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Hundreds of U.K. Scholars Announce Boycott of Israeli Universities

Announcement comes five days after British luminaries denounced a cultural boycott of Israel in the same newspaper

by
Jonathan Zalman
October 27, 2015
Dominique Faget/AFP/Getty Images
Protesters hold a banner during a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Paris, France, August 2, 2014. Dominique Faget/AFP/Getty Images
Dominique Faget/AFP/Getty Images
Protesters hold a banner during a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Paris, France, August 2, 2014. Dominique Faget/AFP/Getty Images
(The Guardian)
(The Guardian)

On Tuesday, 343 academics based in the U.K. pledged to boycott Israeli universities, and announced their views by taking out a full-page ad in The Guardian, called “A Commitment by U.K. Scholars to the Rights of Palestinians.” The charge is being led by spokesperson Jonathan Rosenhead, a professor at the London School of Economics, who believes that “Israeli universities are at the heart of Israel’s violations of international law and oppression of the Palestinian people.” (Rosenhead has been a BDS supporter for years.) Read their full stance here.

This announcement comes less than a week after 150 U.K. artists, including authors J.K. Rowling and Hilary Mantel, denounced the cultural boycott of Israel—also in The Guardian.

Jonathan Zalman is a writer and teacher based in Brooklyn.