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| By Associated Press May 28, 2005 |
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Britain's biggest university teachers' union voted Thursday to end its boycott of two Israeli universities, the union announced.
The council of the 40,000-member Association of University Teachers decided in a special session to overturn the boycott immediately. The measure, which had drawn vocal criticism, was put in place last month.
The union said in a statement that the council had made its decision "after a lengthy debate involving deeply held views on both sides of the argument."
It said it would now base its policy on "providing practical solidarity to Palestinian and Israeli trade unionists and academics, by agreeing a motion committing the union to having a full review of international policy."
"It is now time to build bridges between those with opposing views here in the U.K. and to commit to supporting trade unionists in Israel and Palestine working for peace," said the union's general secretary, Sally Hunt.
The union had decided to boycott Haifa and Bar Ilan universities for actions that it said undermined Palestinian rights and academic freedom. At the same time it referred a motion to its executive committee to boycott the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Haifa University President Aaron Ben Ze'ev said he was pleased by the decision, but that the school was considering suing the union for libel.
"From the beginning of this affair, we maintained that this unethical decision was based on a web of lies," Ben Ze'ev said. "I am disappointed that the leaders of the organization have not apologized to the university for the capricious maligning of its name."
Bar-Ilan University Rector Professor Yosef Yeshurun praised the union's decision, saying boycotts should not be part of academia. But "the damage has been done," he said.
Britain's Foreign Office said it was pleased and believed helping both sides engage closely was the best way to encourage progress towards Middle East peace.
"We do not believe that sanctions and boycotts help towards that aim," Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells said.
The Israeli universities had said many elements of the union's allegations against them were false and they condemned the boycott, calling it shameful and a blow to academic freedom. They said they had not expected it to have any immediate effect but saw it as symbolically important.
Haifa was targeted because the union said the university was threatening to fire an Israeli political science lecturer for supporting a student's research into allegations of killings by Israeli troops.
Bar Ilan was sanctioned for its alleged links to the College of Judea and Samaria, in the Jewish settlement of Ariel in the West Bank.
Union members also said at the time of their decision to boycott that the Hebrew University of Jerusalem had bulldozed Palestinian homes to make room for new college buildings.
Steven Rose, a delegate from the Open University, spoke in favor of the boycott at the council meeting and said afterward that some union members would continue it on their own.
"The genie is out of the bottle and cannot be put back again," he said.
One prominent Palestinian's opposition to the boycott had angered some in the Palestinian territories.
Palestinian university teachers called for Sari Nusseibeh, the president of Jerusalem-based Al Quds University, to be fired for violating a boycott by signing a cooperation agreement with an Israeli school.
In a symbolic move aimed directly at the British boycott, Nusseibeh issued a joint statement in London on May 19 with Menachem Magidor, the president of Jerusalem's Hebrew University, calling for continued academic ties between their institutions.
They said cooperation, not boycotts, will solve the two people's problems.
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