Enraged letter from University of Haifa...

The University of Haifa has sent an angry letter to the AUT in the UK.

"At its annual Council Meeting held on April 20-22 2,005," the letter states, "the AUT passed a number of boycott resolutions aimed at Israeli academics and institutions. Among those was a resolution calling upon AUT members to boycott our client. The resolution received the most perfunctory debate, it was held at a time that made it impossible for most Jews to attend, requests for the rescheduling of the debate were refused, and no delegates were allowed to speak against the resolution."

The letter provides the AUT with the information the university would have provided it with had it been consulted prior to the resolution being put, and communicates the university's position that the AUT has played a role in disseminating defamatory allegations against the university.

Contrary to the accusations made against it by the AUT, the university maintains in its letter to the union's general-secretary that Dr. Ilan Pappe, a Haifa University faculty member, was never subject to disciplinary proceedings in relation to his support of a thesis by M.A. student Teddy Katz concerning an alleged 1948 massacre in the village of Tantura.

The university also denies any recriminations against Pappe due to his support for Katz and to his calls to boycott Israeli academic institutions.

Haifa University, the letter concludes, "is entitled to seek damages, a retraction, and an undertaking against further publication of the defamations."

The university will await the outcome of a special meeting to be held on May 26, in the hope that the delegates will vote to overturn the boycott.

"We reserve the right to take further legal action as we see fit," Haifa University President Aaron Ben Zeev told The Jerusalem Post.

"The university considers the AUT boycott vote a violation of ethical norms which constitutes slander, and we don not think we should stand still."

"This time," Ben Zeev said, "I hope that contrary to previous times, the AUT will pay attention to the facts."