Friday, June 15

Harvard legal expert vows to sue lecturers boycotting Israel

By JON BOONE

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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