In a recent media interview McCartney confessed, "I was approached by different groups and political bodies who asked me not to come here. I refused. I do what I think, and I have many friends who support Israel." Public opinion in the UK, however, does not support Israel's occupation and violation of international law. Media reports revealed, furthermore, that many in Liverpool itself are apprehensive towards McCartney's gig in Israel.

Your visit to Israel would not only violate the Palestinian civil society’s Call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it fulfills its obligations under international law [1], it would also contribute to Israel’s relentless efforts at whitewashing its increasingly tarnished image as a persistent violator of international law and basic human rights.

Yet you are reportedly going to play a concert in a country whose government and army are even now inflicting similar cruelties on another people. Is it possible that when you agreed to play in Tel Aviv on July 17, you did not think what message this would send to the indigenous inhabitants of Palestine, many of whom now live in refugee camps outside their homeland, or in exile across the world? They were driven out en masse in 1948 and 1967, and no Israeli government has ever allowed them, their children, or their children's children, to return.

The UCU’s condemnation of the “apparent complicity of most of the Israeli academy,” its appeal to its members “to consider the moral and political implications of educational links with Israeli institutions,” and its decision to “greylist” -- a notch short of boycott -- the “colonising” Israeli college in the illegal settlement of Ariel are the strongest indicators to date that the Union has resolutely moved forward in the direction of gradually ending business-as-usual with Israeli universities.