The Association of University Teachers in the UK which represents almost 50,000 academic professionals in those countries has decided to boycott two Israeli universities - apparently becuase anyone these universities are not morally to their liking.

It seems that Palestinian Universities which preach death and destruction are OK, but an Israeli university gets boycotted becuase it's campus is situated on "Palestinian land" or it allegedly "punishes" professors with the wrong political views. And to think that Israeli universities are often criticized by the Israeli right as being fomentors of post-Zionist thought!

The AUT is looking to merge it's union with the NATFHE union. Here's their position on the issue.

From the BBC:

The Israeli Embassy in London said the resolutions were "as perverse in their content as in the way they were debated and adopted".

"The fact that no AUT member who wanted to argue against this decision was allowed to speak, and the case for the Israeli universities was not presented to delegates, speaks volumes about the relevance and fairness of this debate.

In my opinion, some action should be taken aside from producing statements and press releases condemning the boycott - I just can't think of what that is right now.

UPDATE: Jewish lecturers resign after AUT bans Israeli academics

You have to read the whole thing to truly grasp the moral depths to which the AUT had to dig in order to pass this resolution - take the vote right before Passover, vote against letting opponents speak for "lack of time", etc.