International Human Rights Network of Academies and Scholarly Societies Proceedings - Symposium and Seventh Biennial Meeting, London, May 18-20, 2005 (2006) / Chapter Skim
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Human Rights, Tolerance, and Peace
Human Rights, Tolerance, and Peace
Pages 61-82
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From page 61... ...
Before Professors Nusseibeh and Yaari speak, in reaction to the academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions declared by the British Association of University Teachers, Professor Nusseibeh, President of Al-Quds University, and Professor Menachem Magidor, President of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, today will sign a joint statement calling for academic cooperation in affirmation of the continuing academic cooperation between their two universities. I will read the statement and then ask each of them to say a few words.
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From page 62... ...
Menachem Magidor This is a very emotional moment for me, because this is really the formalization of something that we at the Hebrew University, and I'm sure in most of the parts of the academic community of Israel, have believed in. We believed, in spite of the fact that we are living in a period and a region of violence and confrontation, that academic cooperation and the interchange of ideas should go on.
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From page 63... ...
Nonetheless, people from the Hebrew University and our university, for three years, have been talking, negotiating, fighting, agreeing -- they have actually managed to put together this wonderful project on the most sensitive issue we have, which is Jerusalem, and it was done jointly. I believe it is an example, a model of how, even in the most sensitive areas, with good intentions on both sides and scholarship, if properly used, we can push ahead to create a better world for the people of the region.
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From page 64... ...
Professor Menahem Yaari, President, Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities; Professor Emeritus, Hebrew University, Israel Menahem Yaari Friends, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, this is an exciting moment for me to see the presidents of two universities, a Palestinian university and an Israeli university, come together to sign a declaration of cooperation -- that expresses a sentiment that will be the foundation for continued cooperation. It is no secret that the timing of the signing has coincided with the rebirth of an initiative to boycott Israeli scientists and scholars on the grounds of what Israel is doing in continuing the occupation of Palestinian territory.
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From page 65... ...
There are, however, many examples of individual boycotts among scientists -- personal boycotts of one scientist, not being on speaking terms, never to be seen speaking with Professor X until kingdom come -- that has been quite common. In fact, you probably know the story about Henry Kissinger, who, when asked why in the academic world acrimony is so high, famously answered, it's because the stakes are so low.
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From page 66... ...
In Jerusalem, you can't find a solution without considering the demographic and political, or the history, the emotions or stories behind it, if you want to deal with the problem. The idea was to take every possible document that mentioned Jerusalem, put it in a virtual library in Hebrew, Arabic, and English, with appropriate digital indexing and cross-linking to relevant information.
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From page 67... ...
There is a scientific project in the Middle East, which is a scientific project called SESAME, a synchrotron light source that involves all the countries in the Middle East, including Palestine, Jordan, and Israel. And this is high level moving rather well.
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From page 68... ...
Question I wanted to ask if this wonderful example of academic cooperation might be met by examples of cooperation with professional bodies such as organizations of doctors, organizations of lawyers, and the like. This morning we heard discussion of the absence of initiatives by certain professional bodies, and I wonder whether there are examples.
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From page 69... ...
It is a very great thing that we now have at least the beginning of cooperation between the Hebrew University and Al-Quds. Nusseibeh There was a lot of cooperation, even at the level of the major associations that you speak of.
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From page 70... ...
It is also beyond doubt that these regimes removed the foundations of free research, free thought, and other creative activity on the part of scholars, scientists, and public intellectuals in general.
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From page 71... ...
The assistance of individuals who are unjustly detained or imprisoned for the nonviolent exercise of their basic human rights is a crucial task of those of us who are committed to human rights. And I insist on the word "individuals." Like many others, I have a great deal of respect for the organization Amnesty International.
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From page 72... ...
There is an absence of authority, an absence of basic structures, and, in that sense, a degree of anarchy. In my view, these failed or failing states remind us of the crucial need for the rule of law if we want to establish human rights and be sure that they are guaranteed.
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From page 73... ...
Establishing the rule of law certainly was my advice to those I knew who were charged by international organizations to go, for example, to the Balkans in order to assist there in creating conditions of an acceptable liberal order. This takes me to my third point, one that is close to my own current concerns and, incidentally, to the concerns of Baroness O'Neill.
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From page 74... ...
There are states of political communities that fail because of endogenous causes and there are states that are made to fail by external forces -- the cold war is one such historic tidal wave that made political communities otherwise existing fail, as do the structural adjustment programs of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and so does the unfair international trade system. How do we address this problem?
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From page 75... ...
Since the boundary between pure research and applied research is so vague these days, What is your view about research on weapons, on potentially dangerous chemicals, and, even beyond that, research in which human subjects are used insensitively and even inflicts unnecessary pain on animals? Dahrendorf We are talking about human rights and therefore talking about the question of whether there are kinds of research that are potentially so damaging that it is a matter of human rights and their application to do what?
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From page 76... ...
That is what Amnesty was about: adopting particular prisoners and making particular individuals in free countries responsible for keeping this in the public awareness. I am not against what Amnesty is doing today at all.
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From page 77... ...
All I wanted to say with my remarks about Amnesty is that I wholly understand the train of thought that leads you to say that, unless we deal with the causes of things, we will never come to grips with the actual problem. These are two different approaches that both have their right, and it is a pity if one of them is lost because there is too much insistence on dealing with a cause that is essentially a campaigning issue, and a campaigning issue that does not necessarily lead a single individual to freedom.
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From page 78... ...
Hodgkin I'm not here as a representative of Amnesty International. I was invited by a fellow and I have come on my day off, so I don't want to talk about Amnesty International.
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From page 79... ...
Question When you are mentioning failed or failing states, you weren't giving examples, but I don't know why you never mentioned Africa. I hoped you were going to continue.
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From page 80... ...
He made the point, among others, that civilized society can help in promoting human rights, which, in turn, may help to fight terrorism or keep terrorism under control or emasculate terrorists -- although he didn't use the word emasculate. Peter Agre described the Butler case, which is an extraordinary situation.
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From page 81... ...
With regard to the matter of medical involvement being very deep and devious in the torture environment, if you use the word devious and how people are trying to skate round it, again we go back to people using semantics to get away from a variety of things. In that discussion the words ethics of clinical role arose and, again, it suggests to me that there are, in much of what we said today, implications that there is a moral or ethical principle or dimension which may not be wholly definable by law or precept and that maybe the things that prevent people from fiddling the laws and using semantics may have origins in some of these ethical and moral dimensions which cannot necessarily be written down the whole time.
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From page 82... ...
happened and where they are. The idea is that because a state or community consists of individuals, if you safeguard the individual, you will actually look after the state, eventually.
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