BY Richard Falk, Cynthia Franklin, Terri Ginsberg, Salah Hassan, David Klein, Adam Miyashiro, Bill V. Mullen, David Palumbo-Liu, Andrew Ross, and Snehal Shingavi
John Cheney-Lippold, an associate professor of American Culture at the University of Michigan—Ann Arbor, has been criticized by some supporters of the State of Israel for declining to write a letter of recommendation for a student seeking to study for a semester in that country. Following his conscience, and the principles of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, Cheney-Lippold declined to write a letter of recommendation in support of a student’s application to participate in a study abroad program in Israel.
There are four reasons why Cheney-Lippold’s decision to not write a letter of recommendation is justified.
1) Professors, like any other individual, are entitled to hold political positions and act in a manner that conforms to their stated positions. Cheney-Lippold endorses the academic boycott of Israel and, in declining to write a letter of recommendation for a study abroad program in Israel, he is aligning his actions with his stated views.
2) By declining to write a letter of recommendation for a student’s participation in a study abroad program in Israel, Cheney-Lippold is not preventing the student from participating in the program. Rather his decision is an expression of his own principled opposition to such programs and his unwillingness to be complicit with what he views as an unjust international situation.
3) Cheney-Lippold’s decision is grounded in significant evidence that Israel study abroad programs are not equally accessible to all students attending US universities. Some students, specifically students of Palestinian, Middle Eastern, and Muslim background, who attempt to travel to Israel and the Palestinian territories may be denied visas to Israel or would be denied entry into the country by Israeli customs and immigrations officials as stated in the US State Department travel advisory. In addition, the Israeli government has declared its intent to deny entry to members of pro-BDS organizations, such as Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace. Many students on US campuses are members of these organizations and would be barred from entering Israel. Consequently, study abroad programs in Israel exclude certain students on the grounds of national, ethnic or religious identity and political viewpoint, and are contrary to the basic principle of equality of educational opportunity.
4) Cheney-Lippold’s opposition to Israel study abroad programs is informed by a recognition that Palestinian students are not afforded the right to education and live under extremely difficult conditions resulting from the Israeli military occupation and apartheid policies. Study abroad programs in Israel are an example of the extreme inequities faced by Palestinian students. While certain privileged students in the US who are not Arab or Muslim are free to travel to Israel, and visit the West Bank, Palestinian students in the Gaza Strip, Jerusalem, and the West Bank often are prevented from attending classes in their own cities and towns.
Cheney-Lippold is a supporter of Palestinian human rights and refuses to participate in normalizing Israel’s political oppression. Such action affirms an ethical position increasingly shared by artists, musicians, actors, scholars, and students around the world who have endorsed the Palestinian call for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel. In doing so, Cheney-Lippold and like-minded scholars seek to pressure Israel to end the occupation, to grant Palestinian refugees the right of return, and to give equal rights to Palestinians in Israel. To conduct “normal” educational and cultural activities with Israeli universities is to be complicit with acts of discrimination and injustice.
As educators, we have the ethical responsibility to stand by our political convictions, to advance social justice, and to expose falsehoods and partial truths. Given the United States’ extraordinary financial and military aid to Israel, Americans have a particular responsibility to put pressure on Israel. People of conscience, like Cheney-Lippold, have the responsibility to defend the equal treatment of all members of society and to take peaceful steps to oppose oppression.
Trump appointees Betsy DeVos, head of the Department of Education, and former Brandeis Center President Kenneth Marcus, head of the Civil Rights Division of that department, have advanced a policy that aims to limit advocacy of Palestinian human rights on US university campuses. DeVos and Marcus have made it clear that the current US administration will ignore principles of academic freedom and freedom of speech in order to repress all criticism of Israeli state policies. In this context, Cheney-Lippold’s decision is an exemplary expression of his professional and political rights. Rather than malign Professor Cheney-Lippold, scholars should applaud his courage, which will inspire others to take a stand and oppose Israel study abroad programs. We join him in affirming that we, also, do not write letters of recommendations in support of student participation in Israel study abroad programs. We also call on our colleagues to refuse to participate in Study Abroad in Israel programs by endorsing our pledge at http://usacbi.org/boycott-study-abroad-in-israel/#pledge
We also invite colleagues to sign this petition showing solidarity with Professor Cheney-Lippold.
The toolkit for organizing a campaign on your campus can be found here, along with research resources.
Richard Falk, Professor of International Law Emeritus, Princeton University.
Cynthia Franklin, Professor of English, University of Hawaii
Terri Ginsberg, The American University in Cairo
Salah Hassan, Michigan State University
David Klein, Professor of Mathematics, California State University Northridge
Adam Miyashiro, Stockton University
Bill V. Mullen, Professor of American Studies Purdue University
David Palumbo-Liu, Louise Hewlett Nixon Professor, Stanford University
Andrew Ross, Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis, New York University
Snehal Shingavi, Professor of English, University of Texas
For shame! Any student who asks a professor for a recommendation should get a truthful one, without consideration for where it goes. The professors duty to the student transcends the professor’s personal political point of view.
This student has the option of asking others to write for her. Those discriminated against by Israel do not have other options. They are caught in a discriminatory system that denies equal rights. I would not write such a letter in the same manner as I would not write for someone who wished to study in such a discriminatory program in any other country.
Cover it all up, but your views are \still anti-semitism
The charge of “anti-Semitism” no longer stings because it is and was misused to the point where it is equivalent to crying “Wolf.” Yes, there is anti-Semitism, but what you classified as anti-Semitism ain’t it.
The goal is the destruction of the Jewish State of Israel. How is this not anti-Jewish?
Here it is, plain and simple. Israel should hold itself to a unique standard as they want to be a Jewish represented state. The problem therein lies with the resident’s who are already there who by their Palestinian design, even though some are Jewish, do not hold the same citizenry status as those who are not Palestinian. It does not matter their religion, Jewish, Muslim, Christian, the zionist state misrepresents them because they are Palestinian. This is clearly apart eid because it is based on race. Saying anything else is contradictory to the idealism that Jewish student’s all nation put into the nation of Israel because of what it is suppose to represent. Unfortunately for those students, it does not. Because of that fact, zionist idealism needs to be defined as being separate from Judaism as it also discriminates against any Jewish identity that does not agree with Zionism therefore, the state of Israel defeats itself. By equating Judaism in alignment with Zionism, those who believe that zionism is the solution are discriminating against themselves, they are wearing blinders to their cause by condemning one group of people over another based solely on race. Shame on those who think anything else. Those are the people who go on Birthright trips that Israel offers because it is a programmed program that does not show the behind the scene attrocity Israel continuously commits against it’s own citizens, (remember, Palestinians also hold an Israeli passport / identity along with their Palestinian one), those confirming that Israel is an apartheid state. It can not be anything else. Continue to wear blinders or stick your head in the ground and side or confirm that anything to the contrary is antisemitism when clearly it is not, as confirmed by the growing world-wide acknowledgment that not everything what Israel says is what it does. I am also an educator and applaud professor John Cheney-Lippold for sticking up with the values of education by defending Israel in terms of apartheid. t show the behind the scene attrocity Israel continuously commits against it’s own citizens, (remember, Palestinians also hold an Israeli passport / identity along with their Palestinian one), those reaffirming that Israel is an apartheid state. It can not be anything else. Continue to wear blinders or stick your head in the ground and side or confirm that anything to the contrary is antisemitism when clearly it is not, as confirmed by the growing world-wide acknowledgment that not everything what Israel says is what it does. I am also an educator and applaud professor John Cheney-Lippold for sticking up with the values of education by defending Israel in terms of apartheid. t show the behind the scene attrocity Israel continuously commits against it’s own citizens, (remember, Palestinians also hold an Israeli passport / identity along with their Palestinian one), those reaffirming that Israel is an apartheid state. It can not be anything else. Continue to wear blinders or stick your head in the ground and side or confirm that anything to the contrary is antisemitism when clearly it is not, as confirmed by the growing world-wide acknowledgment that not everything what Israel says is what it does. I am also an educator and applaud professor John Cheney-Lippold for sticking up with the values of education by defending Israel in terms of apartheid. those confirming that Israel is an apartheid state. It can not be anything else. Continue to wear blinders or stick your head in the ground and side or confirm that anything to the contrary is antisemitism when clearly it is not, as confirmed by the growing world-wide acknowledgment that not everything what Israel says is what it does. I am also an educator and applaud professor John Cheney-Lippold for sticking up with the values of education by defending Israel in terms of apartheid. those confirming that Israel is an apartheid state. It can not be anything else. Continue to wear blinders or stick your head in the ground and side or confirm that anything to the contrary is antisemitism when clearly it is not, as confirmed by the growing world-wide acknowledgment that not everything what Israel says is what it does. I am also an educator and applaud professor John Cheney-Lippold for sticking up with the values of education by defending Israel in terms of apartheid.
