Anti-Israel Boycott in UK Rears its Ugly Head...

Here's the latest update of an academic boycott of Israel by UK academics.

Israeli academics who refuse to condemn their government's actions in the occupied territories risk a boycott by the UK's leading lecturers' union.

The Association of University Teachers' annual council, which begins on April 20 in Eastbourne, will also debate whether to boycott three of Israel's eight universities - Haifa University, Bar Ilan University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem - over their alleged complicity with the government's policies on the Palestinian territories.

The union voted against an academic boycott policy two years ago, but campaigners believe the motions are more likely to be passed this year.

The new boycott motion contains a clause to exclude "conscientious Israeli academics and intellectuals opposed to their state's colonial and racist policies"

Despite the motions, there is firm evidence of boycott activity.

Today, Education Guardian also reveals new evidence that British academics are turning down offers to work with big research organisations in Israel, citing their objection to the Israeli government's policies.

In the past year, the Israeli Science Foundation (ISF), Israel's biggest science research funding body, has received a dozen refusals from British academics to review grant applications.

One, received last month from an unnamed British academic, said: "I support the academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions, as a means of registering my protest against Israelis' lack of respect for human rights and continuing illegal occupation of Palestinian land."