Israel Hayom..
11 April '13..
The Irish teachers' union, comprising 14,000 teachers and university instructors, declared an academic boycott on Israel this week. Sadly, given Ireland's attitude toward Israel, the decision does not come as a surprise. Implementing this boycott would mean the end of all academic and research cooperation with Israel, something which seems natural as Ireland is the most hostile nation to Israel in Europe.
The reasoning provided by the thousands of educators was that Israel is an "apartheid state." Still, we wonder: Will our Irish boycotters be satisfied with a written declaration, though one that is unequivocally harsh? Will the citizens of Ireland perhaps continue to benefit, without compunction or moral crisis, from the work of the so-called apartheid state's great scientists? I would like to help, or better yet to raise the moral bar that the Republic of Ireland has for us Israelis. I believe that a boycott is a boycott, and if you are already taking such a measure, go all the way.
Why don't the Irish complete their scientific boycott and add the products of Israeli medical research? I call on all doctors in Ireland not to recommend Copaxone, used to treat multiple sclerosis, to their patients, as it was developed at Weizmann Institute by Professor Michael Sela and Professor Ruth Arnon, renowned scientists of the apartheid state. We can't have such apartheid exports reaching sick beds in Ireland. It would be a moral travesty. Or maybe the Irish should stop using Exelon, which slows the progression of Alzheimer's disease. That medication was developed by Professor Martha Rezin from the Jerusalem School of Pharmacy.
To be clear, we wish the residents of Ireland health and a long life, but we don't believe they should compromise their principles. So let's not leave out the Technion Institute of Technology either. The Irish should also boycott the treatment for Parkinson's disease that was developed there, Azilect, with credit also due to Teva and scientists Moussa Yodim and John Feinberg. We don't want to overload our Irish boycotters with information, but we also call on them to boycott the personal computer, which is run by a microprocessor developed at Intel in Israel.
Of course these are only a few of the discoveries that Israeli scientific research is responsible for. It is incumbent upon Ireland to boycott all of them, because the country's integrity is at stake. It must not sully itself by using any "despicable" products, even life-saving ones, that were developed in the apartheid state.
It's doubtful that Ireland will act on our recommendations. But that's because their boycott is rife with hypocrisy: Any Irish doctor who thinks that an Israeli-developed medication might save his patient's life will toss the boycott into the trash. And that's the case for every product made in Israel, which are the fruits of Israeli scientific research.
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=3969
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