---
title: "Academic boycott of Israel"
chunk: 1/8
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_boycott_of_Israel"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:17:27.825907+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

The current campaign for an academic boycott of Israel was launched in April 2004 by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) as part of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign. PACBI argues that Israeli academic institutions are complicit in perpetuating the Israeli occupation and therefore should be subject to boycott in order to advance BDS goals. Since then, proposals for academic boycotts of particular Israeli universities and academics have been made by academics and organizations in Palestine, the United States, the United Kingdom, and other countries.  Supporters say the boycotts is intended to pressure Israel to change policies they describe are discriminatory towards the Palestinians.
The campaigns for academic boycott of Israel have led to fierce debate.  Opponents argue that boycott advocates apply different standards to Israel than other countries, that the boycott is counterproductive, a collective punishment of Israeli academia, a tactic to threaten the existence of the State of Israel, and also that the campaign is antisemitic. Support for academic boycotts of Israel has been more prevalent among faculty in the humanities and social sciences than in the sciences. Despite this debate, academic boycott measures have been undertaken around the world, with some support among academic associations and unions, but with little institutional success.

== Worldwide ==
In October 2014, 500 anthropologists endorsed an academic boycott of Israeli institutions seen as complicit in violations of Palestinians' rights. The signatories of the statement said, "as a community of scholars who study problems of power, oppression, and cultural hegemony, we have a moral responsibility to speak out and demand accountability from Israel and our own governments." Also in October 2014, 500 Middle East studies scholars and librarians issued a call for an academic boycott of Israel. According to the signatories, "world governments and mainstream media do not hold Israel accountable for its violations of international law. We, however, as a community of scholars engaged with the Middle East, have a moral responsibility to do so." In Germany, the Bundestag’s 2019 resolution labelling the BDS campaign as antisemitic, though not legally binding, has had political and financial effects, with some associations losing public funding.
Following the Gaza war a number of universities have canceled or suspended collaborations with Israeli institutions. In 2024, the Federal University of Ceará in Brazil canceled an innovation summit with an Israeli university. A number of universities in Norway, Belgium, and Spain have also severed ties with Israeli institutions in 2025. The European Association of Social Anthropologists has announced that it will not collaborate with Israeli academic institutions and has encouraged its members to follow suit. The student exchange program with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has also been terminated by the University of Amsterdam.  
Reports published after the Gaza ceasefire indicate that academic restrictions and institutional distancing from Israeli universities have continued in several countries, with some universities and scholarly associations maintaining or expanding earlier suspensions of cooperation despite the reduction in active hostilities.

== United Kingdom ==
In reaction to the National Executive Council of the National Union of Students' BDS resolution on 2 June 2015, Prof. Leslie Wagner argued, "In reality, co-operation between Israeli and British universities and their academics has grown in recent years under the energetic leadership of outgoing UK ambassador to Israel, Matthew Gould."

=== The Guardian open letter, 2002 ===
The idea of an academic boycott against Israel first emerged publicly in England on 6 April 2002 in an open letter to The Guardian initiated by Steven and Hilary Rose, professors in biology at the Open University and social policy at the University of Bradford respectively, who called for a moratorium on all cultural and research links with Israel. It read:

Despite widespread international condemnation for its policy of violent repression against the Palestinian people in the Occupied Territories, the Israeli government appears impervious to moral appeals from world leaders.  ... Odd though it may appear, many national and European cultural and research institutions, including especially those funded from the EU and the European Science Foundation, regard Israel as a European state for the purposes of awarding grants and contracts.  ... Would it not therefore be timely if at both national and European level a moratorium was called upon any further such support unless and until Israel abide by UN resolutions and open serious peace negotiations with the Palestinians, along the lines proposed in many peace plans including most recently that sponsored by the Saudis and the Arab League.
By July 2002, the open letter had gained over 700 signatories, including those of ten Israeli academics.
In response to the open letter, Leonid Ryzhik, a senior professor in mathematics at the University of Chicago, led a rival web-based petition that condemned the original's "unjustly righteous tone" and warned that the boycott has a "broader risk of very disruptive repercussions for a wide range of international scientific and cultural contacts." The counter petition had gathered almost 1,000 signatories.

=== Mona Baker, Miriam Shlesinger and Gideon Toury ===

In early June 2002, Mona Baker, a professor of translation studies at the University of Manchester in England and a signatory of the 2002 open letter, removed two Israeli academics – Dr. Miriam Shlesinger of Bar-Ilan University which at the time had a regional branch in the Ariel settlement, a former chair of Amnesty International, Israel; and Professor Gideon Toury of Tel Aviv University – from the editorial boards of the journals Translator and Translation Studies Abstracts. Subsequently, Baker said that Translator will no longer publish any research by Israeli scholars and will refuse to sell books and journals to Israeli libraries.