The shamefull boycott of Israel by the British trade union of university faculty, the AUT, was imposed by the leadership. It has just been overturned by a vote of the membership:

British Lecturers overturned their decision to boycott Haifa and Bar—Ilan universities in a vote on Thursday.

Britain's 40,000—member Association of University Teachers voted last month to boycott the academic institutions for actions that it said undermined Palestinian rights and academic freedom.

Haifa was targeted because the union said the university was threatening to fire a political science lecturer for supporting a student's research into allegations of killings by Israeli troops.

Bar Ilan was sanctioned for its alleged links to the College of Judea and Samaria in Ariel, which is in the West Bank.

It also referred a motion to its executive committee to boycott the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The association said last week it would reconsider the boycott.

The decision was overturned by two thirds to one. 

Clarice Feldman   5 26 05