Campaign Update 19

16th May 2008

Parliament and Government

As UCU Congress approaches, politicians have been condemning the proposed academic boycott of Israel.

• In response to a question by Sharon Hodgson MP, Bill Rammell, the Minister for Higher Education, made the following statement in the House of Commons on Thursday:

"The Government are completely opposed to such a boycott, which will harm rather than help moves towards peace and reconciliation in the middle east. It is significant that the motion before this year's University and College Union falls well short of calls for an outright boycott. I think that that is because the proposers of the motion know that there is no widespread support for that among UCU members. Both Israel and the occupied territories contain both progressives and reactionaries, and the problem with boycotts is that they make the job of progressives much more difficult and entrench the position of the reactionaries."

• This week, The Government published a year-on progress report on its response to the Parlamentary Inquiry into Antisemtism. The report had the following to say about an academic boycott:

We re-iterate our strong opposition to any academic boycott of Israel. Ministers have publicly stated this view whenever the issue has arisen. We don't believe the calls last year were motivated by antisemitism but such specific targeting of Israel can often have a worrying negative effect on all Jewish people. UUK, the Russell Group, the 1994 Group and the National Union of Students also expressed their opposition to any academic boycott, along with many individual academics. We don't believe that the boycott calls reflect the majority opinion in Higher Education.

• Speaking in a Parliamentary debate on Thursday, John Mann MP said:

"Another important issue is the boycott of academia from Israel by an increasingly irrelevant University and College Union, which has rather clouded our reputation abroad and the respect accorded to British universities. If that union wants to regain proper status and standing in the universities, I strongly recommend that it concentrate on the real issues that university lecturers and others need addressing rather than on the frivolities brought in at the extremes of politics to fill a vacuum that has clearly occurred."

• In an interview with Israeli media, Foreign Secretary David Milliband labelled as "madness" the initiatives of British college and university teachers union to boycott Israeli academic institutions and individual researchers.

Oxford Economics Report

• A report by Oxford Economics has revealed the extent of links between British and Israeli academia.
• The report, commissioned by BICOM, reveals that 200 Israeli academics work and research at UK academic institutions, and 720 Israeli postgraduate students study and teach at UK universities.
• It also highlights other academic links between the two countries.
  
• The full report, which includes data on economic and cultural links between the UK and Israel, can be read here.

Other News

• Stop the Boycott has resdesigned its website. Check it out on www.stoptheboycott.org

Contact Stop the Boycott via our website or at support@stoptheboycott.org