The Financial Times, London Saturday, 2June 2007
BOSTONA top American lawyer has threatened to wage a legal
war against British academics who seek to cut links with Israeli
universities.
Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard law professor renowned for his staunch
defense of Israel and high-profile legal victories, including his role in
the O.J. Simpson trial, vowed to "devastate and bankrupt" lecturers
who supported such boycotts.
This week's annual conference of Britain's biggest lecturers' union,
the University and College Union, backed a motion damning the
"complicity of Israeli academia in the occupation [of Palestinian land]."
It also obliged the union's executive to encourage members to
"consider the moral implications of existing and proposed links with
Israeli academic institutions".
Prof. Dershowitz said he had started work on legal moves to fight
any boycott.
He told the Times Higher Educational Supplement that these would
include using a U.S. law banning discrimination on the basis of
nationality against U.K. universities with research ties to U.S.
colleges. U.S. academics might also be urged to accept honorary
posts at Israeli colleges in order to become boycott targets.
"I will obtain legislation dealing with this issue, imposing sanctions
that will devastate and bankrupt those who seek to impose
bankruptcy on Israeli academics," he told the journal.
Sue Blackwell, a UCU activist and member of the British Committee
for Universities of Palestine, said: "This is the typical response of
the Israeli lobby which will do anything to avoid debating the real
issue the 40-year occupation of Palestine." Jewish groups have
attacked the UCU vote, which was opposed by Sally Hunt, its
general secretary.
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