Boycott, Divest, Sanctions Malaysia (BDS Malaysia) notes that the University of Michigan is disciplining Professor John Cheney-Lippold after he refused to recommend a student for study in Israel because of his support for Palestinians.
BDS Malaysia applauds, unreservedly supports and stands in complete solidarity with Professor Cheney-Lippold in his stance.
Professor Cheney-Lippold’s action should not at all be trivialised as mere ’personal political beliefs’.
In the light of ongoing brutalities and oppression by the apartheid state of Israel against Palestinians, all men and women of conscience have to make a stand, make it public and act on it. Professor Cheney-Lippold’s action is precisely that: a noble act of conscience that says he will not have anything to do with a state that maims and massacres with impunity and neither will any individual that he is responsible for.
We therefore call on the University of Michigan administration to respect his stance and refrain from subjecting him to any form of punitive action.
No one and certainly not the University of Michigan administration should pretend that what is happening to Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli authorities is ‘normal’ or ‘acceptable’ by any measure of human decency. It most decidedly is not. The isolation and boycott of the Israeli apartheid state is an effective non-violent means to add pressure to Israel to stop its oppression of Palestinians. Professor Cheney-Lippold’s refusal to recommend his student to study in Israel, apart from being an act of conscience, is his way of participating in that boycott and is to be welcomed.
In the name of justice for all Palestinians, we pray that Professor Cheney-Lippold’s action will encourage more and more academicians at the University of Michigan and beyond to emulate his noble stance.