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Blair blasts Israel Boycott |
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Thursday, 07 June 2007 |
The prime minister, Tony Blair, today urged British academics to abandon the
boycott of Israeli universities.
Mr Blair told the Commons it did "absolutely no good for the peace process".
Delegates at the University and College Union annual conference last week voted
to consider a call from Palestinian trade unions to boycott Israeli
universities.
The boycott proposal, passed by a clear vote of 158 to 99, is to be circulated
to the union's branches for discussion and has caused outrage among many
academics, including counter threats from the US of action against British
universities.
Mr Blair told the Commons: "I hope very much that decision is overturned because
it does absolutely no good for the peace process or for relations in that part
of the world."
He agreed with Labour MP for Hendon, Andrew Dismore, who said the boycott was
"misguided" and "undermines academic freedoms".
Mr Blair added: "The only solution ultimately is to relaunch the framework for a
negotiated peace with a two-state solution at the heart of it and that is what
we will be working on in the time to come."
Mr Dismore told MPs: "The University and College Union's boycott of Israeli
universities is misguided, undermines academic freedoms and contributes
absolutely nothing to trying to bring peace to the Middle East."
The boycott was launched by the UCU, which represents more than 120,000
academics, at its inaugural conference. A previous vote for a boycott by the
then Association of University Teachers, which merged with another lecturers'
union, Natfhe, to form the UCU, was overturned by a special conference.
The union agreed to condemn Israel for denying Palestinians their "educational
rights" and accused its academics of "complicity" with the occupation.
Blair later reassured Ehud Olmert over the proposed British boycott of Israeli
academia.
The two prime ministers spoke by telephone Wednesday to discuss recent
developments on the Israeli-Palestinian peace track, Olmert's office said.
During the conversation, Blair condemned a resolution passed by Britain's
University and College Union last year to advance a possible boycott of Israeli
universities and academics. Olmert's office said in a statement that Blair "said
these calls do not, to his mind, represent British public opinion, nor even the
positions of universities in Britain."
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