British academia’s Israel problem.

Israel

British academics have identified the enemy—and once again, it’s the Jews, said The Jerusalem Post in an editorial. The biggest union of university professors voted last week to consider a boycott against Israeli professors and colleges. The move is “so blatantly unprofessional, misinformed, and misguided that it is more of a mark of shame on the institutions that promulgated it than on the Jewish state.” Of all nations in the world, why single out democratic Israel for censure, rather than a repressive society such as Sudan or China or Turkmenistan? A boycott against Israel alone “is obviously anti-Semitic in effect, if not necessarily in motivation.” Fortunately, Israelis aren’t the only ones appalled at Britain’s bigotry. A kind of “counter-boycott” has already sprung up among American Jews. Nobel-winning physicist Steven Weinberg turned down an invitation to speak at the Imperial College in London because of what he called “a widespread anti-Israel and anti-Semitic current in British opinion.” Let’s hope such bold stands will make British professors question why they support “the side engaging in suicide bombings.”

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up