British Boycott of Israeli Universities?Continued Vigilence is Necessary

Regardless of one's views of what should happen in the Middle East, the renewed attempts to boycott Israeli universities are a flagrant affront to the concepts of academic freedom.

A new attempt to bring about an academic boycott of Israel is now being made by British academics affiliated with The British Committee for Universities of Palestine (BRICUP).
Last May, the Association of University Teachers (AUT), one of Britain's two academic unions, overturned a proposal made by a group of its members to boycott Bar-Ilan University and the University of Haifa.

On October 1, however, some of the same AUT members who campaigned earlier this year in favor of the boycott – including Bradford University's Hillary Rose and Birmingham University's Sue Blackwell – plan to relaunch their campaign with a series of public gatherings on different campuses.

I was so offended by these attempts last spring, I actively sought and obtained affiliation with both Bar-Ilan University and the University of Haifa. Everyone should continue to support academic freedom, and everyone should continue to oppose academic boycotts as a political strategy.

Stifling academic inquiry will do considerable harm to future generations, and those who support these boycotts are behaving as if they are among the worst thought-control fascists.