More and more people, and more and more people who actually have some influence of some sort, seem to be distancing themselves as much as possible from the British University and College Union's absurd boycott of Israeli academicians.
LONDON – British Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Friday slammed the University and College Union's vote in favor of considering a boycott of Israeli academics and institutions in May.
Miliband spoke during a meeting with Acting President and Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik, who arrived in the United Kingdom for an official visit. She also met with Prince Charles and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has been appointed the Quartet's Middle East envoy.
Itzik said that Miliband was the one to raise the issue of the academic boycott, saying that the call for a boycott was a bad mistake which had caused damage to his country's citizens.
Prince Charles also chimed in. Not to get too giddy over this, though. Both Miliband and HRH also managed to slip in there a reference to British journalist James Miller and ISM "activist" Tom Hurndall, both killed by the IDF while doing their thing in very dangerous parts of Gaza.
But then there's Alan Dershowitz's on-line petition which, for what it's worth, has reportedly now gathered over 6,000 signatures from academicians around the world requesting honorary affiliation with Israeli universities in solidarity against the boycott.
This is actually the first time I've mentioned this particular boycott here, I think, and there's a good reason. It seemed to me like a fairly impotent little temper tantrum by a bunch of fairly insignificant fools. More and more people seem to be coming to a similar conclusion.
Shabbat Shalom.
