london | A British teachers union has decided to retract its ban on two Israeli universities, but the boycott battle in British academia looks to be far from over.
Both those calling for links to be severed with Israeli institutions and those hailing the Jewish state as a beacon of academic freedom are preparing to regroup and rearm for the next confrontation.
There was widespread jubilation among pro-Israel activists on May 26, when the council of the 48,000-member Association of University Teachers canceled the previous month’s motion; the motion blacklisted Haifa University for allegedly persecuting anti-Zionist lecturer Ilan Pappe and Bar-Ilan University for cooperating with a West Bank college.
That policy sparked international condemnation and led to a backlash, culminating in last week’s specially convened session that overturned the boycott motion by a 2-1 vote.
The British government welcomed the decision. Kim Howells, the Cabinet’s newly appointed Middle East minister, said “the best way we can help achieve a peaceful resolution in the region is to encourage both sides to take the steps necessary for progress through close engagement. We do not believe that sanctions and boycotts help toward that aim.”
Both sides of the debate claimed the decision as a victory.
“It’s fantastic to see the balance of reason” restored, said a spokesman for the Campaign Group for Academic Freedom, a Jewish-led organization formed to overturn the AUT’s boycott decision.
Palestinian campaigners say they expected to lose the AUT fight — they blame intense lobbying and a “disinformation” campaign from a well-organized opposition backed by the Israeli government — but they believe it has put them on course to win the boycott war.
Not only were they given the opportunity to raise Palestinian “rights” at a time when relative calm has taken the conflict out of international headlines, but they also ensured that the idea of a boycott was placed firmly on the agenda.
They hope to capitalize on their comparison of Israel and apartheid-era South Africa through the aid of South African institutions, including church councils and prominent African National Council politicians.
“We gave notice,” said a spokesman for the British University Committee for the Universities of Palestine, a coordinating group for the boycott campaign. “This is not some simple short-term battle to be decided by a vote at one meeting or another.
British Jewish leaders are concerned this is no empty threat. The boycott movement seems to have refined its methods since its launch in an April 2002 letter to the left-wing Guardian newspaper by professors Steven and Hilary Rose, who proposed a moratorium on European support for Israeli academia.
Outside of Britain, boycott opponents applauded the AUT’s move.
“This wasn’t a victory in the true sense where we’ve won the war; we’ve just won the battle,” said Juda Engelmayer, chief communications officer for the American Jewish Congress, which coordinated letters of protest to the AUT from Congress and a group of Rhodes Scholars and encouraged its members to do the same.
Just after the AUT revoked the boycott, another British college teachers union was taking up the issue.
At its annual conference May 28-30, the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education was set to consider a resolution calling for boycotts against Israeli universities, according to Ed Beck, president of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, a group that promotes Israeli-Palestinian peace and aims to counter anti-Zionist messages.
Additionally, the Palestinian Union of University Teachers and Employees called for the resignation of al-Quds University President Sari Nusseibeh — who condemned the AUT boycott — because he issued a joint statement with Hebrew University President Menachem Magidor supporting academic cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians.
Pro-Israel activists say the activity spawned by the AUT boycott has helped to lay the groundwork for future battles.
Both Scholars for Peace and the Association for Jewish Studies, an international association for professors of Jewish studies, issued condemnations against the boycott and encouraged members to ask other academic associations to protest the AUT boycott.