Don’t Assume British Grassroots Support Elites’ Anti-Israel Political Warfare

Don’t Assume British Grassroots Support Elites’ Anti-Israel Political Warfare

COLCHESTER, England -- It's not just Hamas rockets that regularly strike Israeli interests these days. It is just as likely to be the long-range politicized "ordnance" of British elites, given the British Left's predilection for pursuing and securing boycotts against Israel and its interests.

Over the past two years, the unions for British journalists, architects, doctors, and even the Synod of the Church of England, have all sought boycott or censure motions against Israel. And now British academics have added themselves to the list -- imposing a boycott of relations between British and Israeli universities at a conference of the British University and Colleges Union (UCU).

After a yearlong debate, the activist UCU leadership finally forced through the ban, citing condemnation of Israel's "40-year occupation" of Palestinian land and the "complicity" of Israeli academics in Israeli politics for its action. Delegates voted by 158 to 99 in favor of the motion. However, within days The London Times published a letter signed by 250 leading British academics condemning the UCU's action.

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