LONDON, 24 April 2005 — Britain’s main university teachers union has voted to boycott two Israeli universities for allegedly restricting academic freedom and teaching in illegal settlements, drawing anger from Jewish students.

The Association of University Teachers (AUT) took the decision to blacklist Haifa University and Bar Ilan University at an annual conference on Friday.

“AUT Council today decided to boycott Haifa University and the Bar Ilan University,” the union’s general secretary Sally Hunt said in a statement.

As a result, no member of the 40,000-strong union will be allowed to visit the Israeli institutions.

The boycott will remain in force until Haifa “commits itself to academic freedom” and until Bar Ilan severs links with the College of Judea and Samaria, established at the illegal Ariel settlement in the occupied West Bank.

Both Israeli universities have defended their positions, claiming many of the allegations in the AUT’s boycott motions were false.

At the heated conference in Eastbourne, southern England, AUT members claimed that a senior lecturer at Haifa faced the sack and possible trial for backing a student’s thesis documenting an alleged massacre of 200 civilians by an Israeli army unit in 1948.

For its part, Bar Ilan was criticized for supervising degrees at the College of Judea and Samaria in the illegally occupied West Bank.

The boycott was condemned by the Union of Jewish Students (UJS), which has more than 8,000 members.

“We categorically denounce the biased and iniquitous decision by the Association of University Teachers and call on British academics to disassociate themselves from it,” a foreign ministry statement said.

“Things in the Middle East are moving forward while in the UK they are moving backwards. These boycotts have struck a blow at talks between Israel and Palestine,” UJS spokesman Danny Stone said after the conference.

“After today, Jewish students are going to be forced into a situation where they feel they have to justify their feelings on Israel. They will not be equal in the classroom with an AUT member.”