Welcome to TheAcademic Friends of Israel

The Academic Friends of Israel has been campaigning against the academic boycott of Israel since 2002. We are concerned about the increasing number of anti-Israel and anti–Semitic incidents on British Campuses as well as the anti-Israel policies of the UK’s education unions.

Our members may or may not support the policies of the Government of the State of Israel but are all agreed that Israel has the right to live in peace within secure borders. We are opposed to the “new” anti-Semitism, which is aimed at Israel, which often hides behind legitimate criticism of Israel.

NEW:

Trade Union and Other Boycotts of Israel in Great Britain by Ronnie Fraser

The United Kingdom more than any other country in the world has embraced the Palestinian call for academic, trade union, media, medical, architectural, and cultural boycotts of Israel. The driving force for this campaign is Britain's trade union movement and its anti-Zionist activists on the far Left, such as the Socialist Workers Party (SWP).

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) actively works for a general boycott of Israeli goods as well as a cultural and sports boycott of Israel and has forged links with the far Left and the unions to publicize their cause. All the major UK trade unions are affiliated with the PSC and several of them actively promote PSC policies and literature.................

To read the essay click here

The AFI Digest and latest news

Vol 8 Num 7 - 2 June

The UCU is now the most anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian Trade Union in Britain

Two years ago the University and College Lecturers Union [UCU] adopted a resolution calling for an academic boycott of Israel which they were unable to implement as the legal advice they received made it clear that making a call to boycott Israeli institutions would run a serious risk of infringing discrimination legislation. The call to boycott was also considered to be outside the aims and objects of the UCU.

If we fast forward to last week’s UCU Congress delegates considered five motions on Israel and Gaza including two which called for an academic boycott of Israel, but there was no debate this time, but instead there was a procession of speakers demonising and condemning Israel and its actions in Gaza. There was no one to oppose the motions because over the last two years the Far Left and the Socialist Workers Party [SWP] has ethnically cleansed the UCU Congress of any Jewish or Zionist opposition to their racist, xenophobic and antisemitic policies.....

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Vol 8 Num 5 - 4 May

Britain’s Trade Unions vote to boycott goods from the territories

The recent decisions of the UK Government to support the labelling of goods from the territories, as well as a promise to review arms sales to Israel in the light of Israel’s Gaza campaign has given the trade union activists in Britain the momentum they need for a sustained boycott, divestment and sanctions[BDS] campaign this summer directed at Israel. The first two unions to vote for a boycott are the National Union of Teachers [NUT] and the Scottish Trades Union Congress [STUC]..........

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Stop the Boycott publishes Legal Advice on the Boycott

The UK Jewish Community's "Stop the Boycott" campaign, has published the 21 page opinion it has obtained on the legal issues surrounding the UCU and its campaign to boycott Israeli academia.

To read the full opinion go to:

http://www.stoptheboycott.org/files/ucu%20opinion_%20Final.PDF

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For the previous Digests click here

The Academic Boycott of Israel: A Review of the Five-Year UK Campaign to Defeat It by Ronnie Fraser

To read the essay click here

An earlier essay The Academic Boycott of Israel: Why Britain? by Ronnie Fraser has been has been updated and published by The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs in the book; Academics against Israel and the Jews edited by Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld [ISBN 978-965-218-057-5, 276 pp.]
To read the essay click here

Want to know more about collaborative projects Israel Universities have with Palestinians and others? Let us introduce you to Israeli Academia

The New Antisemitism

“What we are witnessing today is the second great mutation of anti Semitism in modern times, from racial anti-Semitism to religious anti-Zionism with the added premise that all Jews are Zionists. It uses all the medieval myths… The mutation is this; that the worst crimes of anti-Semites in the past-racism, ethnic cleansing, attempted genocide, crimes against humanity-are now attributed to the Jews and the state of Israel” - The Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, Sir Jonathan Sacks

“Under the “new” anti-Semitism, prejudices, blood libels and double standards once leveled at the individual Jew are addressed to the personification of collective Jewry, the State of Israel. If we check whether Israel is being demonised or deligitimised, or whether a double standard is being applied to it – we will always be able to see anti-Semitism clearly.” - Natan Sharansky

Read our page on antisemitism here