Expat Israeli Academics Find Out Being 'Anti-Zionist' Doesn't Overcome Being Jews

 

If you're an Israeli Left wing academic from say, Tel Aviv University who loudly spouts pro-Palestinian, anti-Zionist' views, you might expect to be welcomed with open arms by academic circles in the EU. especially since people are getting a lot less tolerant of that kind of suicidal sedition in Israel at taxpayer expense.

Unfortunately, as this piece from Ha'aretz reveals, it just ain't so.

Here's what happen when Left-wing Israeli academics with anti-Israel views pursue academic careers abroad, as related by one of them:

Left-wing Israeli academics have in the past few years faced a great challenge. Threatened with censorship, prosecution and ostracism in their home universities, they have been subtly forced to hold their tongues when it comes to publicly expressing their political opinions. In 2009, Neve Gordon nearly lost his job as a politics professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev after writing an op-ed arguing that Israel has become an apartheid state that can only be saved by an international boycott. One year later, in 2010, world-renowned art theorist Ariella Azoulay was denied tenure by Bar-Ilan University apparently due to her pro-Palestinian political views. These incidents send Israeli academics a clear message: tolerance of critical opinions is running out.

It is for exactly this reason that many Israelis pursue academic careers abroad. But in the international academic community, they often find that no matter how far left or pro-peace they are, their “Israeliness” remains an obstacle. Universities and scholars that explicitly support boycotting Israeli academic institutions are still relatively rare, but it seems that to avoid undesirable political rows, many universities choose not to collaborate with their Israeli counterparts or offer scholarships to Israeli students. In many cases, Israelis looking to participate in student-exchange programs or pay for postgraduate studies in Europe, and especially the United Kingdom, are unable to find any opportunities. When it comes to funding, they tend to discover Israel is neither part of the Middle East nor of Europe. Israelis are usually not entitled to apply for the scholarships available to other foreign students.

While their Palestinian fellows enjoy the political and financial support of active pro-Palestinian university societies and generous scholarships designed specifically for them, the implicit message to Israelis is often: “It doesn’t really matter what you say or think, because we simply don’t want to hear from you.” For example, British Member of Parliament George Galloway walked out a debate at Oxford University three months ago simply because he learned that his student opponent was an Israeli citizen. The fact that the student was about to explain the necessity of an agreement recognizing both Israel and a Palestinian state did not matter.

You see, it doesn't really pay to sell out and try to betray your own people.There's always that inconvenient accident of birth. And the  EU pretty much already has its small quota of self-hating Jews filled whom they can parade as a mask for their anti-semitism.

Today's 'anti-Zionist' Jews just arrived too late for the goodies, and they're pretty much neither wanted or needed anymore. Either in Israel or abroad.

(h/t Fresno Zionism)