Among those who have been asked to attend the seminar are Sue Blackwell, the Birmingham University lecturer who led a campaign to boycott two Israeli universities; Bernard Regan, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s trades-union liaison officer; and Richard Kuper, spokesman for Jews for Justice for Palestinians.
Others include representatives of major trades unions, including Steve Sinnott, secretary general of the National Union of Teachers, and representatives of Friends of Bir Zeit University, as well as a number of NGOs, including War on Want and Education Action.
The only pro-Israel figure to be invited is Jon Pike, an Open University lecturer who helped launch Engage, a website dedicated to fighting boycott moves. A request by the Academic Friends of Israel to take part did not lead to an invitation.
The briefing, entitled “Building a positive policy in support of Palestinian academics”, is to take place next Thursday and will be chaired by UCU’s joint president Steve Wharton. A letter accompanying the invitation, signed by the union’s joint general secretaries Sally Hunt and Paul Mackney, said the themes to be discussed included practical support for Palestinian academics, bridge-building between Israeli and Palestinian academic trades unionists, and policy on Palestine, Israel and its relationship to antisemitism and Islamophobia.
There would also be discussions on the situation in Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Iraq, the EU and America.
“Arguably there is a need for UCU to develop a policy which reflects the interest of members in support for Palestinian academics and trade unionists and which is of positive and practical value to [Palestinians],” said a briefing paper for the seminar.
In a section on trades-union links, the paper said there was scope for building alliances with Palestinian unions and that “appropriate” links should be sought with Israeli unions. However, the priority “must be practical support for Palestinian unions”.