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U.K. academics call for boycott of Israel

Hasan Suroor

LONDON: Britain's most representative body of university teachers has voted for a boycott of Israeli universities and individual academics if they do not publicly denounce their Government's "apartheid policies'' towards Palestinians.

The decision, taken at a conference of the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATHFE) after a protracted and bitter debate, provoked a sharp reaction from the anti-boycott groups who called it "counter-productive''.

They said it was likely to make it difficult for Israeli academics who were already resisting their Government's "discriminatory'' policies. Last year, a move by the Association of University Teachers (AUT) to impose a boycott on two Israeli universities, accused of collaborating with the Israeli Government's "anti-Palestinian'' policies, was reversed in the face of strong opposition from within the Association.

The Israeli Ambassador in Britain Zvi Heifetz denied that universities in his country practised discrimination against Palestinians. "Israeli universities are open institutions, where students and teachers are selected on merit, regardless of their religious or ethnic backgrounds. As a means of promoting dialogue and coexistence in the Middle East, an academic boycott of Israel is counter-productive in the extreme,'' he said.

But the pro-boycott teachers insisted that Israeli academics must be held accountable for their "silence'' over their Government's "repressive'' actions in the occupied Palestinian territories. "The majority of Israeli academics are either complicit or acquiescent in their Government's policies in the occupied territories,'' said Tom Hickey, a philosophy lecturer who proposed the motion. He said that for Israeli academics to turn a blind eye to all this amounted to "culpable blindness''.

Foreign Office Minister Lord Triesman said that academic boycotts were "counterproductive'' and more could be achieved through "dialogue and academic cooperation.''

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