Don't boycott us, plead Israeli academics

Times UK

Polly Curtis, education correspondent
Monday April 18, 2005

Israeli academics are appealing to members of the Association of University Teachers not to back an academic boycott of a number of their institutions.

The AUT is due to vote on Friday on whether to boycott the Hebrew University, Bar Ilans University and Haifa University, in protest over their government's actions against Palestinians, and the universities' alleged complicity in elements of that.

The forthcoming vote at the AUT's annual conference in Eastbourne has already sparked controversy in the UK and abroad.

After the proposal was first reported in the Guardian two weeks ago, details were published in Israeli national newspapers and debated in TV news programmes.

However, as the vote draws near, the merits of a boycott are being furiously debated by email groups and on the websites of leading Israeli and Palestinian academics.