[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 499 Introduced in House (IH)]







107th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 499

  Condemning attempts to boycott Israeli scientific institutions and 
                               scholars.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 24, 2002

 Mr. Capuano submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
              the Committee on Education and the Workforce

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
  Condemning attempts to boycott Israeli scientific institutions and 
                               scholars.

Whereas scientific progress and the advancement of human knowledge depend upon 
        the free exchange of ideas;
Whereas peace everywhere depends upon the ability of individuals and governments 
        to recognize, respect, and discuss our differences;
Whereas an organization calling itself the Coordination of Scientists for a Just 
        Peace in the Near East (``Coordination des Scientifiques pour une Paix 
        Juste au Proche-Orient'') has appealed for an international boycott of 
        Israeli scientific institutions;
Whereas more than 700 European academics have already endorsed this 
        international boycott;
Whereas 2 Israeli scholars, Gideon Toury and Miriam Schlesinger, the latter of 
        whom is a former head of Amnesty International in Israel, were fired 
        from the board of The Translator, published under the auspices of the 
        University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, for no 
        reason other than their nationality;
Whereas Donald Kennedy, President Emeritus of Stanford University, warned in a 
        June 7, 2002, editorial that Science, the journal of the American 
        Association for the Advancement of Science, would, if necessary, impose 
        ``penalties with regard to future publication'' upon contributors who 
        refused reasonable requests to share data or materials with Israeli 
        researchers;
Whereas Professor Stephen Greenblatt of Harvard University, the President of the 
        Modern Language Association of America, in an open letter dated June 26, 
        2002, deplored the Manchester firings as ``particularly grotesque'' 
        because the journal in question was ostensibly devoted to intercultural 
        communication;
Whereas a petition initiated by scholars at Harvard University and the 
        Massachusetts Institute of Technology denounced attempts to turn the 
        scientific community into a political battlefield as ``irresponsible and 
        counter-productive,'' and quickly gathered support from 70 of the most 
        illustrious names in mathematics and physical science here and abroad;
Whereas another petition, initiated by professors at the University of Chicago, 
        states their belief that a cultural and scientific boycott of Israel is 
        ``immoral, dangerous, and misguided, and indirectly encourages the 
        terrorist murderers in their deadly deeds'', and more than 2,500 
        scholars from all over the world have signed this document, which was 
        published in the British newspaper, The Guardian; and
Whereas other campaigns that insist upon academic freedom and dialogue among all 
        the world's peoples gain adherents daily: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives 
that--
            (1) attempts to boycott Israeli scholars will neither 
        advance truth nor achieve peace;
            (2) attempts to treat Israeli scholars as pariahs cannot 
        fail to recall horrifying precedents such as the Nazi effort to 
        ``purify'' German universities (make them ``Judenrein'') by 
        expelling Jewish students and faculty and the Stalinist 
        slaughter of Yiddish intellectuals; and
            (3) scholars in the United States and abroad are to be 
        commended for their prompt and resolute defense of their 
        Israeli colleagues and for their commitment to the free 
        exchange of ideas.
                                 <all>