Ride around Israel with an Arab taxi driver, and he will readily tell you he prefers to live under an Israeli government. Various polls indicate that 60 to 78 percent of Arabs in East Jerusalem share the same opinion. How can it be that most Arab residents of Jerusalem would choose to live under Israeli governance rather than Palestinian?
West Bank Under Israeli Rule
A few facts will supply insights. At the time of the 1967 Six-Day War waged by five Arab nations against Israel, Arab residents of the West Bank—biblical Judea and Samaria—lived a third-world life. Although Jordan had occupied the area for 20 years, low life expectancy, malnutrition, poor education, infectious diseases, and child mortality were widespread. Fewer than 60 percent of all male adults were employed.
During the 1970s, under Israeli administration, the West Bank and Gaza then grew into the fourth fastest-growing economy in the world. By 1986, 92.8 percent of the population had electricity around the clock compared to 20.5 percent in 1967; 85 percent had running water compared to 16 percent in 1967. Not one university had existed in the territories, but by the early 1990s, seven such institutions were in operation boasting 16,500 students.
Under Israeli governance the adult illiteracy rate had plummeted to 14 percent. More than 100,000 Palestinians worked in Israel, and many more worked in the 2,000 industrial plants that Israel built in the West Bank. Mortality rates fell significantly and life expectancy rose from 48 to 72 years by 2000. Childhood diseases like polio, whooping cough, tetanus, and measles were eradicated.
Palestinian Government Corruption
Since 1995 the Palestinian people have been ruled by the Palestinian Authority (PA) government. Whereas Israel had spent millions of dollars dramatically improving public services like electricity, water, roads, universities, and clinics, Palestinian leaders are lining their own pockets with donations from many nations designated to help the Palestinian people. When Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Chairman Yasser Arafat died in 2004, he was worth some $1 billion. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is said to be worth around $100 million.
The PA’s corruption, embedded in Palestinian society, is one reason the Palestinian population prefers living in Israel. An egregious example of government corruption hurting the Palestinian people is found in the PA’s health care program where medical services are often supplied to the one who pays the largest bribe.
Even in recent years when 95 percent of Palestinians have been ruled by their own government, Israel has built a new regional business center in the West Bank which serves Israeli and PA personnel. In 2015, 190,000 Palestinians entered Israel for medical treatment, and trucks filled with humanitarian aid and goods for Gaza increased by 108 percent. A designated medical unit in the Israel Defense Force offers on-site medical care to Palestinians in cooperation with Palestinian hospitals.
The ignorance displayed here is proportionate to the length of the comment. I’ve been to Israel many times and I meet Arabs everywhere in Israel: in restaurants, on the beach, in meetings, in hospitals. There is no apartheid in Israel. Christian Arabs have the highest educational attainment in Israel, higher than Jews. Arab educational enrollment in universities is substantially proportional to the population. Arabs work as doctors, lawyers, journalists, TV announcers and politicians. No doubt there is discrimination, but that isn’t the same thing as apartheid. You are entitled to your own opinions but you are not entitled to make up your own facts.
It took you a long time to get to your point = you’re an idiot!
Total BS, you actually believe this propaganda?
As an educator I would expect you to be able to proofread your rant before posting. What a pile of anti-Israel rubbish that completly misses the point. A professor can deny any student a recommendation, but the UM expects that their decision not be based on the professors political beliefs. Your assertion that is Israel practices apartheid is such a dog-whistle phrase that I’m surprised that anyone with an iota of intelligence still employs it.
I’m curious about the person Layla who has responded in favor of John Cheney-Lippold in nearly every negative post in this feed. Layla, are you someone hired by the Palestenian law firm representing him or a PR person being paid to write these comments…how ironic would it be if you were John Cheney-Lippold using a false name?
Point 3 would seem much stronger if you included some links to support the factual claims.
He is an embarrassment to the university and should be fired. He is there to educate, not brainwash the minds of the youth with his garage thoughts!
He is a courageous professor who is not cowed by pressure to ignore Israeli sins. It used to be that only Israeli institutions and programs are the repository of wisdom on the Middle East. I am pleased to report that those days are long gone. The harm Israeli occupation does to academic and all other forms of life of Palestinians is now recognized all over the world despite Israeli censorship attempts.
This brave professor does not want to give Israel more opportunity to brainwash students. It is his duty to shield his students from harmful information. He is not forbidding them to get it elsewhere, he is just refusing to participate in Israel’s PR programs.
You would sound a lot more informed and intelligent if you actually held the Palestinian leadership responsible for part (if not all) of the plight of the Palestinian people. They perpetuate a sense of helplessness because it is good for business. They use international aid to promote a victim mentality, enrich terrorists and live a life of luxury while providing inadequate education that serves to indoctrinate youth with a victim mentality. They use hospitals as launching points for rockets. By perpetuating the myth that the Israelis are solely to blame you only show that you have not studied the situation but have rather just bought into the propaganda . You forget that Israelis were/are refugees as well. The difference being that they have chosen to make a life. To build a thriving society. The Palestinians have not. Their leadership has been perpetuating the victim mentality to extract more blackmail from the international community .
DAVID HONIG’s point is well-taken and right, the refusik professors are wrong. Furthermore the Palestinians have only to cease and desist with the propaganda and they would find the Israelies reliable and friendly neighbors and friends. It simply doesn’t help to keep threatening a neighbor with annihilation and indoctrinating children with hate thoughts year after year, bleeding heart professors notwithstanding!
Your comment is naive to the extreme. The vast majority of Israelis see Palestinians as lesser humans. All of its citizens must join an army of occupation where they are further indoctrinated to see Palestinians not as equals but as vermin. This was deliberate and has affected the nation to such an extent that its planners are now in power and the nation has passed a point of no return. The only reliable nature of modern Israeli society is that it will become meaner and less ” friendly” to a people they wish would disappear.
“The vast majority of Israelis see Palestinians as lesser humans. All of its citizens must join an army of occupation where they are further indoctrinated to see Palestinians not as equals but as vermin.”
You have any citations for these sweeping statements?
Pat O’Connor, you have it all wrong. The vast majority of the palestinian leaders / terrorists see their own people as lesser humans, vermin.
HERE IS THE REALITY: Peace between Israel and the Palestinians does not, fundamentally, depend on who is doing the negotiating, how skilled they are, and other such diplomatic matters. Fundamentally it depends on the desire for peace.
A new study of Palestinian textbooks finds that Palestinian children are being taught to glorify and value terrorism and violence. The study, called “Palestinian Elementary School Curriculum 2016–17: Radicalization and Revival of the PLO Program,” was conducted by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education.
