PACBI Statement

Spinning the British Academic Boycott Against Israel

June 11, 2006
But the significance of the academic boycott against Israel adopted by the largest British academic union cannot be viewed in legalistic terms. Its moral weight should not be underestimated. The NATFHE vote proved once again that boycotting Israeli academic institutions due to their complicity in maintaining Israel’s special form of apartheid against the Palestinians remains prominent on the agenda of western progressives and human rights activists.

But the significance of the academic boycott against Israel adopted by the largest British academic union cannot be viewed in legalistic terms. Its moral weight should not be underestimated. The NATFHE vote proved once again that boycotting Israeli academic institutions due to their complicity in maintaining Israel’s special form of apartheid against the Palestinians remains prominent on the agenda of western progressives and human rights activists. It has also demonstrated that, despite all the tactics of bullying and intimidation employed by Israel, its lobbies and its apologists to suppress debate about and smother condemnation of its persistent violations of Palestinian human and political rights, international campaigns of boycott, divestment and sanctions are spreading, even in the western mainstream.

The NATFHE academic boycott will continue to inspire many academics to shoulder the moral responsibility of holding Israel accountable to international law just as they did to apartheid South Africa. This legacy of the NATFHE decision will not “expire” anytime soon.

Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI)

June 11, 2006
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