Wacademics in Britain

Prof. David Newman, professor of political geography at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, was scheduled to take part in an event entitled "Israel-Palestine" on Tuesday at Imperial College London's Student Union as part of its Political Philosophy Society's Conflict Case-Study Week.

On the panel is Robin Kealy, a former UK consul-general in Jerusalem. But it also features Azzam Tamimi, director of the Institute of Islamic Political Thought in London.

Tamimi is a Hamas supporter who does not recognize Israel's right to exist, openly calls for its destruction, and supports suicide bombings.

In a BBC interview in 2004, Tamimi said that the act of suicide bombing was "glorious and honorable." In the same interview, Tamimi boasted that he would himself carry out a suicide bombing in Israel. In 2006, Merrill Lynch pulled its sponsorship from an event at University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies because of Tamimi's participation.

Such is the state of academics in Britain. No wonder you've got people like Simon Jenkins preaching abandonment of Afghanistan to the Taliban and the Islamists.