Against an AUT boycott

Etgar Keret has some words to say about the proposed AUT boycott of Israeli universities:

[I]t looks like our region can't last long without some form of arbitrary collective punishment, and if we don't come up with one ourselves, the enlightened academic system of Great Britain is always there to help us out.
.....
Today, the Association of University Teachers will hold its annual council meeting in Eastbourne, during which a motion will be put forth to boycott three out of eight Israeli universities. The timing, as always, is perfect. The Middle East is never exactly blissful, but now, of all times, when the agenda features disengagement and the slimmest prospects of new solutions - now is apparently the right moment for calling out the cavalry of British academe, those valiant and dauntless professors who will not think twice before boycotting Israeli mathematicians or Latin scholars. With a well-aimed forceps movement, they will prevent such researchers from publishing their learned papers on topological distortions in space, and may even, if they're lucky, manage to foil cooperation between biologists who might, heaven forbid, discover a Zionist cure for cancer.

Those who propose an academic boycott of Israel make frequent reference to the boycott of South African universities - a "precedent" that is utterly different; South African universities were themselves active participants in promoting racist policies, whereas Israeli institutions of higher learning are in fact one of the few remaining bastions of the liberal left.

See also here. (Thanks: L.)