A GROUP of Jewish academics working at universities across Scotland have called on their employers to divest from Israel.
The Scottish Universities Jewish Staff Network – a network that brings together Jewish staff and researchers in higher education across Scotland – also called on universities to reject the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.
In an op-ed for The National, the group said the IHRA definition was being “weaponised” to stifle criticism of Israel amid its genocide in Gaza.
“The Scottish Universities Jewish Staff Network have been advocating against the conflation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism, mindful of the risks to academic freedom and pluralism, the bread and butter of liberal civil society,” they wrote.
“Right now, twenty-two months into the Gaza genocide, we can clearly see the disastrous harm of stifling criticism of Israel by the weaponization of the IHRA definition of antisemitism, at times without even adopting it as an official institutional policy.”
The group added: “Rather than tackling anti-Semitism as this quasi-legal instrument purports to do, it has created the false equivalence between Jews and Zionism, associating us all, including dissident Israelis, with the horrendous genocide that we unequivocably oppose.”
It comes after the University of Edinburgh announced last month that it would be considering whether to de-adopt the definition and divest from Israeli companies after it published a report into its historical links to transatlantic slavery and empire.
The report also recommended the university establish a Palestine Studies Centre to investigate the legacy of the Balfour declaration and offer scholarships to Palestinians.
“When one looks into Balfour’s legacy, some of today’s truisms fall apart. The one most concerning for us, as Jewish staff members in Scottish universities, is the conventional wisdom so deeply rooted in our public discourse and institutional frameworks that anti-Zionism is, by default, anti-Semitism,” the group wrote in the op-ed.
They went on to say they endorse the report and “reject the implication that Jewish safety is compromised by supporting Palestine”.
“Furthermore, many of us, including Israeli dissidents, vehemently criticise the Israeli occupation, oppression, and genocide of the Palestinian people. And for good reasons, as outlined in this excellent report,” the group added.
“We therefore call on our institutions for the following. First, to reject the IHRA definition and rely on existing EDI policies against racism to address anti-Semitism without separate measures. Second, to divest from all organisations which sustain or are linked to the Israeli State. Third, to actively engage with Palestinian scholars and institutions to rebuild Palestinian higher education in the wake of Israeli scholasticide in Gaza.”
