British academic institutions should make headlines for anti-Semitic policies. The University and College Union, 'the largest trade union and professional association for academics, lecturers, trainers, researchers and academic-related staff working in further and higher education throughout the UK' (ucu.org.uk), reports on its website:
'Following a meeting of the UCU's national executive committee on Friday 8 June, the union has confirmed that it is now considering the necessary steps for members to be able to debate the arguments for and against an academic boycott of Israeli universities.' (www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm
The decision to boycott will be determined by the majority of votes by union members. That a majority of members could conceivably vote to boycott Israel's universities itself disturbs me. The article posted on the website includes no mention of WHY the union should bother to
consider such a boycott. 'Activists [pressed] delegates of the University and College Union (UCU) to heed calls from Palestinian trade unions for "a comprehensive and consistent boycott of all Israeli institutions"' (http://www.ynetnews.com
Sally Hunt, general secretary of the union, states: 'Personally I believe that any decision to boycott another country's academic institutions should only be taken if the majority of UCU members support it. This remains my position'. Perhaps I simply do not understand democracy and unions... but why should a majority decision of union members justify a ban on relations with Israeli universities?
University partnerships reach beyond the selfish interests and opinions of academics. (See attached file, Israeli Universities replying to the UCU.) Through international cooperation we gain, for example, cures for diseases and technologies to prevent famine. Perhaps the people suffering from cancer and starvation should participate in the union vote.
Note also:
Jun. 18, 2007
UK's largest trade union begins debate on boycott of Histadrut
By JONNY PAUL, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT LONDON
A motion to boycott Israel is on the agenda of Britain's public sector trade union at its annual conference that begins on Tuesday in Brighton.
With over 1.3 million members, UNISON is the largest trade union in Britain, representing people who work in public services, the voluntary and private sectors. During the four-day conference, Israel will be the subject of a call for sanctions and is mentioned in four
different motions.
Welcoming the "Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions campaign [BDS]," Motion 54 calls for sanctions against Israel.
This includes initiatives already taken by the Irish Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union (SIPTU); the Ontario region of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE); the Congress of South African Unions (COSATU), and artists supporting a cultural
boycott -
The motion accuses the Histadrut of failing to condemn the Second Lebanon War last year and actions in Gaza following the kidnapping of Cpl. Gilad Schalit, and reads: "The Histadrut expressed no opposition to the invasions of Lebanon or Gaza, nor to the 'apartheid wall'
throughout 2006 despite its own substantial economic conflicts with the Israeli government."
The motion calls for UNISON to "encourage the Histadrut to condemn the Israeli government's blatant violations of international law" and to "participate fully" in the BDS campaign.
Practical measures to realize this include cooperation with the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (PSC), an anti-Israel socialist group; identifying companies and UNISON members involved in trading with Israel; highlighting to union members the scope for consumer boycott
of such trade; investigating whether pension funds may have investments in Israel, or in key companies trading with Israel, and seeking disinvestment from any such pension links.
The authors of the motion want discussion of these issues at branch and regional level and to organize regional conferences in cooperation with other Trades Union Congress affiliates and the PSC to discuss the BDS campaign.
Another motion calls for the suspension of the European Union's trade agreement with Israel and a mandatory UN Arms Embargo on Israel "of the kind the Security Council imposed on South Africa in 1977." It also calls to campaign with the PSC and encourage UNISON branches and regions to affiliate with the anti-Israel group.
Histadrut Chairman Ofer Eini said of the proposed sanctions: "This is a dangerous decision, because it could harm numerous workers in Israel and their employers, specifically in organizations that have commercial ties to Britain."
Motion 53 says that a "just" solution to the conflict must be based on international law and that Israel should withdraw to 1967 borders and allow the refugees of 1948 to return home. The motion calls for Israel to "remove all settlements from the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Occupied Syrian Al-Joulan; take down the Apartheid Wall; respect the Palestinian people's right to national self-determination and establish a state in the West Bank and Gaza with its capital in Jerusalem."
The motion galvanizes the union to support a full boycott to pressure Israel to end the occupation and condemns the sanctions placed on Hamas following the 2006 elections "which make worse the appalling economic circumstances of the occupation. It is a unique example of
economic sanctions imposed, not upon an occupier, upon a population struggling against illegal military occupation."
Another motion on the UNISON agenda calls for the release of the two convicted Palestinian nationals charged with the bombing of the Israeli Embassy and a Jewish community center in London in 1994, which wounded 14 people at the embassy and eight at Balfour House.
Again, the very fact that these attacks against Israel are under discussion is cause for concern. I'm not angry at these British individuals. I'm impressed by their irresponsibility and their
commitment to their illusions.
Now is a critical time for Jewish unity and strength.
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