British Taking Lead in Boycott Israel Movement

The international campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel for its policies and practices towards the Palestinian people was boosted recently by a historic vote in support of an academic boycott.

On May 30, 2007, the UK University and College Union (UCU) Congress, which represents 120,000 instructors, passed a motion that calls for debate on an academic boycott against Israel for the complicity and support the Israeli universities provide Israel's illegal military occupation and apartheid rule over the Palestinians.

The vote was taken at its first Annual Congress in Bournemouth. The final text of the resolution was shaped after approval of ‘friendly’ amendments to the original proposals. “Friendly amendments” in parliamentary language are ones that have the effect of strengthening the original proposal.

The conference delegates overwhelmingly voted to accept the recommendations of a report following the fallout of the 2005 decision by another British union to impose an academic boycott of Israel. After a sharp backlash, that teachers union was forced to recant it decision.

After a long study, the resolution’s language reflects the caution and care they took to craft a unified position on this issue, given both the potential controversy as well as the sharp urgency to end Israel’s now four decade-long occupation of the Palestinians in the West bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.

That interim report accepted by the union recognizes “this is a difficult area. We are aware of great wrongs being committed throughout the world against colleagues in other countries. But there is always a balance to be drawn between boycotting and damaging those colleagues in the hope that the state will address the harm that it is inflicting on academia, and the harm that the boycott itself inflicts on academia.”

There were two motions. The first was not as strongly worded and did not call for a boycott though it was generally sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians. The final vote was not a close one. Sixty percent, or 155, of the delegates who voted supported it. Ninety-nine opposed it. Seventeen did not vote. However, the majority was bigger for the second motion calling for “A moratorium on research and cultural collaborations with Israel via EU and European Science Foundation funding until Israel abides by UN resolutions”

The UCU’S general secretary, Sally Hunt, doubted that the outcome of the vote reflected the views of the delegate’s constituents, the members of the organization. She said “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.”

As noted by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel
(PACBI), “academic boycott has been advocated in the past as an effective tool in resisting injustice.” Though many academics in particular find the tactic undermines academic freedom, it has been used effectively in many liberation movements.

PACBI raises two important examples where academic boycotts were ultimately effective. Mahatma Gandhi and those calling for Indian independence boycotted British-run academic institutions to enhance Indian self-reliance and to resist those institutions maintaining British colonial domination over India.

Later, the African National Congress (ANC) advocated a comprehensive boycott of the entire South African academy to further isolate the roguish, apartheid regime. PACBI argues that “Moral consistency makes it imperative to hold Israel to the same standards.”

With the 40^th anniversary of Israel’s occupation coming up this week, the imperative for pressuring the state to change its oppressive ways is greater than ever. The movement calling for boycott, divestment, and sanctions represents one of the best means to that end. With the Palestinian Authority in tatters and in-fighting on the ground, it is especially important that those on the outside step up the pressure. The people of Palestine have suffered for too long.

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ALSO:

The largest British labor union, the 1.6 million-member UNISON, has threatened to launch a drive to boycott Israel, according to press reports yesterday, which were based on sources within the Israeli workers' union, Histadrut.