"Southampton University has rejected calls to cancel a conference on Israel and international law, after the Jewish Leadership Council (JLC) said it would "have a detrimental impact on cohesiveness."
The conference, 'International Law and the State of Israel: Legitimacy, Responsibility and Exceptionalism', is billed as "the first of its kind", and is being organised by Southampton-based academic and former Israeli Oren Ben-Dor, and Palestinian-American law professor George Bisharat.
According to the Jewish News, several "Jewish community leaders" have expressed their "opposition" to the conference and "lodged protests with the university's vice-chancellor."
JLC chief executive Simon Johnson said that the organisation is "gravely concerned about this unbalanced, delegitimising conference, which will have a detrimental impact on cohesiveness."
We have asked the vice-chancellor to reconsider. It's a fine line between academic freedom, which we all cherish, and delegitimisation and discrimination. This conference seems to hover around that line.
Other pro-Israel groups have also expressed their anger, with the Zionist Federation describing the academic gathering rather bizarrely as "a kangaroo court.""
The conference, 'International Law and the State of Israel: Legitimacy, Responsibility and Exceptionalism', is billed as "the first of its kind", and is being organised by Southampton-based academic and former Israeli Oren Ben-Dor, and Palestinian-American law professor George Bisharat.
According to the Jewish News, several "Jewish community leaders" have expressed their "opposition" to the conference and "lodged protests with the university's vice-chancellor."
JLC chief executive Simon Johnson said that the organisation is "gravely concerned about this unbalanced, delegitimising conference, which will have a detrimental impact on cohesiveness."
We have asked the vice-chancellor to reconsider. It's a fine line between academic freedom, which we all cherish, and delegitimisation and discrimination. This conference seems to hover around that line.
Other pro-Israel groups have also expressed their anger, with the Zionist Federation describing the academic gathering rather bizarrely as "a kangaroo court.""
