The academic boycott is the movement for a halt to academic collaborations with Israel, Particularly for European universities, and the EU itself, to place a moratorium on its research links with Israel whilst Israel remains in breach of international and European and Human Rights legislation.

Israeli universities institutionally, and the overwhelming majority of their academic staff, are complicit at worst and acquiescent at best in Israel’s apartheid policies. They are indifferent to the daily trampling over the academic freedoms of Palestinians to study, teach and research, (see BirZeit university website). Furthermore, they are integral to Israel’s economy.

The Palestinian academic trades unions and associations, and all the NGOs on the West Bank have called for a complete academic and cultural boycott of Israeli institutions. This is not a boycott of individual Israelis as has sometimes been claimed. Here, the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine has been set up in support of that call. Academic boycott is a particularly powerful tool. As Professor Hilary Rose put it, the academic area is to Israel what Rugby Football was to Apartheid South Africa.

For comprehensive information on the academic boycott see the website of BRICUP – the British Committee for Universities for Palestine