CAIRO, April 5, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – “Conscientious” Israeli academics and intellectuals who oppose the “racist” and “colonial” policies of their government in the occupied Palestinian territories are most welcome in the UK’s leading lecturers’ union, a British newspaper reported Tuesday, April 5.

Others who support their government’s actions in the occupied Palestinian territories risk a boycott by the Association of University Teachers' annual council, which begins on April 20 in Eastbourne, according to The Guardian.

“I think within the sector, there is a lot of concern about what’s happening in Palestine and a huge concern that the Palestinian education structure has been destroyed. Potentially there’s a lot of support,” said Gargi Bhattacharyya, executive member and president-elect of the AUT.

The boycott call is based on a motion authored by British academics, which is to be debated by the AUT and likely to be passed.

It will also debate whether to boycott three of Israel’s eight universities - Haifa University, Bar Ilan University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem - over their alleged complicity with the government's policies on the Palestinian territories, the paper said.

The mass-circulation daily also revealed British academics are turning down offers to work with big research organizations in Israel for their support of their government’s policies in occupied Palestine.

“I support the academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions, as a means of registering my protest against Israelis' lack of respect for human rights and continuing illegal occupation of Palestinian land,” the paper quoted an unnamed British academic as saying.