British Union's Vote Targeting Israeli Academics 'Biased, Unfair And Destructive'

New York, NY, May 30, 2007 … Condemning the passage of two resolutions targeting Israeli academics as "biased, unfair and destructive," the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today urged leaders of the University and College Union (UCU) in the United Kingdom to reject the implementation of the proposed measures, which union leaders have portrayed as not having the support of the union's own rank and file.

The resolutions sharply criticized Israel and condemned "the complicity of Israeli academia in the occupation."

Glen S. Lewy, ADL National Chair and Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director issued the following statement:

Once again, the central trade union of British academia has been held hostage by a group of radical anti-Israel activists who have rammed through resolutions targeting Israeli academics.

These outrageous initiatives sully the character and devalue the reputation of all British academics by clearly violating basic standards of academic freedom and by holding Israel and its academic community – the only one in the Middle East where scholarship and debate are permitted to freely flourish - to a different standard than any other country in the world.

UCU leadership has made it clear that they understand how destructive such measures are. Therefore, we call on UCU Secretary General Sally Hunt to act on her statement issued following the vote that "I do not believe a boycott is supported by the majority of UCU members, nor do I believe that members see it is a priority for the union" in considering the implementation of these resolutions, and to, furthermore, call on the general membership to make its views on these initiatives heard.

The two resolutions place the onus on the leadership of the UCU to share with its membership calls by Palestinians for an academic boycott of Israel; to organize a tour of UK campuses for Palestinians making this call; to campaign for a moratorium on European Union funding for collaborative research with Israel; and to "encourage members to consider the moral implications of existing and proposed links with Israeli academic institutions."

The UCU was created in 2006 out of a merger of the Association of University Teachers (AUT) and the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE). Both AUT (in 2005) and NATFHE (in 2006) passed resolutions supporting a boycott of Israeli academics and academic institutions. Both policies were deemed invalid when the organizations merged to form the UCU.