The new Palestinian curriculum, which includes new textbooks for grades 1–4, is significantly more radical than previous curricula. To an even greater extent than the 2014–15 textbooks, the curriculum teaches students to be martyrs, demonizes and denies the existence of Israel and focuses on a “return” to an exclusively Palestinian homeland.
Within the pages of the textbooks children are taught to be expendable. Messages such as: “the volcano of my revenge”; “the longing of my blood for my land”; and “I shall sacrifice my blood to saturate the land” suffuse the curriculum. Math books use numbers of dead martyrs to teach arithmetic. The vision of an Arab Palestine includes the entirety of what is now Israel, defined as the “1948 Occupied Territories.”
That is not the way to prepare children for peace.
Here is how the grade 4 math textbook teaches math: The number of martyrs of the First Intifada during 1987–93 totaled 2026 martyrs, and the number of martyrs of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Intifada in the year 2000 totaled 5,050 martyrs while the number of the wounded reached 49,760. How many martyrs died in the two Intifadas?
The teaching and glorification of terrorism and violence should be at the top of the agenda for ANY palestinian leader who TRULY SEEKS PEACE!. For decades, such matters were considered peripheral to the serious business of diplomatic negotiations. But the negotiations start, stop, and go nowhere. Meanwhile another generation of Palestinian children learn in schools and play in parks named after murderers.
There’s more, so much more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2MMjc8ZXlI
As the vast majority of the Arab world sees the “Palestinians.” The Egyptians would not take back Gaza if it were offered on a silver platter. After the billions of dollars spent on relief what have they produced of worth to themselves or the world.? And it’s not Israel’s fault that the two factions Hamas and Fatah are both in dire financial situations and each would gladly annihilate the other. PS if you read history – or scratch the surface of Al-Aqsa you will discover who are the true occupiers. Hint: Not Israel.
Pingback: Standing with Professional Ethics | ACADEME BLOG
I have responded to this post at length here: https://academeblog.org/2018/09/20/standing-with-professional-ethics/
I must have missed the boycotts against study abroad programs in Turkey, India, Russia, the USA itself, and the many other countries with less than perfect human rights records, or downright bad ones. This professor is a racist and an antisemite.
I’m assuming that the principled Professor would also refuse to teach any Israeli students as they are also representative of the educational inequalities he’s so fervently opposed to. And, I hope he’s looking into boycotting students who wish to study abroad in China and Russia as I imagine many of their citizens feel the sting of harsh discrimination and unequal access to educational opportunities from their own governments. The problem with a boycott of this nature is that it can’t actually be applied with consistency and, in the end, the principled Professor becomes nothing more than a pathetic hypocrite. The issues between Israel and Palestine are far more complex than anything that existed in apartheid South Africa and the BDS is a misguided and antisemetic effort to punish the Jewish people for asserting their rights as an indigenous population in Israel. Of course the principled Professor has every right to decline a recommendation, it’s a free country. As such, we have every right to call out his hypocrisy and antisemitism. If the principled Professor is only exercising his academic muscle to criticize Israel, then he’s an anti semite. If that’s not true, perhaps he’ll step up and tell the next student who asks for a recommendation to China that he’ll write it after they free Tibet. And he’ll also stand with the Georgians against their Russian occupiers. While he’s at it, perhaps the principled Professor should take a look at the vast educational inequalities that exist in his own country and consider boycotting all white students’ applications to study abroad until black and other minority students have true access to equal educational opportunities.
Who are the people who call themselves Palestinians?
Most “Palestinians” can only prove that their ancestors were there in 1940’s but not earlier. Many of them emigrated to “Palestine” to find work due to the Zionist boom. When the early Zionists started to build up the area, which was mostly desert and swamp. The Arab countries did not pump as much oil as today, and their people were poor. The Arabs found work, then brought their families, and their friends, just like the Immigrants who go to Europe now. Can you imagine that in 2 generations they will claim that parts of Europe belongs to them?
As a matter of fact, they already started, they demand a Muslim state in Denmark. More demands will come in more European states.
The only Palestinians were the Jews who lived in the region (not state), called Palestine, which was under the British mandate. The Arab names of those who claim that they are “Palestinians” to this day show their true origins:
“Masri” = from Egypt-Hamas member of Parliament, Mushir al-Masri (the word “masri” littelery means “the egyptian” in arabic !).
“Khamis”= Bahrain “Salem Hanna Khamis” “al-Faruqi”= Mosul, Iraq
“al-Araj” = Morocco, a member of the Saadi Dynasty “Hussein al-Araj”
“al Lubnani” = the Lebanese
“al-Mughrabi” = the Moroccan (Maghreb” – meaning “West” in Arabic, and usually referring to North Africa or specifically to Morocco)
“al-Djazair” = the Algerian
“al-Yamani” = the Yemeni “Issam Al Yamani”
“al-Afghani” = the Afghan
“al-Hindi” = the Indian “Amin al-Hindi”
“Iraqi” = from Iraq.
“halabi” = from Aleppo, Syria
“El Baghdadi” = from Baghdad Iraq.
“Tarabulsi”= Tarabulus-Tripoli, Lebanon.
“Hourani” = Houran Syria.
“al-Husayni” = Saudi Arabia.
“Saudi” = Saudi Arabia.
“Metzarwah”= Egypt.
“Barda—wil” = “Salah Bardawil” HAMAS legislator in Gaza; Egypt, Bardawil Lake area.
“Nashashibi” = Syria.
“Bushnak” = Bosnia
“zoabi”= from Iraq: “Haneen Zoabi”.
“Turki” = Turkey “Daud Turki”
“al-Kurd” = Kurdistan.
“Haddadins” = YEMEN descended from Ghassanid Christian Arabs.
“Arab Abu-Kishk” = Egypt.(Bedouins)
“Arab al shakirat” = Egypt (Bedouins)
“Arab al zabidat” = Egypt (Bedouins)
“Arab al aramsha” = Egypt (Bedouins).
Even Yasser Arafat, the most famous “Palestinian” and leader of the P.L.O terrorist organization, was not native to Judea. He called himself a “Palestinian refugee” but spoke Arabic with an Egyptian accent. He was born in 1929 Cairo, Egypt. He served in the Egyptian army, studied in the University of Cairo, and lived in Cairo until 1956! His full name was Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini. “Al-Qudwa” tribe origin?
Yasser Arafat also proudly stated in his authorized biography that, “If there is any such thing as a Palestinian people, it is I, Yasser Arafat, who created them.”
Your point? Do you mean that because SOME Palestinians immigrated from neighboring areas any Jews from anywhere in the world can replace them? Context is important. In the era of the Ottoman Empire, before the British and the French carved up the Ottoman Empire and created countries, people moved back and forth in search of work, trade or study. That type of arrangement also allowed European Jews (including Hertzl) to enter Palestine during the Ottoman era. In fact, much earlier, the fluidity of borders allowed Jews to immigrate to Turkey as well as to the Arab countries of North Africa after 1492 when Jews and Muslims were kicked out of Spain. It is a myth that Palestine was a desert until Jews deigned to fix it, I say that as someone whose grandfather owned a large farm and grew oranges among other things in the fertile Haifa region. I refuse to have Jews use the Bible as a real estate document. Do not shove your religion down my throat.
Layla,
How do you explain all of the medical breakthroughs from Israel? Because they might have attended elementary school in the Soviet Union?! The rest of the world’s population is dumb because they aren’t utilizing their education to invent as much compared to Israelis!
NOBEL PRIZES:
As of 2017, Nobel Prizes have been awarded to 892 individuals,of whom 201 or 22.5% were Jews, although the total Jewish population comprises less than 0.2% of the world’s population.This means the percentage of Jewish Nobel laureates is at least 112.5 times or 11,250% above average. Various theories have been made to explain this phenomenon, which has received considerable attention.Prominent late Israeli academics Dr. Elay Ben-Gal and Professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz, curious about the phenomenon, started to form an encyclopedia of Jewish Nobel laureates and interview as many as possible about their life and work.
