Britain – Decision to Boycott Two Universities in Israel

On 22^nd April 2005, the Association of University Teachers in Britain decided to mount an academic boycott of two universities in Israel: the University of Haifa and Bar Ilan University. Haifa University is being boycotted because of the disqualification of a Master’s Degree thesis claiming that a massacre of Arabs had been perpetrated in Tantura during the 1948 War, because the thesis had not been properly prepared. Moreover, the author of the thesis apologized for claiming that there had been a massacre in the course of a liable suit filed against him by the veterans of the army unit which had been accused of carrying out the massacre. Bar Ilan University is being boycotted because of its support for the Judea and Samaria College in Ariel. In reaction to the boycott the Jewish community in Britain has set up a lobby group called “The Campaign Group for Academic Freedom” for the purpose of opposing the boycott. It should be mentioned that large numbers of Arab students study at both boycotted universities.