Campaign Update 14
21st September 2007
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Lib Dem Conference condemns boycott
- The Liberal Democrat Party‘s annual conference condemned academic boycotts of Israel this week.
- Lembit Opik MP, Baroness Ludford MEP and Cllr Monroe Palmer - among others - spoke in favour of the motion, which passed overwhelmingly.
- Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Foreign Secretary, Michael Moore MP said:
"I hope that the UCU's members will get the opportunity to reject this boycott and will return to the spirit of free academic exchange that will do much more to improve relations in the Middle East."
- Matthew Harris of Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel, which drafted and supported the motion, said:
"We brought this motion to Conference to emphasise the Liberal Democrats' opposition to the academic boycott of Israel. We are pleased and proud that the party's members have confirmed that a boycott is misguided and wrong." - Speaking for the Stop the Boycott campaign Jeremy Newmark, Chief Executive of the Jewish Leadership Council, said:
"As the party conference season gets under way we are confident that this will be the first of a series of moves that will leave those promoting the boycott out in the political wilderness." - You can read the full motion passed at Conference on the LibDem website, here
TUC General Secretary opposes economic boycott of Israel
- Brendan Barber, General Secretary of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), opposed economic boycotts of Israel last week.
- In an interview in the Independent, he said:
"If you are really asking whether there should be an economic boycott of Israel, my answer is no. I fully share outrage over the plight of the Palestinian people that gives rise to this call, but destroying Israel's economy when it is clear that in a two-state solution Palestine and Israel will need strong economic ties will do nothing to build a sustainable settlement. I want to help strengthen links between ordinary Israeli and Palestinian workers as part of the search for peace and a boycott would derail all those efforts." - He also spoke in favour of a two-state peace settlement at Trade Union Friends of Israel's fringe meeting at the TUC‘s annual Congress
Stop the Boycott at Labour Conference
- Stop the Boycott have teamed up with the Jewish Labour Movement to run a fringe meeting at next week‘s Labour Party Conference.
- The meeting will be chaired by Louise Ellman MP and will feature Universities Minister Bill Rammell MP, Head of Universities UK Prof. Drummond Bone, and other guest speakers.
- The event starts at 7pm on Monday the 24th of September (next Monday), at the Connaught Hotel in Bournemouth.
- This is outside the Secure Zone so anyone may attend.
Board of Deputies asks UK universities to oppose boycott
- The board of Deputies of British Jews has sent letter to the Vice Chancellors of every university in the United Kingdom expressing the UK Jewish community's concerns about proposals for an academic boycott.
- Written by Board president Henry Grunwald QC, the letter asks the universities to ‘make clear and public' their opposition to the proposed boycott
- It also stresses the damage to British academia and the impact on Jewish students on campus.
- The letter was sent to more than 130 universities throughout the UK.
Israeli and Palestinian universities cooperate on water research.
- Researchers across the Middle East have teamed up for a project alleviating the water scarcity in the region.
The project will include researchers from:
- The Technion's Grand Water Research Institute
- Ben Gurion University of the Negev
- The Volcani Institute in Israel
- The Palestinian Research Group
- Al Quds University in East Jerusalem
- The National Centre for Agricultural Research and Extension in Jordan.
- Joseph Hagin, the project's manager, said:
"The project has been a complete success and has fostered excellent technical and scientific cooperation among Palestinian, Jordanian and Israeli institutes." - The project was supported by funds from the British Technion Society. Executive Director Tony Bernstein commented:
"This project has bridged the political divide and encouraged innovation and cooperation to develop amongst different peoples of the Middle East. It is yet another example of why the proposed boycott of Israeli academic institutions by UK trade unions would be so detrimental"
