Urgent – BRICUP appeal following vote at UCU Congress
Dear sisters, brothers, comrades:
You should by now have heard about the vote at UCU Congress on 30th May on motions concerned with boycotts and sanctions against Israel. The two motions were passed overwhelmingly.
As predicted, these modest resolutions in support of Palestinian human and educational rights have been condemned by the British as well as the Israeli government. Apparently Alan Dershowitz is threatening legal action, and the Israel lobby in general is going ballistic. The news of the vote was immediately greeted by hostile articles or editorials in the FT, the Times and the Independent, to name but a few. Much of the press coverage has been inaccurate: for example it has reported that UCU voted for a boycott when it merely voted for a DEBATE about a boycott; and several articles have alluded to a boycott of Israeli "academics" when the boycott call is quite clearly an institutional one and does NOT target individuals.
THINGS YOU CAN DO:
1. Get writing to the press. If you see any negative coverage in any paper, blog or whatever, send in a response. Correct any inaccuracies (the full text of both motions is given below). Refer to the BRICUP and PACBI websites for further information: http://www.bricup.org.uk/ and http://www.pacbi.org/. Your letter does not have to be long, or even particularly eloquent. Even if your ownletter does not get printed, it will have contributed to the weight of contributions on the topic, which editors take into account when deciding how many letters to print on an issue and how much "balance" to give it.
2. Pass supportive resolutions in your union branch; if your national conference hasn't taken place yet, submit an emergency motion to it, along the lines of "[name of union body ] congratulates the University and College Union on its recent decision to circulate and debate the Palestinian call for academic boycott of Israel and to invite Palestinian trade unionists to conduct a UK-wide speaking tour. [name of union body ] deplores attempts to undermine this democratic decision of an independent trade union by legal threats and intimidation."
PLEASE LET US KNOW OF ANY RESOLUTIONS PASSED.
3. Send us your money! Every little helps. Unlike our opponents we do not have government backing. We recently produced a booklet "Why boycott Israeli Universities?", which you can order for £2.50 per copy. We also brought Palestinian students to speak at a fringe meeting at UCU Congress. We need to recoup the costs of their travel and accommodation, plus the room booking. Send your cheques, made payable to "BRICUP", to BM BRICUP, LONDON WC1N 3XX, so that we can continue our campaigning work.
4. Invite a BRICUP speaker to your union branch, university or college, PSC branch, Amnesty group or whatever. You can contact us via contact@bricup.org.uk.
Thank you in advance for your support.
Sue Blackwell
British Committee for Universities of Palestine