Notable laureates
Albert Einstein, 1921
Albert Einstein received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics “for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect”, but is perhaps most famous for his theory of relativity.
Laureates Elie Wiesel and Imre Kertész survived the extermination camps during the Holocaust,while the astronomer and physics laureate François Englert survived by being hidden in orphanages and children’s homes. Others, such as Walter Kohn, Max Born, Otto Stern, Albert Einstein, Hans Bethe, Hans Krebs and Martin Karplus, had to flee Nazi Germany to avoid persecution.Still others, including Rita Levi-Montalcini, Herbert Hauptman, Salvador Luria, Robert Furchgott, Arthur Kornberg, and Jerome Karle, experienced significant antisemitism in their careers.
The oldest person to receive a Nobel Prize was Leonid Hurwicz, a Polish-American Jew who received the 2007 prize in Economics when he was 90 years old.
______________________________________________________________________
ISRAEL ON THE FRONTLINE OF INTERNATIONAL AID:
Within a decade of Israel’s founding, the government and its people demonstrated a deep commitment to engage in humanitarian relief efforts and international development programs. In 1958, Israel adopted an official humanitarian aid agenda as a principal element of the country’s international cooperation efforts. Over the years, the country has extended international humanitarian aid assistance to more than 140 countries, even to those who do not maintain diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.
Israel’s humanitarian efforts formally began in 1958, with the establishment of MASHAV, as the Foreign Ministry’s Center for International Cooperation, following the first visit of Foreign Minister Golda Meir to Africa. MASHAV assists countries striving to alleviate global problems of hunger, disease and poverty by providing technical training and sharing technology to improve quality of life. In the 1970s, Israel broadened its humanitarian aid agenda by granting safe haven to refugees and foreign nationals in distress – from Vietnam, Bosnia and Kosovo – and more recently from Darfur.
Also, since 1959, MASHAV has been sending Israeli eye-doctors to countries throughout the developing world to treat preventable blindness and ocular disease. The Israeli teams set up “eye camps”, bringing with them extensive treatment equipment often unavailable in the country, and perform operations to restore sight, train local staff and often donate medical equipment at the end of their stay.
MASHAV, now Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation, is the body responsible for Israel’s official humanitarian assistance program.
In only 54 years, Israel has provided humanitarian aid to over 140 countries:
Albania * Angola * Argentina * Armenia * Azerbaijan * Belarus * Benin * Bolivia * Bosnia & Herzogovina * Bourkina-Fasso * Brazil * Bulgaria * Gurundi * Cambodia * Cameroon * Chad * Chile * China * Columbia * Congo * Costa Rica * Cote d’Ivoire * Cyprus * Czech Republic * Democratic Republic of Congo * Deominican Republic * Ecuador* Egypt * El Salvador * Eritrea * Estonia * Ethiopia * Fiji * Gambia * Georgia * Ghana * Greece * Guatemala * Guinea * Guinea-Bissau * Guyana * Haiti * Honduras * Hungary * India * Indonesia * Jamaica * Jordan * Kazakhstan * Kenya * Kyrgystan * Laos * Latvia * Leshotho * Liberia * Lithuania * Macedonia * Madagascar * Malawi * Malta * Mauritania * Mauritius * Mexico * Micronesia * Moldova * Mongolia * Morocco * Myanmar * Namibia * Nepal * Nicaragua * Nigreia * Palestinian Authority * Panama * Papua New Guinea * Paraguay * Peru * Philippines * Poland * Romania * Russia * Rwanda * Senegal * Seychelles Islands * Singapore * Slovakia * Somalia * South Africa * South Korea * Sri Lanka *Swaziland * Tadjikistan * Tanzania * Thailand * Togo * Tonga * Tunisia * Turkey * Turkmenistan * Uganda * Ukraine * United States * Uruguay * Uzbekistan * Venezuela * Vietnam * Yugosloslavia * Zaire * Zambia * Zimbabwe
Emergency aid
Since the 1980s, Israel has also provided humanitarian aid in the wake of natural disasters and terrorist attacks beyond its borders.
Tsunami – January 2005:
Sri Lankan child receives medical treatment
Israel, by tragic circumstance, is possibly the world’s leading expert in dealing with mass casualty situations. Israel has gained vast experience in responding to such situations resulting from war or terror, leading to the development of extremely effective procedures for rapid and effective response in case of emergency. This experience enables Israel to quickly dispatch field hospitals and medical and search and rescue teams to countries in the immediate aftermath of both natural and man-made disasters. In addition, Israel often donates needed food, medicine and supplies in emergency situations, constructs temporary housing and rehabilitates damaged medical facilities where needed.
Among Israel’s emergency relief missions:
A disaster relief mission was dispatched to Haiti, after the desvastating earthquake in January 2010. An IDF search and rescue team and field hospital were supplemented by relief teams from Israeli NGOs, including ZAKA, IsraAid, F.I.R.S.T and Latet.
The Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004 was one of the worst natural disasters in history. Israel sent 60 tons of aid to Indonesia, which was well-received by a country with the largest Muslim population in the world, and no ties with Israel. The Israeli government also sent 82 tons of relief supplies, including medicine, water, food, blankets, tents, nylon sheeting and electric generators to Sri Lanka. Magen David Adom, Israel’s division of the International Red Cross, dispatched additional urgent medical supplies to hospitals in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo.
Israeli organizations were also involved in providing aid to Pakistan after the November 2005 earthquake in Kashmir. An Israeli NGO, Israeli Flying Aid (IFA) sent a mission to the region and provided thousands of families basic dry food products, blankets, coats, socks, personal clay heating kits and iron sheets to shield temporary shelters from heavy snow.
Israeli humanitarian aid organizations
IsraAID (The Israel Forum for International Humanitarian Aid), founded in Israel in 2001, is an umbrella organization of more than 35 Israeli and Jewish non-governmental organizations and other individuals active in development and relief work around the world and concerned about global issues. IsraAID and its members have provided relief assistance to more than 20 countries including Rwanda, India, Mexico, Congo, Chad, Sudan (Darfur) and Malawi.
The Fast Israeli Rescue and Search Team (FIRST) is an Israeli NGO that sends search and rescue teams to disaster zones around the world. FIRST has also provided relief assistance in Peru, Turkey, India, Mexico, El Salvador, Greece, Armenia and New Guinea, among others
Israeli Flying Aid (IFA), an Israeli NGO, provides life saving aid to people affected by natural and man made disasters worldwide.
Save a Child’s Heart (SACH) is an organization that provides urgent pediatric heart surgery and follow-up care for children from developing countries. SACH was founded in 1995 and has since repaired the hearts of more than 2,100 children from a wide variety of countries including China, Congo, Ecuador, Angola, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Rwanda, Iraq, Jordan, Russia, Sri Lanka and Ukraine as well as to children in areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority.
LATET (Hebrew for “to give”) – Israeli Humanitarian Aid is an NGO established in 1996 and devoted to assisting populations in need in Israel and around the world on a universal and equal basis.
In one week, Israeli aid efforts included:
Florida
Three teams of volunteers from IsraAID, ZAKA Search and Rescue Organization, and the Israel Rescue Coalition (IRC), all of whom rushed to help in the aftermath of last week’s Hurricane Harvey in Texas, are now on their way to Florida to help local people pick up the pieces after the devastating storm. Another team from IsraAID is preparing to fly from Israel to Florida.
The IRC and United Hatzalah are due to arrive in Miami today with experts in search and rescue, and medical and psychological first-aid responders.
The team consists of eight members leaving from Israel who will be joined in Florida by four people from the US who will be running logistics and organizing community response.
