In UK a boycott of the academic boycott

Times:

The backlash against a threatened British boycott of Israeli universities gathered pace today with a statement from more than 250 distinguished academics and thinkers condemning the move as “bad for Britain, bad for academic freedom, bad for Palestinians and bad for peace”.

Signatories of the statement, which appears as a full-page advertisement in The Times today, include the heads of some of Britain’s leading scientific and learned research organisations, as well as eminent writers and broadcasters.

Robert Winston, the fertility expert, said that the proposed academic boycott, put forward by the Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) Congress in protest at the continued occupation of the Palestinian territories, was “utterly inappropriate”.

Professor Winston added: “The academics in Israel are the very people we should be working with, rather than against, if we want to promote better understanding. I believe this boycott only has the support of a tiny proportion of academics in Britain.”

Lord Bragg, the writer and broadcaster, said that the UCU motion failed to take account of the complexities of Middle East politics.

“Long before me, people have fought for freedom of speech. It should be indivisible that that is that,” he said.

...

I am not sure I can ever string that many "thats" in a sentence, but it is good to see that Briton is not baron of intelligent life in its academic institutions. It is hard to imagine the kind of prejudice that must exist in certain parts of the education system that would consider a boycott a reasonable solution to an issue over which those being boycotted have no control.

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