More than 10,000 academics signed a petition demanding a halt to the campaign by Britian’s academic union to boycott Israel.
Among those who signed the petition, organized by the U.S.-based Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, were 32 Nobel laureates and 53 university and foundation presidents. The organization will deliver the statement to the University College Union as “an expression of outrage” against the proposed boycott.
“We are academics, scholars, researchers and professionals of differing religious and political perspectives,” the statement reads. “We all agree that singling out Israelis for an academic boycott is wrong.”
It goes on to say that to show their solidarity with Israeli academics, the signatories declare themselves “to be Israeli academics for the purposes of any academic boycott.” They pledged to decline to participate in any activity from which Israeli academics are excluded.
Scholars for Peace in the Middle East is an independent, nonprofit community of scholars with more than 18,000 academics and professional members from more than 400 campuses worldwide.
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