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Week Ending July 13, 2007

H.RES.467 Condemning the decision by the University and College Union of the United Kingdom to support a boycott of Israeli academia.

{This resolution is in response to a recent boycott of Israeli academic institutions and policies by England’s University and College Union and other organizations  due to the determination after observation of Israel’s “denial of the most basic of academic freedoms of Palestinian students” that reportedly included the closure of Palestinian colleges in the territories occupied by Israel due to “arrests and incursions by Israeli forces” reported BBC news.}

The resolution preamble notes that the May 20, 2007 UCU decision supported a boycott of Israeli academics and academic institutions and continued to note that England’s national Union of Journalists also called for a boycott of Israeli goods in April.

But the preamble continues to assert that those boycotts are a totally unjustified campaign to limit collaboration between foreign universities and those in Israel and implies that the boycotts represent a dangerous assault on the principle of academic freedom and open exchange.

Calling the boycotts senseless the resolution holds that the US House condemns the boycott and encourages international universities  and governments and other organizations to reject the boycotts.

Sponsor:  Rep. Patrick J. Murphy (D-PA-8^th)

Vote: Passed House 414 to 0 with2 voting 'Present' RC 618

Cost to the taxpayers: No discernible cost

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Whereas on May 30, 2007, the University and College Union of the United Kingdom voted in favor of a motion to boycott Israeli faculty and academic institutions;

Whereas the UCU was created in 2006 out of a merger of the Association of University Teachers (AUT) and the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE). Both AUT (in 2005) and NATFHE (in 2006) have passed resolutions supporting a boycott of Israeli academics and academic institutions;

Whereas Britain's National Union of Journalists called for a boycott of Israeli goods in April 2007;

Whereas these unions have a hypocritical double standard in condemning Israel, a free and democratic state, while completely ignoring gross human rights abuses occurring around the world in nations such as Sudan, Zimbabwe, Iran, and Venezuela;

Whereas a totally unjustified campaign is underway by elements of the international academic community to limit cultural and scientific collaboration between foreign universities and academics and their counterparts in Israel;

Whereas Article 19, section 2, of the United Nations Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states that, `Everyone shall have the right to . . . receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice';

Whereas these and any other attempts to stifle intellectual freedom through the imposition of an academic boycott are counterproductive since research and academic exchange provide an essential bridge between otherwise disconnected cultures and countries;

Whereas such boycotts represent a dangerous assault on the principles of academic freedom and open exchange;

Whereas the UCU boycott motion appears to have spawned similar movements in Britain to boycott Israel economically and culturally, as the country's largest labor union, UNISON, said it would follow the union of university instructors in weighing punitive measures against Israel;

Whereas Nobel laureate Prof. Steven Weinberg, who refused to participate in a British academic conference due to the National Union of Journalist's boycott, stated that he perceived `a widespread anti-Israel and anti-Semitic current in British opinion'; and

Whereas the senseless boycotting of Israeli academics contributes to the delegitimization and demonization of the State of Israel: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the House of Representatives--

(1) condemns the vote by the University and College Union of May 30, 2007, to boycott Israeli academics and academic institutions;

(2) urges the international scholarly community, the European Union, and individual governments, to reject, or continue to reject, calls for an academic boycott of Israel and reaffirm their commitment to academic freedom and cultural and scientific international exchange;

(3) urges governments and educators throughout the world to reaffirm the importance of academic freedom and open dialogue and to condemn measures that would prevent the production, sharing, and exchange of knowledge;

(4) urges other unions and organizations to reject the troubling and disturbing actions of the UCU; and

(5) urges the general members of the UCU to reject the call of the union's leadership to boycott Israel.

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