http://www.totallyjewish.com/news/national/c-6894/boycott-fight-grows/

The Stop the Boycott Campaign expanded its grassroots activities this week with the appointment of Paul Simpson, a senior Labour Party campaigner, and meetings with Israeli counterparts and senior government officials.

Simpson, currently the Head of Corporate Campaigns for the Labour Party, joined a delegation on a trip to Israel this week for meetings with university representatives and new Deputy Director General of Israel’s Foreign Ministry Rafi Barak.

Jewish Leadership Council Chief Executive, Jeremy Newmark, who led the delegation, said: “As we gear up for the start of the new academic year it is important that all international resources are properly coordinated.”

Commenting on Simpson’s appointment, he said: “This adds gravitas and weight to our campaign. It shows how seriously it is being taken beyond the Jewish community as we continue to build momentum and support.”

Meanwhile, a leading British professor and University College Union member has urged UK academic institutions to distance themselves from a boycott of Israel.
Professor Mark Pepys, Head of the Department of Medicine at the University College London, said a boycott of Israeli academia could harm relationships between British and American colleges and universities.

The call comes after around three hundred presidents of US academic institutions declared their solidarity with Israeli institutions in a full page advert in the New York Times. University and college presidents described the boycott as ‘intellectually shoddy and politically biased’ and declared ‘Boycott Israeli Universities? Boycott Ours, Too’.

Pepys said: “This is a matter of grave concern. The robust position of 300 US institutions in defence of the universally recognised principle of academic freedom cannot be ignored. American academia, with its depth, breadth and scale, has enormous impact in the UK at all levels of academic life.”