“Our teams have already begun assembling data and connecting with local teams on the ground in Florida as well as the Israeli consulate and getting regular updates and assessments from the ground,” said Dov Maisel, director of international operations for the IRC as well as vice president of UH.
Among the 12 team members making preparations to depart are search-and-rescue veterans who are trained for rescues on land and sea, diving teams, veteran EMS and natural disaster personnel, as well as a group of UH Psychotrauma and Crisis Response Unit members.
“We’re trying to get out in front of this as much as possible. With resources and volunteers already heavily engaged in Texas, if Irma strikes hard in Florida, people on the ground there will need as much help as they can get, and we are not hesitating to deploy and assist in any way we can,” said Maisel.
The teams from IsraAID will be involved primarily in debris removal, helping community members clean up their homes, and offering psychosocial support.
ZAKA Search and Rescue organization has also announced that it has established two command centers in Miami, manned by tens of volunteers, to offer assistance to the local communities.
The command centers are equipped with generators, sleeping bags, food and water, and relevant search, rescue and recovery equipment. More ZAKA volunteers are standing by in the New York area.
“We intend to offer help in the best and most professional way we can, focusing on evacuation of stranded residents and treating the wounded,” said ZAKA International Rescue Unit chief officer Mati Goldstein.
Haiti and the Caribbean
IsraAID has had a team of aid workers on the ground in Haiti since the catastrophic earthquake there in January 2010. These workers have trained Haitian first responders, and have now begun distributing aid to locals in the north of the island, who have been affected by flooding from Hurricane Irma.
The organization is now planning to send volunteers from Haiti to one of the Caribbean islands worst affected by the storm. ZAKA is also considering whether to send aid to islands destroyed by the storm.
ZAKA Search and Rescue Organization volunteers, together with representatives from Israel, New York and Holland, managed to airlift Sarah Chanowitz, the wife of the Chabad emissary to St. Martin, and their five children to safety on Saturday (Rabbi Moshe Chanowitz remained to aid local residents).
The same day ZAKA also rescued a group of Jewish tourists, including medical students, from the US and Canada who were stranded on the island and seeking shelter in St. Martin’s medical school.
Mexico
iAID flew to Mexico and the border of Guatemala on Friday following the massive 8.1 earthquake that struck the region on Thursday night, and will be assessing what long term aid to bring to the devastated region.
“We are looking at long term technological programs, such as clean water,” said Zahavi.
The quake, which hit offshore in the Pacific, sparked a tsunami warning along the coast of Central America, and caused widespread damage and destruction, killing at least 90 people.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry is also sending aid to Mexico in cooperation with the Israeli Embassy in Mexico. The aid package coincides with a previously planned visit to the Central American country by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The aid package, which has not yet been disclosed, will be delivered by Ambassador to Mexico Yoni Peled to the southern states of Oaxaca and Chiapas, which were hit the hardest by the deadly quake.
Texas
Israel responded in force when Hurricane Harvey inundated the city of Houston and its surroundings with flood water. Aid teams from IsraAID, the IRC and ZAKA sent first-aid responders to the city to help clear debris and give psychological first aid to the traumatized population. Some of these aid workers are still in Texas helping local communities. iAID also distributed solar lanterns to people left without power.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry also sent several tons of supplies and donations via its embassy in Washington, DC. This was distributed by IsraAID. The Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs also sent $1m. in humanitarian aid for victims of the hurricane.
On Friday, two medical clowns from the Dream Doctors Project touched down in Houston to provide unique laughter therapy to the victims of Hurricane Harvey. The two clowns, Smadar Harpak and Penny Hanuka, will be touring Houston and Dallas for a week.
Just this past June, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) delivered 13 tons of food, 15 tons of baby food, three pallets of medical equipment and medicine and 30 tons of clothing to Syrian refugees.
“Several thousands of Syrian civilians fleeing the hostilities are living under poor conditions in these camps near the Israeli border, often lacking access to water, electricity, sources of food or other basic necessities,” the military said.
The effort by Israel’s military to aid Syrian civilians is known as “Good Neighbour”.
Around 5,000 Syrian civilians have made the short but perilous journey into Israel to receive medical treatment. Afterwards being treated in an Israeli hospital they return back into Syria.
Anyone accepting aid from Israel risks being labelled a “collaborator” by the regime and faces potential arrest if they end up in regime-controlled territory.
“Some ignorant people say we’re collaborators, they consider us traitors. These journeys are difficult for us and we’re afraid,” a Syrian doctor told The Telegraph last year. “But it’s all politics, the Syrian people want to live in peace with Israel.”
NEXT:
Peace between Israel and the Palestinians does not, fundamentally, depend on who is doing the negotiating, how skilled they are, and other such diplomatic matters. Fundamentally it depends on the desire for peace.
A new study of Palestinian textbooks finds that Palestinian children are being taught to glorify and value terrorism and violence. The study, called “Palestinian Elementary School Curriculum 2016–17: Radicalization and Revival of the PLO Program,” was conducted by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education.
The new Palestinian curriculum, which includes new textbooks for grades 1–4, is significantly more radical than previous curricula. To an even greater extent than the 2014–15 textbooks, the curriculum teaches students to be martyrs, demonizes and denies the existence of Israel and focuses on a “return” to an exclusively Palestinian homeland.
Within the pages of the textbooks children are taught to be expendable. Messages such as: “the volcano of my revenge”; “the longing of my blood for my land”; and “I shall sacrifice my blood to saturate the land” suffuse the curriculum. Math books use numbers of dead martyrs to teach arithmetic. The vision of an Arab Palestine includes the entirety of what is now Israel, defined as the “1948 Occupied Territories.”
That is not the way to prepare children for peace.
Here is how the grade 4 math textbook teaches math:
The number of martyrs of the First Intifada during 1987–93 totaled 2026 martyrs, and the number of martyrs of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Intifada in the year 2000 totaled 5,050 martyrs while the number of the wounded reached 49,760. How many martyrs died in the two Intifadas?
I SUSPECT YOU NEED A BREAK FROM READING, SO I’LL JUST GIVE YOU THE ADDRESS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Israeli_inventions_and_discoveries
DO CHECK IT OUT BECAUSE IT PUTS YOUR COMMENTS IN TRASH CAN.
I stand with Professor Lippold and all who are clear on the very obvious apartheid state of Israel’s oppression of Palestinians and support of BDS. It is unfortunate that any wording has to be so changed to fit The Narrative of this unfortunate current status. We here in New York, Jewish voice for peace, surgical technicians, mothers, artist and other human beings who feel that all human beings and that means even Palestinians should have rights stand behind this thank you
Alisande,
Peace between Israel and the Palestinians does not, fundamentally, depend on who is doing the negotiating, how skilled they are, and other such diplomatic matters. Fundamentally it depends on the desire for peace.
A new study of Palestinian textbooks finds that Palestinian children are being taught to glorify and value terrorism and violence. The study, called “Palestinian Elementary School Curriculum 2016–17: Radicalization and Revival of the PLO Program,” was conducted by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (in Jerusalem) and can be found here.
The study’s summary begins with this:
The new Palestinian curriculum, which includes new textbooks for grades 1–4, is significantly more radical than previous curricula. To an even greater extent than the 2014–15 textbooks, the curriculum teaches students to be martyrs, demonizes and denies the existence of Israel and focuses on a “return” to an exclusively Palestinian homeland.
Within the pages of the textbooks children are taught to be expendable. Messages such as: “the volcano of my revenge”; “the longing of my blood for my land”; and “I shall sacrifice my blood to saturate the land” suffuse the curriculum. Math books use numbers of dead martyrs to teach arithmetic. The vision of an Arab Palestine includes the entirety of what is now Israel, defined as the “1948 Occupied Territories.”
That is not the way to prepare children for peace.
