The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) is deeply disturbed by the decision of the International Society for Political Psychology (ISPP) to hold its conference at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC), Herzliya, Israel, from July 8-11, 2013 [1].

The recent success of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement in deterring leading academics from participating in Israeli conferences is a marked move forward towards removing academic respectability from Israeli institutions, and persuading more academics to refrain from collaborating with the Israeli occupation and apartheid regime.

In May 2002, long before the Palestinian call for academic boycott of Israel was issued [1], and in support of the early British efforts to impose a moratorium on the European Union’s scientific association with Israel, Tanya Reinhart was a pioneer in laying the logical and political foundations for what later developed into an institutional academic boycott movement. In a letter refuting the anti-boycott arguments of her fellow Israeli academic, Baruch Kimmerling, Tanya wrote with her typical clarity and resoluteness [2]:

“I have no doubt that you supported the South Africa boycott.