A boycott inspired by anti-Semitism.

last updated 8 January 2015

United Kingdom

Eitan Gilboa

There’s an ugly sentiment behind the British academic boycott of Israel, said Eitan Gilboa in Tel Aviv’s Yedioth Ahronoth. The largest teachers’ group in the U.K. has recommended that all British colleges cut ties with Israeli professors “who refuse to denounce” what it calls “Israel’s apartheid policies in the territories.” Israeli policy certainly invites criticism—but so do the policies of countries with far worse human-rights records, such as China and Russia. Yet no such boycott is proposed for professors from those countries. Only Israelis are singled out. “It is a political witch hunt, and to a very large degree it is a cynical, anti-Semitic move.” Nor is it the only such action in Britain today. British architects are boycotting their Israeli counterparts because, according to them, “the Israelis were partners in creating the ‘criminal’ security fence” around the West Bank. A dance magazine refused to publish an article by an Israeli choreographer unless she publicly denounced the occupation of the Palestinian territories. It all adds up to a “spiteful wave of ugly anti-Semitism” in Britain that questions “Israel’s fundamental right to exist.”