london | The backlash against the decision by a union of British university lecturers to sever ties with two Israeli universities began almost as soon as the controversial motion was passed.
A wave of condemnation met the decision by the 48,000-member Association of University Teachers to sever links with Haifa and Bar-Ilan universities following a resolution narrowly passed at the AUT’s annual conference April 22.
Within days, a half-dozen AUT members had resigned in protest, with more expected to follow.
Britain’s Jewish community was outraged at the move to censure Haifa because of alleged discrimination against a radical left-wing professor, and against Bar-Ilan because of the support it provides to a college in the West Bank.
They quickly mobilized, with the Board of Deputies, the representative body of Anglo Jewry, announcing the formation of a Campaign Group for Academic Freedom to coordinate activity across a range of community groups in hopes of overturning the decision.
Britain’s Orthodox chief rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, said he was “most distressed” by the motion, which he called “a sad day for British universities.”
“The AUT has betrayed the academic principles it supposedly represents,” he said.
Opposition also came from outside the Jewish community, with British newspapers united in their condemnation.
The Times of London described the step as “a mockery of academic freedom, a biased and blinkered move that is as ill-timed as it is perverse,” warning that it could provide an excuse for increased anti-Semitism.
A spokesman for Universities U.K., a higher education action group, said the organization “condemns the resolution from AUT which is inimical to academic freedom, including the freedom of academics to collaborate with other academics.”
One of the initiators of the motion — a weaker version of one that failed to pass the AUT last year — was Birmingham University lecturer Sue Blackwell, a longtime pro-Palestinian campaigner.
Blackwell said she had received many messages of support for the campaign against “apartheid” Israel, adding that the motion was a reply to a 2003 boycott request supported by 60 Palestinian trade unions and nongovernmental organizations. “We were responding to a call for solidarity with our sister Palestinian trade unions,” she added.
But the motion has proved to be embarrassing not only for Blackwell’s own university — which immediately distanced itself from the boycott — but for her union.
It rapidly became clear that implementing the boycott could put universities in direct contravention of their equal opportunity policies.
AUT General Secretary Sally Hunt issued directions to members to take no action until further notice.