“What do we need to do to have a better Egypt?” |
A lost opportunity for tolerance
I read with dismay that the American University in Cairo’s faculty senate passed a resolution calling for the boycott of Israeli academia. It is an unfortunate reality when an academic faculty’s personal biases and self-righteous indignation serve to undermine a historic opportunity for the community they are supposedly committed to enlightening. While AUC could have led a breakthrough initiative of tolerance, understanding and change—much in the same way the Arkansas school system integrated black students into white schools—the senate decided that their political grudges outweighed advancing the causes of academic integrity and bi-cultural understanding.
Establishing ties with Israeli academia and condoning the government’s actions are two very separate actions. Maintaining that Israeli academia is an instrument for furthering the Palestinian suffering, like Professor Sherif El Musa claims, is as false as the notion that the AUC is a tool of Mubarak’s autocratic rule. If Israeli universities represent the same racist policies of the government, then why do they admit hundreds of Israeli-Arabs every year? Israeli academia examines a diversity of opinions and thinks independently of the government’s policies. It deserves admiration, not a boycott, for this sacred academic pursuit. It’s a pity the AUC faculty cannot pursue this same hallowed principle.
Normalization is not just an intellectual advancement but also a path to aiding the Palestinian cause. Sitting in an Ivory Tower, glowering upon their Israeli neighbors, the AUC Senate is doing nothing to help alleviate Palestinian suffering. In a relationship with Israeli academia, AUC could encourage Israeli universities to offer more spots to Palestinians. AUC could also send professors to give lectures and induce sentiments of change among future Israeli leaders. Scenarios such as these would actually aid the Palestinian cause. But the Senate decided that a complete boycott, in which encouragement is impossible and the possibility of inducing change is far lower, is the preferable method.
Steering away from controversy is not the job of a university academic body. Our enlightened community members must be forerunners of change, leaders who seek even unpopular methods to upgrade the country’s intellectual atmosphere. By normalizing relations with Israel and responding to a historic challenge, the administration can advance understanding, tolerance and hope, not to mention aid the Palestinian cause, in a region in desperate need of healing. It is my hope that the administration, seeing the historic opportunities lying before it, will ignore the faculty senate’s advice.