Here is how the grade 4 math textbook teaches math:
The number of martyrs of the First Intifada during 1987–93 totaled 2026 martyrs, and the number of martyrs of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Intifada in the year 2000 totaled 5,050 martyrs while the number of the wounded reached 49,760. How many martyrs died in the two Intifadas?
For decades, such matters were considered peripheral to the serious business of diplomatic negotiations. But the negotiations start, stop, and go nowhere. Meanwhile another generation of Palestinian children learn in schools and play in parks named after murderers.
IMAGINE A MUSIC VIDEO teaching kids that bombs are more precious than children. After a five-year-old finds out that her mother wore a bomb belt to a suicide terror attack, she sings: “Now I know what was more precious than us.” This is just one example of the wide range of hateful and abusive messages on Hamas TV. Children are taught to value violence, hatred and Islamic supremacy, and that seeking Martyrdom for Allah is the highest value. This is a five-minute compilation of representative segments from Hamas TV that document this indoctrination of children.
One last point:
WATCH:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIBNRVgq59Y
So you want to boycott Israel?
So your organization has decided to boycott all products and services from Israel. Here is a list of activities that you now need to perform in order to comply with this boycott.
Part One – Technology and Food
First, remove all Intel Pentium and Celeron computer processor chips from personal computers (desktops, laptops and notebooks) as these were either developed or manufactured in Israel.
Note that the revolutionary new Ivy Bridge processor will be manufactured in Israel. Any computers running the Windows XT operating system must be turned off immediately as this was developed in Israel. All current Microsoft operating systems are not to be used as Microsoft is heavily reliant on its Israel R&D centre.
Step 2. Any computers that still work need to have their anti-virus software and personal firewalls removed as this technology originated in Israel. The organisation’s firewall will also need to be switched off. Staff should no longer open external emails as most of these will be infected with viruses. No outgoing emails can be sent. The algorithm (code) that’s used today for sending e-mails, was made by an Israeli who worked at the Ben-Gurion University in Be’er-Sheva in 1980.
Step 3. Discard all mobile phones, as this technology was developed in Israel, where the first mobile phones were manufactured. Mobile chip technology from a single Israeli company has now been installed in over 100 million devices. Only top-level staff may retain mobile phones for emergency situations. However the use of SMS (Texting) is expressly forbidden as this facility was developed in Israel. No 4G devices can be used, as the chipset is Israeli.
Step 4. Turn off your voice-mail service and delete any recorded messages. Israeli companies invented the voice-mail system. If someone you do not know answers your phone-call, then hang up. Israeli call-centres and call-centre technology is in widespread operation in the UK.
Step 5. Before accepting any printed material, check that the supplier has not used the Israeli device that might have saved up to 50% of the ink used.
Step 6. At home, do not use Facebook as many in-built and add-on applications are Israeli-developed. Do not watch videos on the Internet as the platform used to upload them may be from AOL and hence from an Israeli company. Do not use the Internet to search for answers to your questions as this may involve use of an Israeli-developed search engine. Better to remain unenlightened.
Step 7. On your TV or home entertainment centre, do not use Video On Demand (VOD) to watch movies as you may inadvertently see an advert displayed using Israeli software. Do not purchase any games devices as these are likely to use Israeli technology.
Step 8. Do not read books using an e-book as this may contain Israeli technology. Do not use data storage as it may have been developed at Israel’s storage technology R&D center.
Step 9. Do not buy an electric car as it is likely to be powered with an Israeli battery or use Israeli developed charging mats. Continue to sit in traffic knowing that you are polluting the environment and financing oil-rich despotic regimes.
Turning to food and drink, all food outlets on the organisation’s premises must dispose of cherry tomatoes, which were developed in Israel. Staff must ensure that no cherry tomatoes are included in sandwiches brought into office premises. The ban also applies to honey and any products derived from honey. Israel has developed solutions to the worldwide problem of bee-colony collapse, so that any products derived from bees might only be available now due to an Israeli invention.
Avoid drinking any of the world-recognized award-winning Israeli wines. Do not consume homemade drinks from Israeli-manufactured household drinks machines.
Avoid any fruit from South Africa or Peru as produce from these countries is being marketed with Israeli brand names.
No agricultural products from the following areas must be consumed as they use water irrigation and agricultural technology provided directly from Israel. This includes most of Africa, China, India, Indonesia (a Muslim country), Nepal and many others.
Much fruit and vegetables (including organic) imported into the UK has been enhanced using Israeli technology. This may save millions of people from starving around the world, but is not a good reason for you to eat it. To be safe, only eat fruit and vegetables that you have grown yourself using seeds that have been in your family for generations.
Part Two – Staff Health.
Destroy all personal medication. Israel’s Teva Pharmaceuticals, the largest generic drugs company in the world, will have manufactured many of your medicines. Staff with the following illnesses will need to take specific precautions.
Cancer – do not take any form of medication or treatment. Israeli scientists have been working at the forefront of oncology for decades.
AIDS and HIV – beware; researchers at Israel’s Weizmann Institute or Hebrew University developed or improved AZT and Hypericin-based drugs; they have also developed a treatment that destroys HIV-infected cells without damaging healthy ones.
Diabetes – do not measure or inject Insulin using the devices developed by Israeli scientists.
Multiple Sclerosis – stop taking Copaxone, one of the most efficient medicines and the only non-interferon agent, as Teva developed it. Don’t touch Laquinimod either.
Parkinson’s – remove the Israel-pioneered brain pacemaker to stop tremors. Discontinue Levodopa, which reduces motor disturbances. Cease sessions that involve magnetic cortex stimulation.
Staff with a family history of heart disease and arteriosclerosis must not use the Israeli device for early detection of these. Rather, wait until onset of the disease.
Epileptics – stop treatment that may have benefited from the Israeli discovery of the underlying mutant gene; also throw away the bracelet that sends out an alert when a person goes into seizure.
Staff or relatives with Age-related Macular Degeneration – remove Israeli implants that arrest the disease.
Liver disease – abandon Israeli-developed antibody immunotherapy treatments.
Emphysema – steer clear of the Israeli protein replacement therapy.
Myeloma – stop taking the drug Velcade, which was developed over a period of 30 years by scientists at Haifa.
Sleep apnea – no tests using the breakthrough Israeli device for diagnosis.
Dyslexics must not benefit from the Israeli Internet-based reading system.
Skin allergies must be treated with steroid creams only, as the new safer non-steroid alternative is Israeli.
Any incident of stroke or head trauma or onset of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, MS, epilepsy, glaucoma or brain tumor must avoid using any of the Weizmann Institute’s patented methods of treatment.
Before any surgery or medical tests, check that hospital catheters have not been protected from infection using the new plastic from Israel that disables microorganisms. Avoid throat surgery as this may utilize Israeli surgical lasers.
Ensure any colonoscopy or gastro investigation does not use internal Israeli cameras such as the Pillcam. Never undergo surgery to install an artificial heart, as the first artificial heart transplant took place in Israel.
Kidney transplant patients must wait for donors of the same blood group as only Israel’s revolutionary new methods allow donors from other blood groups. Staff of Arab origin must not make use of the only database for matching potential Arab donors of bone-marrow – in Israel.
In the event of a spinal injury or disease, do not accept spinal implants – likely to be an Israeli product or development. Heart rhythm problems must not be solved with the Israeli-developed heart pulse generator. All heart stents are off-limits as most of these originate from Israeli medical companies.
Check all vaccines as many of these have been developed in Israel. Ensure that all X-rays do carry a radiation risk, as the only radiation-free system is Israeli. Treatments derived from Stem Cell research must be avoided as most of these are Israeli-developed.
If you or your family are struck with a bacterial infection, do not take alternatives to older, ineffective bacteria-resistant antibiotics, as an Israeli discovery will have been responsible for the modern, effective drugs. Check that any pain relief medication is not based on soya as an Israeli doctor discovered the beneficial effect of the soya bean.
