30 July 2007
A senior member of the British government has publicly opposed the threatened boycott of Israeli academics by the UK teachers’ union UCU. The recently appointed secretary of state for children, schools and families, Ed Balls, offered an assurance in a meeting in London last week with his counterpart, the Israeli education minister Yuli Tamir. It was the first stance against the proposed academic boycott of Israel by Britain’s University and College Union taken by a member of prime minister Gordon Brown’s new cabinet. Also last week, members of parliament from all three major parties condemned the UCU initiative. “Such boycotts threaten academic freedom and intellectual exchange, and cannot be acceptable," said Iain Wright, undersecretary of state at the Department of Communities and Local Government. At a general congress in late June, the UCU passed a motion committing the union to further discussion of a boycott of Israel that would eliminate cooperation between Israeli and British academic institutions, in protest of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.