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04/17/2005:

"Boycott threat to Israeli colleges"

Jewish groups are alarmed by news that the union representing Britain's university tutors will discuss a boycott of Israeli universities at its annual meeting this week.

If passed, the motion would compel members of the Association of University Teachers (AUT) not to visit Bar-Ilan, Hebrew and Haifa universities, until they 'call a halt to all attempts to confiscate land from Palestinian families' and sever links with a 'college located in an illegal settlement in the Occupied Territories'.

Jewish groups say that the motion exposes anti-Israeli bias within the AUT and warn that the action threatens to further inflame tensions at a time when fears of anti-semitism on Britain's campuses are on the increase.

'When you start having this sort of thing you create a culture among academia that makes it acceptable to pick on one side or another,' Danny Stone, campaigns director for the Union of Jewish Students, said. 'It's not what academia should be about.'
Full Article: guardian.co.uk

Yeah, Lord forbid academia would take a principled stand.