Haifa University’s decision not to grant an honorary doctorate to Economics Nobel Prize laureate Yisrael Aumann because of his political views has aroused an extensive, stormy debate in Israel’s academic community. The academic boycott on Israel has been gaining ground lately. On this backdrop, those who are critical of the Haifa University decision — motivated by political and not professional reasons — perceive it as intrinsically similar in essence, to the line adopted by the people in favor of academic sanctions against Israel.
Israeli university heads and academics, currently subject to an extensive boycott offensive, have claimed that a boycott is not a legitimate tool in a sphere in which everything is measured and evaluated according to research, development, scientific or technological breakthroughs and contribution to society and to the academic community. And then, along came Haifa University and, with one fell swoop, abandoned the key argument of separation of politics and academia.