U.K. Boycott of Israeli Academic Institutions

On May 30, the University and College Union (UCU) passed a resolution to consider a boycott of Israeli academic institutions, discouraging British academics from attending conferences at Israeli institutions and discouraging British academics from publishing in Israeli journals. A debate and decision will be held within the year.

Leaders of academic institutions, such as Columbia University President Lee Bollinger and Brandeis University President Yehuda Reinharz, have publicly denounced this threat to academic freedom calling it “antithetical to the fundamental values of the academy.” Twenty-one Nobel prizewinners, including Shimon Peres and Elie Wiesel, have condemned this assault on academic freedom. (Click here to read their petition of protest). H. RES. 467, condemning the decision by the University and College Union of the United Kingdom to support a boycott of Israeli academia, passed unanimously in the U.S. House of Representatives on July 11.

This resolution continues the trend of anti-Israel boycotts in the United Kingdom. Both UNISON, the largest trade union in the U.K., and the Journalist Union passed boycott resolutions in 2007 although the latter was recently reversed in early July. These unions oppose Israel’s 40-year “occupation” of the Palestinian territories and claim that Israel has been denying the educational rights of Palestinians and freedom of the press. These boycotts fail to recognize Israel’s ongoing attempts at peace which have been met with denial and violence. Additionally, the boycotts fail to acknowledge the Hamas-led government’s refusal to meet basic requirements issued by the Quartet (U.S., European Union, Russia, and the U.N.), such as to desist from violence and to recognize Israel’s right to exist.

We urge you to join us in protesting the UCU recommended boycott. There is still time to influence their decision. Below are some key points against the boycott:

• Harms academic collaboration and discoveries: By closing the door to academic collaboration, you close a gateway to innovation and cooperation. Barring academics from reaching Israeli sources hinders the development process of new science and technology discoveries. Perhaps more importantly though, collaboration amongst academics of the world could create the seeds needed to foster peace.
• Denies world the latest in science and technology: Israel leads the world in its intellectual property. Technological and scientific innovation is a key component of Israeli economic success. This boycott would deny others in the world the benefits of such academic achievement.
• Israel has freedom of education for Arabs and Muslims: Arabs and Muslims have more academic freedom in Israel than in any Arab or Muslim nation. Arab Israelis are attending Israeli academic institutions in increasing numbers. This boycott will hurt Arab students as much as Jewish Israeli students. By limiting their access to British academics or their writings in Israeli academic journals, this boycott is infringing on students’ ability to learn.
• Israel has a free press: Israel has an open society and one of the freest presses in the world. Alan Dershowitz has said, “Even Arab and Muslim journalists have more freedom of the press in Israel than in any Arab or Muslim nation” (Click here to read more about this).
• This boycott doesn’t help Palestinians: Thomas Friedman suggests that if the UCU really wanted to help Palestinians they would ask that every British university accept larger numbers of Palestinian students on full scholarships, send visiting professors to every Palestinian university, and encourage Israeli universities to accept more Arab students into their Ph.D. programs. These are all acts which could give them what they really need most, to build “the skills to run a modern state and economy.”
• Lessens U.K.’s access to modern technology and medicine: If taken to its logical extreme, this boycott could bar British use of technology produced in Israel, which makes up major components of many products purchased in Britain. Such products include cell phones and computers, not to mention the life-saving medical procedures and medications discovered in Israel. The British would be much less likely to so clearly harm their own self-interest if they fully boycotted Israeli innovation.

The following are recommended actions we encourage you to take to protest the pending UCU boycott:

• Ask professors and university administrators in the community to join in endorsing Columbia University President Lee Bollinger in his statement opposing the boycott. For a list of presidents from universities within the MetroWest community, click here.
• Encourage academics to decline invitations to conferences in the U.K. to which Israelis have been excluded.
• Send letters to the UCU Secretary General Sally Hunt at to bolster her opposition to the boycott.
• Sign an international petition to speak out against the boycott.

For additional information, contact the Community Relations Committee at (973) 929-3064 or .