Boycott This

The Javits Center in NYC is going to be undergoing a $1.7 billion renovation and expansion. The architect who's doing the design work hosted the founding meeting of a group of architects who want to boycott work in Israel. Is this the kind of guy we want getting taxpayer dollars in a city that has a very large Jewish population?

The lead architect tapped to head the $1.7 billion redesign of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center last month hosted the founding meeting of an association of professional building designers considering a boycott against Israel.

On February 2, Richard Rogers gave his office space for the inaugural meeting of Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine in his London headquarters.

A statement from the new organization released on February 9 condemns any individual or company working on "occupied territory" as violating their professional ethics and being complicit in promoting "an apartheid system of environmental control."

At the meeting, according to British and trade press reports, the 60 architects discussed boycotting both Israeli architects and construction companies employed in the construction of the country's barrier - part wall and part fence - delineating Israeli Jewish population centers from Palestinian Arab ones. The Independent newspaper of London also said the meeting broached the idea of recommending that Israeli architects be kicked out of the International Union of Architects.

Even if he doesn't totally subscribe to all the goals set forth at the meeting, the fact that he's behind the idea would probably send Javits himself spinning in his grave.

Javits was one of the Jewish state's staunchest defenders in the Senate, where he served from 1956 to 1981. In particular, he was one of the toughest voices to oppose the Arab boycott of Israel in the 1970s. In 1986 President Reagan singled out the Jewish lawmaker's support for Israel in a statement marking his death.