Latest UK Academic Boycott News from Stop The Boycott

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http://www.stoptheboycott.org/news/news/campaign-update-26

UCU resignations continue

  • UCU members Jonathan Campbell and Raphael Levy resigned from the Union this week in light of its continued failure to abandon a boycott of Israeli academics.
  • UCU as an organisation has still not commented on the resignations.

Guardian: UCU members to take legal action

  • The Guardian website reports that some UCU members have engaged solicitors Mishcon de Reya.
  • According to the article, the solicitors have written to UCU on behalf of these members to demand that the Union abandons the boycott motion. The Guardian report is here
  • Responding in another Guardian online piece, UCU claims that a boycott of Israel is a freedom of speech issue. See the story here

Political leaders condemn boycott

  • The Prime Minister Gordon Brown again committed the Government to oppose boycotts of Israel, including the Academic boycott.
  • Speaking at the UJIA’s annual dinner, he said:

“Let me say as a government, we will stand full-square against any discrimination against the Jewish people in our own country, we will stand full-square against any boycotts of Israel or Israeli academics and their institutions.”

  • Additional strong opposition to the boycott was starkly expressed by shadow education secretary Michael Gove.
  • Speaking at Conservative Friends of Israel’s fringe event at Conservative Party Conference, he said:

“We’re celebrating Israel’s 60th birthday this year, but the gifts of that 60 years are the gifts that Israel has given the world. Use a computer, fly in a jet airliner, use any of the tools of modern medicine to relieve pain and suffering, to heal the sick, and you will be using the fruit of the ingenuity, the compassion and the wisdom of the Israeli people. And that’s why when in parliament and in our universities there are people who argue that we should boycott Israel, I find myself shivering.

“And the shiver that goes down my spine is a shiver of recognition, because we all remember what happened in the 1920s and the 1930s when people believed that there should be boycotts of things that were produced by people purely on the basis that they were Jewish. And there’s another reason that a shiver runs down my spine, because Israel’s position in the media and in politics has been twisted and caricatured so often that it needs its friends now more than ever. And all those of you in this audience and all those of you who support it to a large degree in public life owe it to Israel to be its friends now more than ever.”

  • David Lammy, the new Universities Minister, has restated the Government’s opposition to boycotts answering a Parliamentary Question:

“The UK Government fully support academic freedom and are firmly against any academic boycotts of Israel or Israeli academics.

Boycotts and any severing of links with Israel would be counterproductive, and completely at odds with the principles of open exchange that should underpin academic life. I profoundly believe ending such links would do nothing to promote the Middle East peace process. Both Israel and the occupied territories contain progressives and reactionaries, and the problem with boycotts or moves to severe links is that they make the job of progressives much more difficult and entrench the position of the reactionaries.

The UK Government have made their support of international academic links clear. Alongside the Israeli Government, we have actively supported the establishment of the Britain Israel Research and Academic Exchange partnership-BIRAX which aims to strengthen academic links between the UK and Israel through the awarding of grants to support academic exchanges for research purposes. We are exploring options for supporting academics in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”

Latest UK Academic Boycott News from Stop The Boycott

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SPME

Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) is not-for-profit [501 (C) (3)], grass-roots community of scholars who have united to promote honest, fact-based, and civil discourse, especially in regard to Middle East issues. We believe that ethnic, national, and religious hatreds, including anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism, have no place in our institutions, disciplines, and communities. We employ academic means to address these issues.

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