Italian Scholars Boycott Israel to Fight for Palestine Rights

Liputan6.com, Jakarta - A group of Italian professors and researchers from more than 50 Italian universities including the University of Bologna, University of Rome and University of Milan have reportedly signed a pledge to commit a boycott against Israeli academic institutions as they have been performing “violations of international law and human rights”, as cited in Aljazeera.

The academics claimed that they can no longer tolerate ‘Israel’s state violence’ and they are now embarking on a new venture to stand for Palestinian rights.

The boycott divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement is now becoming even more prominent than ever with associate professor of English and translation at the University of Perugia Federico Zanettin informing Aljazeera that participations of Italian academia in international boycott as deemed important.

The BDS movement is a Palestinian-led campaign that calls for economic and political pressure on Israel to give equal rights to its Palestinian citizens, and to end its occupation of Palestinian and other Arab territories, including the Syrian Golan Heights.

Previously in the UK, hundreds of academics and scholars from a number of British universities have also pledged to boycott Israeli academic institutions as they too can no longer tolerate “human rights violations against Palestinian people”, as cited in Theguardian.

The declaration by 343 professors and lectures, which as on October 2015, entitled: “A commitment by UK scholars to the rights of Palestinians”.

Canada is also among those who have been involved in the venture of boycotting Israel for its violation against Palestinians. According to Canadianboycottcoalition, they have been targeting products from the illegal Israeli settlements for the subject to boycott over.