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AUC Senate calls for anti-normalization
The faculty senate of the American University in Cairo (AUC) passed a resolution last Wednesday asking faculty,staff and students to “refrain from dealings with Israeli academia within the AUC environment.”
According to Fred Perry, professor in the English Language Institute (ELI) and chairman of the senate, the resolution is a statement by the senate and not a policy that the administration will officially adopt. He added that the statement discourages normalizing relations with institutions.
“We cannot ban individuals because that is against international human rights law,” he said.
The resolution was approved by a simple majority in a secret ballot.
The senate had been asked to put academic normalization with Israel on the agenda last fall after some members of faculty had expressed concern about the controversial issue in a general faculty meeting.
Other universities in Egypt, such as Cairo University and Ain Shams, also apply anti-normalization policies.
Sherif El Musa, a Palestinian political science professor and one of the faculty supporters of the statement, said that he had approached AUC President David Arnold in the summer of 2006 about an anti-normalization statement after the journalism and mass communication (JMC) department invited an Israeli professor to the International Association for Media and Communication Research Conference (IAMCR).
“What is academic freedom when I cannot return to Gaza to teach, when students cannot pass checkpoints to continue their education?” asked El Musa.
El Musa added that the resolution was a “great gift, especially since it comes on the eve of the [60th Nakba anniversary] of the creation of Israel.”
Thirty members of Al-Quds Club attended the debate that preceded the final vote. “Some people raised ridiculous concerns like, ‘the resolution will make us lose accreditation or funding,’” said Kate Dannies, secretary of the club. “But if we lose funding from American institutions, maybe we can gain it from Arab ones.”
“It’s just a feel-good resolution,” Dannies added.
But other people did not feel so good about the resolution. “I think we need to be more careful with our wording so we are not being against Israelis themselves but against the actions of their government,” said Amr Serag El-Din, a professor of mechanical engineering, who attended the senate meeting but had to leave before the vote.
“ I don’t understand how we can be ‘anti-normalization.’ Don’t we have a peace treaty with Israel?” said Salma Mansour, economics senior.
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