“We will not work with Israel”s universities” say 500 UK academics. View the website of these academics at http://commitment4p.com/

• In an unprecedented statement university teachers say they will not do business with Israel”s university system.

• Professors and lecturers, Fellows of the Royal Society and Fellows of the British Academy say they will not visit Israel”s universities.

• Academics from across 72 different institutions “take the pledge”, more expected to follow as campaign grows.

• Full page advertisement in The Guardian newspaper announces launch of the Commitment.

A commitment signed by 343 academics across UK”s higher education system says they will not accept invitations for academic visits to Israel. They will not act as referees in activities related to Israel academic institutions, or cooperate in any other way with Israel”s universities. (500 academics have now signed the Commitment.)

This Academic Commitment is a response to the appeal for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions from Palestine”s civil society organisations. It will continue until Israel complies with international law, and respects Palestinian human rights.

The need for the solidarity with the Palestinian people, as expressed in the Academic Commitment, is made more urgent by the current carnage in Israel/Palestine. The fatalities are overwhelmingly of Palestinians engaging in street protests provoked by Israel”s 48-year and ever tightening Occupation. Palestinians are driven to desperation in the face of Israeli intransigence, and the creeping annexation of East Jerusalem

Last week, 150 miscellaneous writers, broadcasters, conservative MPs and others, some distinguished, the others less so, produced a joint statement opposing the cultural boycott pledge in support of Palestinian rights that was launched last February by 1000 cultural workers. The very publication of this attempted counter-blast by Israel’s friends, the delay in assembling its list of celebrities, and its padding out by those with little or no involvement in culture, indicate both the power and the public resonance of civil society initiatives aimed at isolating Israel.

According to Professor Conor Gearty, Professor of Human Rights Law at London School of Economics “As a State that aspires to live by the values of democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights, Israel needs urgently to change its behavior so far as its Palestinian citizens and those Palestinians under its control are concerned.  This boycott is a small way of saying a big thing: that fairness and justice should be for real and not just for show, that all international laws must be respected, not only those that happen to be convenient”

Professor Jane Hardy, Professor of Global Political Economy at the University of Hertfordshire gave her reasons for signing in this way:

“This is an opportunity for academics to add their voices to the growing international movement to hold Israel accountable for its human rights abuses and specifically the deprivation of opportunity for our Palestinian colleagues to participate in the global academic community. The commitment does not call for the termination of links with individual colleagues nor the end of dialogue, rather it is a boycott of institutions directly or indirectly complicit in the systematic and illegal occupation of Palestine.

Professor Malcolm Levitt FRS, a chemist at the University of Southampton explained why he signed the Commitment: “For decades Israel has enjoyed special protection and privileges despite its blatantly illegal occupation and settlement policy. This privileged status has lured Israel into a dead end, with consequences that are becoming increasingly apparent to everyone. In the face of the silence and complicity of our elected representatives, individuals must exert pressure as best as they can. This commitment allows me, as an academic, to collaborate with Israeli individuals in the best scientific traditions, while still resisting the attempt by Israeli institutions to normalise their complicity in grossly illegal and unjust activities.”

Echoing these sentiments, Dr. Rachel Cohen of City University said, “It is the responsibility of those of us who have the freedom to act to exercise that freedom in support of our colleagues in Palestinian universities who do not have such freedom. The Israeli state presents itself as an enlightened funder of academic pursuits, and yet it systematically denies Palestinian academics and students their basic freedoms, such as the freedom of movement necessary to attend international academic conferences, or simply to get to lectures on time.”

Speaking for the organisers of the Academic Commitment Professor Jonathan Rosenhead (London School of Economics) said “These signatures were all collected despite the pressures that can be put on people not to criticise the state of Israel. Now that the invitation to join the Commitment is in the public domain, we anticipate many more to join us. The repeated brutal behaviour of Israel has caused a sea change in attitudes across the university sector. We will be conducting a campaign across the country”s universities over the coming months, and inviting fellow academics to contact us if they wish to sign the commitment”

The Guardian Ad:

Text of the Academic Commitment:

A Commitment by UK scholars to the rights of Palestinians

 As scholars associated with British universities, we are deeply disturbed by Israel”s illegal occupation of Palestinian land, the intolerable human rights violations that it inflicts on all sections of the Palestinian people, and its apparent determination to resist any feasible settlement. 

Responding to the appeal from Palestinian civil society, we therefore declare that we will not:

• accept invitations to visit Israeli academic institutions;
• act as referees in any of their processes;
• participate in conferences funded, organised or sponsored by them, or otherwise cooperate with them.  

We will, however, continue to work with our Israeli colleagues in their individual capacities.

We will maintain this position until the State of Israel complies with international law, and respects universal principles of human rights.

Background to the Commitment

This initiative from critics of Israel in UK universities is a decisive new step in the development of the worldwide movement to hold Israel, and its institutions, responsible for its violations of international law and discrimination against its Palestinian citizens. Previous well supported statements criticising Israel”s policies have been signed by large numbers of academic scholars. This is the first in which the signatories have committed themselves personally to disengage from Israel”s university institutions.

The call for academic sanction against Israeli academic institutions was first made in 2004 by the Palestinian Campaign for the Cultural and Academic Boycott of Israel (PACBI). The call can be found at http://pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=869. Modelling itself on the international campaign to isolate Apartheid South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s, this Palestinian initiative constituted a new and non-violent strategy for the liberation of Palestinians from oppression.

A full statement of the case for an academic boycott is available in the booklet Why Boycott Israel”s Universities? published by the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine – see http://www.bricup.org.uk/documents/WhyBoycottIsraeliUniversities.pdf

Cultural Boycott

Closely related to the Academic Commitment is the Cultural Boycott Pledge launched in February 2015 and signed by over 1000 UK artists across the fields of culture. Signatories included actors Julie Christie and Mark Rylance; playwrights David Edgar and Trevor Griffiths; film makers Ken Loach and Mike Leigh; writers Jacqueline Rose and Gillian Slovo; artist and writer John Berger; comedians Jeremy Hardy and Alexei Sayle; poets Liz Lochhead and Benjamin Zephaniah; poet and musician Kate Tempest; and musicians Jarvis Cocker and Brian Eno.

This pledge was promoted by the new organisation Artists for Palestine UK. The details of this pledge and its signatories can be found at http://artistsforpalestine.org.uk/ . See also APUK”s booklet The Case for a Cultural Boycott of Israel, which is available via their website.