EclectEcon

The University and College Union (UCU) ... passed a motion that would allow for the reintroduction of a boycott of Israeli academia.

At its annual congress in Manchester, the motion was passed without debate and by a show of hands.

The motion follows last year's attempts by the union to implement a similar boycott motion, but was withdrawn by the Union following undisclosed legal advice.

This year's motion was debated ... despite legal advice which clearly states that any boycott of Israeli academia would be in breach of the unions own anti-discrimination policies and British anti-discrimination laws.

• I favour academic freedom and think we should not ban association with scholars from any country simply because of that country's policies or abuses of human rights.
• I see no reason (other than anti-Semitism) to single out Israel when there are so many countries that are truly horrible.

UCU Congress passed a motion which incites members to discriminate against Israeli academics on the grounds of their nationality. ...

There was a short debate, dominated by procedural wrangling which was curtailed suddenly and quickly when somebody moved "that the motion be now put". The chair called for a final speech for the motion, didn't allow one against, and 90% of the delegates voted for the motion.

Although the boycott campaign has always demanded the right to have a proper debate, when it came to it there wasn't any serious debate. A couple of demagogic "as a Jew" speeches from Michael Cushman and Haim Bresheeth and it was all over.

There was no debate on whether "criticism of Israel as such is antisemitic". There was no debate about what it means to claim that Israeli academia is "apparently complicit" in Israeli human rights abuses. There was no debate about the significance of UCU's official encouragement to members "to discuss the occupation with individuals and institutions concerned, including Israeli colleagues with whom they are collaborating."

UCU, again has an antisemitic policy, one which violates its own constitutional commitment to equality and which also violates the Race Relations Act 1976. It was passed after only trivial debate and consideration.

Congress rejected an amendment which would have stipulated that there could be no call to boycott Israelis without a ballot of the UCU membership. Congress doesn't want to ballot the membership. It wants to dictate policy to the membership.