It strikes me that if the boycotters are going to boycott Israel, they should go beyond that and boycott the AoIR conference and list. AoIR has been founded by Americans, is based in the US, and takes full advantage of American law and tax advantages. I know it has an Aussie as the next head, but we all know that the Australian government is an American ally. Whatever their personal politics, Americans (and Aussies) are complicit in the affairs of their government. So please boycott the AoIR list! And if you insist on being Middle Eastern focused, perhaps organize boycotts of Egypt (torture, sexism, lack of democracy), Saudi Arabia (ibid, with hyper-sexism), the Emirates, Qatar, Bahrein (unbridled capitalism), Jordan (didn't do nice to the Palestinians when they controlled the area and have never apologized); Syria (treatment of Lebanon, secret police, torture of Canadian); Iran (constraints on religious freedom and democracy; killed a Canadian); Iraq (endless list); Turkey (Kurds; Midnite Express); Kuwait (sexism; resisting the just occupation of Saddam Husein); Yemen (??). Most of these countries treat foreign workers very badly. Guess that leaves only Lebanon ok now. Barry _____________________________________________________________________ Barry Wellman Professor of Sociology NetLab Director wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 To network is to live; to live is to network _____________________________________________________________________