Do not use the revolutionary new Israeli bandage that saved the life of Arizona senator Gabriella Giffords after she was shot in the head. If you break a bone badly, reject any treatment that involves introducing collagen, as this may have been manufactured from Israeli plants.
Do not protect babies and infants from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome with the Babysense system from Israel.
Do not use Epilady (or epilator) – two Israelis invented this hair removal device.
Finally, reject all major dental treatment, as your teeth may need to be scanned with an Israeli-developed dental scanner.
Part Three – Dealing with People.
When interviewing prospective new staff or holding meetings with members of the public or with individuals from other companies, it is vital that you check whether they originate from, or are associated with the following countries and areas. You must ensure that you do not have any contact with people who have benefited from Israel’s aid to those countries. The organization must avoid any possible acknowledgment of Israel’s contribution to world relief. In addition, you must obtain a formal statement from the government of these countries that Israeli aid was not responsible for the production or development of any goods and services supplied to the organization.
These locations include:
Japan (As well as rescue teams, Israel supplied Geiger counters and Israeli thermal imaging cameras are monitoring the reactor cores – Mar 2011)
Ghana (has been receiving technological aid from Israel since 2006; Israel is now providing neonatal units to save many of the 4,800 babies that die each year – Mar 2011)
New Zealand (Israel sent several rescue teams, temporary shelters and water purification systems following the Christchurch earthquake in Feb 2011)
Chile, whose rescued miners were treated to a tour of Israel as part of their “Pilgrimage of Thanks” (Feb 2011)
Vietnam, whose milk industry is being totally transformed using high-yield Israeli cows (Feb 2011)
Uganda (Israeli solar-powered refrigerators were provided to store v1accines used to eliminate an outbreak of Polio from the country in Jan 2011)
Kenya (Israel’s Agency for International Development built a state-of-the-art Emergency Room in a hospital serving 6 million Kenyans in Jan 2011)
The Maldives (although non-Islamic worship is banned here, Israeli eye-doctors performed free operations for citizens in Dec 2010)
Philippines (signed major trade agreement with Israel in Nov 2010)
Romania (Israeli doctors treated babies following fire at a neonatal unit – Sep 2010)
Cameroon (Ophthalmologists from Haifa restored vision to patients and trained local medical teams in these procedures – Aug 2010)
The Congo (Israel were the first burn specialists on the scene following the oil tanker fire disaster in July 2010)
Angola (mines cleared by Israeli technology – July 2010)
Mississippi (bio-remediation technique used to clean up after oil spills was developed in Israel)
China (a major purchaser of Israeli technology, and recipient of medical aid and training)
South Africa (Israelis trained their doctors to perform circumcisions to prevent the spread of AIDS – July 2010)
Haiti (Israel set-up the largest field hospital to treat victims of the 2010 earthquake, the hurricane and the cholera outbreaks and provided vital assistance for over a year)
Sri Lanka (Israel conducted a massive airlift with food, 50 medical staff and rescue teams only 48 hours after the Tsunami in Dec 2004)
India (Israel sent an fully-equipped field hospital following Gujarat earthquake in Feb 2001)
El Salvador (Israel relief aid following earthquake in 2001)
Georgia (Israel contributed food and seeds for farmers following severe drought in 2001)
Turkey (Israel relief aid following earthquake in 2000)
Mozambique ((Israel relief aid following floods in 2000)
Colombia (Israel sent medical aid and food following earthquake in 1999)
Venezuela (President Chavez has forgotten Israel’s aid following floods of 1999)
Central America (Israel sent emergency medical aid teams and equipment to help victims of Hurricane Mitch in 1998)
Pakistan (2005) and Peru (2007) both accepted aid from Israeli NGOs following earthquake disasters.
Peru’s hydro-electric power plants are also being built and run by an Israeli company.
Rawanda, Mexico, Chad, Sudan (Darfur) and Malawi all have received humanitarian aid from Israel, including medical assistance from Israel’s NGO IsraAID.
Always remember that the boycott extends to any individuals from the above regions that have been exposed to Israeli assistance during the 63 years existence of the current Jewish State.
Part Four – Other Impacts.
-Reject all products from the USA. Analysis conducted in a typical US stateshows that Israeli innovations were responsible for $2.4 billion in direct revenue to that state’s economy in 2009 and generated nearly 6,000 jobs.
-Do not tutor your children in advanced Mathematics techniques, which may have originated in Israel. Also, if these techniques are used in your children’s schools, withdraw your children immediately.
-Keen ornithologists should consider giving up their hobby as many rarespecies stop off or reside in Israel during their twice-yearly migration.
-Do not watch the new series of NCIS as one of the actresses is Israeli.
-Avoid going to any football matches featuring teams with Israeli players.
-Destroy all your recordings of Madonna, Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, Deep Purple, Bon Jovie, Justin Bieber, George Benson, Moby and many, many more artists who have ridiculed the illogical boycott and have proudly performed (or will shortly perform) concerts in Israel.
-Destroy any recordings of U2, Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Bruce Springsteen, Beck, Rihanna Coldplay and any artist whose music has been recorded using the sound technology of the Grammy Award winning Israeli company Wave Audio. You also must get rid of any personal copies of Shrek,American Beauty and Star Wars. Do not trust anything recorded by Sony, JVC, Toshiba or Dell.
-Don’t go to see The Black Swan with Natalie Portman, or watch any old films with Elizabeth Taylor – both lovers of the Jewish State.
-Do not stay in hotels or visit shopping centers owned by Israeli companies (sorry, you will need to check which ones yourself).
-Do not have anything to do with the banks who are using Israeli software to prevent fraud.
-Do not use any credit or debit card as the Security monitoring system used by the credit card companies is likely to be Israeli.
-Do not buy an engagement ring containing a diamond as it is possible that this may have been cut in Israel.
-Do not travel by air, as your plane might get towed by the Israeli-built “Taxibot.”
-Do not use public transport inside Amsterdam, Moscow or Northern Chinain case you benefit from Israeli transportation devices.
-If you suffer a power or network failure, be grateful that at least you haven’t installed the Israeli system that prevents power outages.
-Finally, you need to leave all your taps running when you leave home and must never flush your toilet, because Israel provides water-saving technology to over half of the planet. It also is providing sewage treatment technology across the world, including to the UK. It should be obvious by now that all the measures specified in Parts 1 – 4 of this series of blogs will inevitably mean that your organization and your staff will be completely unable to function. Let’s therefore hope that the decision by your organization to boycott Israeli products is flushed down the toilet of history.
All technology is built on technology developed by other people. Without Chinese printing, Israelis would still be writing on wet mud tablets or whatever they were writing on. Without the Zero, invented by the Indians and transported to Europe by the Arabs, and without Arab numerals as opposed to Roman numerals, we would not have computers. Without those inventions, Israelis would have none of the technologies they boast about. This boasting is the new Israeli hasbara, which says, ignore Israel’s human rights record and keep reminding people of the inventions they have developed (usually, thanks to the Soviet Union’s educational system that educated Jews who immigrated to Israel, or because Jews or their parents resided in Europe or the USA and benefited from their educational systems).
This man needs to be fired. His salary is paid by students AND taxpayers, therefore he is THEIR employee and needs to keep opinipns to himself off the clock.
We do not subscribe to the consumer model of university funding, as in, “Give me what I, the consumer wants, or I will not pay your salary.” And talking of tax dollars, as a Palestinian-American, I deeply resent that $3.8 billion of our tax dollars are given to Israel to buy weapons with which to kill Palestinians. This money should be given to striking American teachers with lousy salaries and few school supplies.
all antisemic profesors and pseudo academics, israel is the only country this white trash antisemite will not write recomendation letters, however, anywere in the world is ok. congratulations on perpetuating the hate around the world , hopefully the family sue the university and the low life.
