She received much criticism and created great controversy when she in 2002 removed two Israeli academics, Dr.
Miriam Shlesinger
of
Bar-Ilan University
and Professor
Gideon Toury
of
Tel Aviv University
,
Israel
, from the editorial boards of her journals
Translator
and
Translation Studies Abstracts
, based on their affiliation to Israeli institutions.
[10]
[11]
Baker stated that the interpretation of the boycott was her own and she did not necessarily expect other signatories in a similar position to adopt the same course of action. Baker, of
Egyptian
origin, said she was bemused by the row over two "tiny" journals. A spokeswoman for the university stated that: "This is nothing to do with UMIST. The boycott documentation clearly states Mona Baker signs it as an individual."
[12]
Subsequently, Baker announced that
Translator
will no longer publish any research by Israeli scholars and will refuse to sell books and journals to Israeli libraries.
[13]
Response from Professors
edit
In an email sent to Professor Toury on 8 June 2002, Baker asked him to resign and warned him that she would "unappoint you" if he refused. Baker justified her action by stating that "I do not wish to continue an official association with any Israeli under the present circumstances", although she also stated that her decision was "political, not personal" and that she still regarded Professor Toury and Professor Shlesinger as friends.
[12]
Professor Toury subsequently responded that "I would appreciate it if the announcement made it clear that 'he' (that is, I) was appointed as a scholar and unappointed as an Israeli." Toury also stated that "I am certainly worried, not because of the boycott itself but because it may get bigger and bigger so that people will not be invited to conferences or lectures, or periodicals will be judged not on merit, but the identity of the place where the author lives."
[12]
Dr Shlesinger responded that: "I don't think [Israeli prime minister]
Ariel Sharon
is going to withdraw from the West Bank because Israeli academics are being boycotted. The idea is to boycott me as an Israeli, but I don't think it achieves anything."
[12]
Baker's actions were sharply criticised by Professor
Stephen Greenblatt
of
Harvard University
and the president of the
Modern Language Association of America
, who called the firings "repellent", "dangerous" and "
morally bankrupt
". Greenblatt described Baker's actions as an "attack on cultural cooperation" which "violates the essential spirit of scholarly freedom and the pursuit of truth".
[14]
[12]
British Prime Minister
Tony Blair
also criticised Baker's actions, and stated that he will "do anything necessary" to stop the academic boycott of Israeli scholars.
[15]
In the
British House of Commons
, an Early Day Motion (EDM 1590) condemning Baker's actions was passed, stating that Parliament "deplores discrimination against academics of any nationality, as being inconsistent with the principle of academic freedom, regards such discrimination as downright anti-semitic while pretending simply to be opposed to Israeli government policy... and calls upon UMIST to apologise for this disgusting act and to dismiss Professor Baker."
[16]
Judith Butler
suggested that Baker had "engaged established
anti-semitic
stereotypes", though this "does not mean that
she
is anti-Semitic."
[17]
According to Butler, to claim "that all Jews hold a given view on Israel or are adequately represented by Israel … is to conflate Jews with Israel and, thereby, to commit an anti-semitic reduction of Jewishness."
[18]
The
National Union of Students
(NUS), in addition to condemning academic boycotts as a whole, specifically condemning Baker's sackings of the two Israeli professors as "racist." Mandy Telford, president of the NUS, stated that "The National Union of Students stands firmly against all forms of discrimination. This is an abuse of academic freedom that can only have a negative impact on students at Umist...We wouldn't support the infringement of [people] being able to study because of where they live and where they are." Daniel Rose, the NUS's anti-racism campaign convenor, said: "To exclude people based on their nationality is abhorrent and nothing short of racism, and should be universally condemned."
[19]
In 2002 the
European Society for Translation Studies
condemned the ousting of Toury and Shlesinger, both members of the Society, arguing that "in their intellectual work they are not representatives of their country but individuals who are known for their research, their desire to develop translation studies and to promote translation and intercultural dialogue."
[20]
Baker received support from a number of sources, including the
Muslim Association of Britain
and the Manchester Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
[21]
Baker wrote a detailed response to her critics (a brief summary of which was published in the
London Review of Books
). Baker wrote that "the Jewish press in
Britain
is shamelessly and exclusively pro-Israel" and cited support for her position from Israeli Professor
Ilan Pappe
. She also cited a letter to the editor supporting her from Seymour Alexander, who identified himself as a British Jew, and
Lawrence Davidson
, an American Jew who co-authored "In Defence of the Academic Boycott" with her. She also criticised "the intense and highly distorting smear campaign led mostly by the Jewish press in the UK against me."
[22]
In an interview with
Al-Ahram
, Baker stated that "Anybody who thinks they are going to make any change in vicious, horrific policies like those of Israel and the US without affecting individuals is simply being naive." Baker also stated that her decision to fire the two Israelis was "intended as a minor symbolic gesture but simply because of the arrogance of the Zionist lobby it's out of the bag now. And it's doing some good, I believe, in that it's forcing people to really confront the issues."
[16]
In an interview with
The Daily Telegraph
, Baker stated that she was the victim of "a large intimidation machine out there" that attempts to silence criticism of Israel and that "the Americans are the worst offenders". When asked about the dismissals, she responded to her critics by stating, "I'm damned if I'm going to be intimidated. This is my interpretation of the boycott statement that I've signed and I've tried to make that clear but it doesn't seem to be getting through. I am not actually boycotting Israelis, I am boycotting Israeli institutions". In the same interview, Baker sharply criticised Israeli policies, stating that: "Israel has gone beyond just war crimes. It is horrific what is going on there. Many of us would like to talk about it as some kind of Holocaust which the world will eventually wake up to, much too late, of course, as they did with the last one."
[12]
[23]
At a conference held in
London
in 2004 to discuss the implementation of a boycott of Israeli academic institutions, Baker stated that a boycott of Israel must avoid the appearance of discrimination and the risk of dilution due to individually chosen exceptions, and proposed that the academic boycott be cast as an economic boycott, which implies that all academics at Israeli institutions should be boycotted "to undermine the institutions that allow a pariah state to function and claim membership of the international community." In support of boycott, Baker stated "supporters of an economic boycott [against Tourism to Israel] do not ask whether the individual hotel workers who are being laid off in Israel are individually for or against the occupation."
[24]