UK university lecturers boycotting Israel

University lecturers today threatened to provoke
international condemnation over academic freedom by
forcing their union into a year-long debate over
boycotting work with Israeli universities.

Delegates at the first conference of the new
University and College Union in Bournemouth voted by
more than three to two to recommend boycotts in
protest at Israel's "40-year occupation" of
Palestinian land and to condemn the "complicity" of
Israeli academics.

The conference motion said there should be "a
comprehensive and consistent boycott" of all Israeli
academic institutions, as called for by Palestinian
trade unions.

Delegates voted by 158 to 99 in favour of the motion.
The union's leadership must now circulate calls from
Palestinians for a boycott of Israeli universities to
all branches throughout the country.

Tom Hickey, a Brighton University academic and union
national executive member, who led the call for
stronger moves towards a boycott, said: "There will be
adverse effects on individuals, but this is not
targeting individuals or trying to break contacts with
them."

He said the vote in favour of a boycott call to all
branches reflected "the deep concern" people have
about the issue. A boycott could involve lecturers
refusing to collaborate on research contracts with
Israeli academics and refusing to work with journals
published by Israeli companies.

However, Sally Hunt, the general secretary of the
union, said: "I do not believe a boycott is supported
by a majority of (the 120,000) UCU members; nor do I
believe that members see it as a priority for the
union."

Ofir Frankel, a spokesman for the Advisory Board for
Academic Freedom, said: "This was a disappointment. We
see it as discriminatory and counterproductive. It
will make British academia look a little less
serious." He added that it would also damage existing
links between Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and
Arabs.

The decision was greeted with outrage among Jewish
groups and activists. Jeremy Newmark, chief executive
of the Jewish Leadership Council, said: "The UCU
boycott motion is an assault on academic freedom.
While the vast majority of academics do not support a
boycott, this decision damages the credibility of
British academia as a whole."

Jon Benjamin, chief executive of the Board of Deputies
of British Jews, said: "Now is the time to strengthen
the kinds of relationships that will bring all sides
of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict together and, in
this country, create a better understanding of the
complex issues through that engagement. We call upon
the Union's leadership and all members who are rightly
outraged by the decision to work towards a reversal of
this policy."

Mitch Simmons, campaigns director for the Union of
Jewish Students, said: "Academic freedom is part of
the fabric of modern society. The exchange of
information and the advancement of human knowledge
should have no borders. Disappointingly, it seems that
no value can be left unviolated by the proposers of
this motion."

During the debate, which lasted well over an hour,
Michael Cushman, from the London School of Economics,
said: "Universities are to Israel what the springboks
were to South Africa: the symbol of their national
identity."

Israel wanted to claim it was a normal democratic
state and universities were integral to that, Mr
Cushman said. "[But] it is not a normal state. They
are not normal universities.

"Senior academics move from universities into
ministries and back again," he said.

"Regularly, lecturers take up their commissions in the
Israeli Defence Force as reserve officers to go into
the West Bank to dominate, control and shoot the
population."

But Mary Davis, from London Metropolitan University,
said there were "many, many academics ... who oppose
Israeli government policy tooth and nail ... This
notion that Israeli academia is the Springbok of
Israel is just plain wrong and foolish."

--
"Those who fear disorder more than injustice
invariably produce more of both."