The reason such actions reek of anti-semtitism is that those who pursue BDS against Israel do not hold China to the same standard for their treatment of Uighers. Why don’t these same people seek to boycott Chinese goods and academics? Why is there no BDS movement to support the Rohingya of Myanmar? In both of these cases there are Muslim groups being persecuted. But we all want what China is selling – so who cares if the Chinese government has placed thousands of Uigher Muslims into re- education camps to deny them their religion and heritage? The only answer is the most clear – Israel is the Jewish homeland, collective guilt is unjustly placed on all Jews and individuals such as Professor Cheney-Lippold use it as a cover for their anti-Semitic tendencies.
As you well know Israel is a hub for academic and research advancement in so many fields Mathematics, Robotics, Physics, Optics, Medicine, Economics, Biotechnology, Computer Sciences, agriculture, Energy, etc.… Politics should never stand in the way of education and progress. the collection action is antisemitic to say the least.
I wonder if Assistant Professor Lippold and his above supporters would decline to use the medicine Azilect for themselves or for their family members if they were inflicted with Parkinson disease, or Copaxone for multiple Sceloris both of which were developed in Israel.
Does the Assistant Professor and supporters refuse to use a USB drive or VOIP because they were developed in Israel.?
Does the Assistant Professor and the supporters refuses to use a cell phone because Motorola’s Israel R&D center with Israeli engineers were the first that developed original cell-phone technology?
Does he and his supporters have on their phones either Waze or Viber applications? Both were developed in Israel and have hundreds of millions of users.
What is next refuse to provide the Novel prize to any Israeli individual? To date Israeli were awarded 12 Nobel prizes I believe.
Maybe all should be should be made aware that “as of 2017, Nobel Prizes have been awarded to 892 individuals, of whom 201 or 22.5% were Jews, although the total Jewish population comprises less than 0.2% of the world’s population. This means the percentage of Jewish Nobel laureates is at least 112.5 times or 11,250% above average.”
Assistant Professor Lippold is preventing Abigail a student at the University of Michigan from learning from a country that has provided so much to betterment of humanity and academic.
He and his supporters should start by boycotting the use of any phone, text messaging and even the use of data that he complies for his research because they are compiled on computers knowing that the first IBM processor 8088 was also invented in Israel.
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I am a Muslim and might be biased. But irrespective, support Professor Cheney-Lippold, not because he is supporting Palestinian Muslims, but because he is supporting his fellow human beings. Also, don’t forget a sizable population of Palestinians are Christians and other minorities. Accusing him of racism is baseless and it stems either from being clueless on Israeli-Palestinian conflict or being Jewish! I hope those people who are attacking him, at least mention that they are Jewish. I can detect some from their family name!
Why do you ask? And from their family name? Were are you up to to.. Because you have a jewish name you can not react….Or we are no human beings? Or we are bias like every moslim in this world who do not know history or want to kill people because they are gay or non believers, who belive that women are not equal like man, who have no respect for christans, etc. And you, as a moslim, write this..
Funny, these proffesors have no problems if students want to go for example to china. Were as they know many people are in the same situation as they described the palestinas are in. Then they have no problem with writing a letter. Probably mister lippold also not. And this is the real problem. They are hypocrits (probebly money plays a role?). They will never ever call for a cultural boycotts for these countries.
Oh before i fotget maybey the world should start a cultural and academic boycott of the USA. The usa have strict visum restriction some based on religion; the usa dicriminates certain groups of moslims. No to mention the ethical position of many groups in the usa. So pointing your finger to other countries, these “professors” should reflect first to there own country and try to the change that…..
Cheney-Lippold’s bigotry has no rightful place education in a democratic western country. He should be dismissed from teaching immediately.
I wrote him this:
Dear Professor Cheney-Lippold,
I probably am not the first, nor the only, person to write to you in response to your actions regarding the academic boycott of Israel as a means of supporting the Palestinian cause. But I guess many just wrote you in pure outrage whereas I would like to understand the logic behind your actions. I will not try to persuade you to become pro-Israeli or even try to understand the Israeli side. But what I would like to do, is understand how a distinguished academic figure as yourself, with a field of interest that includes politics and civil liberties, regards Israel as an APARTHEID regime. If to take South Africa as an example of APARTHEID (as they coined the term), the meaning is a separate legal status for otherwise the same citizens of a country, based on a single difference (such as skin color). The blacks in SA could not run for office in government, assume the same positions as whites and even use the same toilette. In Israel, all Arab citizens (including those considering themselves Palestinians) are equal by law. This means they can run for prime minister and do anything a Jewish Israeli does. This means there is not a single thing that resembles APARTHEID in SA and Israel. As there never existed a Palestinian state, the territories where seized from Egypt and Jordan during a war of self defense (see Israeli casus-beli in 1967 by the UN). Now the Palestinian territories enjoy a status of autonomy according to the OSLO accords, meaning they are NOT citizens of Israel and so are self governed. When they enter Israel they use the same buses, toilets, restaurants as Israeli citizens. Every road block and check point erected between those territories and Israel have been put there in response to attacks and are aimed at protecting Israeli citizens (Jews and Arabs alike) from Palestinian citizens. NOT because of some racial difference.But that is NOT APARTHEID. Yes, there is a current territorial dispute between Israel and the Palestinians. You may side with the Palestinians or the Israelis, but that’s not the point right now. Both sides are also right AND wrong – as is with many disputes. But you deny that students letter of recommendation based on your support for a certain side in a territorial dispute. Do you act the same regarding CHINA AND Taiwan or Tibet? Spain regarding the Basque land or Catalunia? The UK because of N. Ireland?
Probably not.
So whats makes Israel special? Well, the only thing that makes Israel unique is the fact that it’s Jewish. And as long as you hold Israel under different standards compared with other nations – you, my friend, are Antisemitic. That is a dictionary fact.
I am an Israeli physician, I treat Arabs and Jews alike, Israelis and Palestinians alike, Terrorists and their victims side by side in the E.R and even Syrians from a war I have no part in, waged by belligerents that deny my very right to exist. I treat them in the same beds, with the same medical equipment and the same dedication. If I am able to leave politics out of my academic and professional life from right here in the middle of all of it, so can you, from 5000 miles away. Until then – at least don’t LIE! you receive a big fat F from me.
Yours truly,
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To the authors: When Israel gained control of Gaza and the so called “West Bank” in 1967 not one university existed in either territory. So far as higher education is concerned there was a single 2-year agricultural colkege that had been stolen from Jews in 1948 when the sector it sits within was Ethnically Cleansed of all Jews by Arabs. In 1994 when Oslo I was signed there were 33 institutions of higher education of which 24 were universities. Claiming that Palestinians are denied educations by Israel is obviously lie. In fact, Palestinians attend all Israeli universities and colleges outside of religious institutions. In fact they attend Ariel University, a school in what you would call a “Settlement.”
If you are this ignorant should you be making definative statements? You should do some objective research at the very least.
As for claiming that Palestinians and Muslims are denied permission to travel to Israel, you must be joking. Do yourselves a favour and actually learn about the dynamic and stop parroting baseless propaganda.
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this is so pathetic. it’s plain antisemitism. you won’t refuse to send a student to any other place based on politics. oh and refusing to let students study abroad in israel doesn’t at all stand with palestine. there’s a different between being anti israel and pro palestine. you guys should be ashamed.
Apparently, the University of Michigan holds its employees to a higher standard of professionalism than the authors have had to demonstrate. One can only wonder if the authors had been better mentored and managed earlier in their careers, if they would have arrived at the present with the same propensity to run to complain.
See the University of Michigan’s Dean’s words on the topic:
https://michiganhillel.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Dean-Coles-letter-oct-3-2018.pdf
In effect, “No. Bad professor. Don’t do that again. Bad boy.”
Quite right.
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