July 2010 in the letters section of the paper [2].