Brit Academic Union Cancels Plans for Boycott of Israeli Scholars

The British union of academics, the UCU, has, under legal advice, called off it's boycott of Israeli Scholars. From an announcement made by the International Advisory Board for Academic Freedom (of which I am a member),

UK Boycott of Israeli Academics Ruled Illegal



IAB is pleased to announce that the UK based University and College Union (UCU) has declared today, 28/9/07, that an academic boycott of Israel is illegal and cannot be implemented.



After receiving legal advice that cleared that “a call to boycott Israeli institutions would run a serious risk of infringing discrimination legislation”… and “is also considered to be outside the aims and objects of the UCU”, the UCU’s strategy and finance committee recommended unanimously today, to immediately inform branches and members that:

• A boycott call would be unlawful and cannot be implemented
• UCU members' opinions cannot be tested at local meetings
• The proposed regional tour cannot go ahead under current arrangements and is therefore suspended.

As you might expect, this announcement leaves me both elated and yet concerned. Of course I am elated that the boycott has been called off, even if for the wrong reason. At the same time, though, I'm still disturbed that it might ever have happened in the first place, and I worry about the continuing anti-semitism and rabid anti-Israeli views that made this boycott more than rants of a few extremists.