News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) The British union of academics is scheduled to debate on Wednesday another motion for an academic boycott of Israel in light of the "humanitarian catastrophe imposed on Gaza," European Jewish Press reported. The union also is demanding that Jewish lecturers explain their political positions as a condition for regular academic contacts.

The union last year rejected a motion for a boycott, but union secretary Sally Hunt insisted, "There is no call for a boycott. The motions...call for a wider debate about what is happening over there," she said. I have made it quite clear on a number of occasions that my personal view is that a boycott of all Israeli academic institutions is not the best way to promote a just peace."

The motion calls on academics "to consider the moral and political implications of educational links with Israeli institutions, and to discuss the occupation with individuals and institutions concerned, including Israeli colleagues with whom they are collaborating."