World
Boycott Dropped
Lawyers say U.K.
academic union's
proposal would
breach laws.
Vanessa Bulkacz
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
London
T
he decision by Britain's largest
academic union to drop its pro-
posed boycott of Israel may not
spell the end of the union's campaign to
ostracize the Jewish state.
Britain's University and College Union
announced last week that union lead-
ers, after consulting with lawyers, had
determined that an academic boycott of
Israel probably would breach British anti-
discrimination laws and the union's own
guidelines.
Jewish groups, which had roundly
condemned the boycott after it was first
proposed at the union's annual congress in
May, cheered the decision.
"The community should be emboldened
by this victory and should see that we can
successfully fight back and can have a real
impact defending Israel's reputation:' said
Lorna Fitzsimons, chairwoman of the Stop
the Boycott Campaign. "We will continue
to win the intellectual argument, showing
why any boycott of Israel is unbalanced,
unfair and ignores the difficult complexi-
ties of the Middle East."
The boycott had been proposed to con-
sider the "moral implications" of ties with
Israeli institutions in light of the "denial of
educational rights" to Palestinians.
After last week's determination, how-
ever, the union said it would continue
to "explore the best ways to implement
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the non-boycott elements of the motion
passed at Congress!'
It was not immediately apparent what
that meant.
"We remain concerned that the UCU
still intends to explore ways to imple-
ment the motion, such as calling for a
moratorium on European Union research
and cultural collaborations with Israel,"
said Ronnie Fraser, director of Academic
Friends of Israel.
But union staff said the "non-boycott
elements'of the resolution are to "actively
encourage and support branches to create
direct links with Palestinian educational
institutions and to help set up nationally
sponsored programs for teacher exchang-
es, sabbatical placements and research!'
The legal opinion that dealt the boy-
cott its crippling blow said: "It would be
beyond the union's powers and unlawful
for the union, directly or indirectly, to
call for or to implement a boycott by the
union and its members of any kind of
Israeli universities and other academic
institutions, and that the use of union
funds directly or indirectly to further
such a boycott would also be unlawful."
It went on to say, "To ensure that the
union acts lawfully, meetings should not
be used to ascertain the level of sup-
port for such a boycott." As a result, the
union canceled plans to hold debates
throughout the country on the efficacy
of the boycott.
Jon Benjamin, chief executive of the
Board of Deputies of British Jews, said,
"Sadly, immeasurable damage has been
done to the reputation of British aca-
demics who have unfairly been associ-
ated with a policy most of them abhor
and against which increasing numbers
were speaking out."
"This is a victory against the boy-
cotters on two fronts',' said Jeremy
Newmark, chief executive of the Jewish
Leadership Council and co-chairman
of the Stop the Boycott Campaign.
"Firstly, the legal opinion endorses
our contention that the proposed UCU
boycott was a form of discrimination
that had no place in a U.K. trade union.
Secondly, last week's explicit admission
by the main pro-boycott faction that
they would have lost a ballot proved our
assertion that a boycott is not supported
by the vast majority of UCU members."
The turnaround by UCU is the latest
victory for pro-Israel activists in their
efforts to stem the tide of anti-Israeli