The National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education in Britain voted to urge their members to boycott all Israeli academic researchers and institutions, unless they publicly disavow supporting Israel's policies.
It's OK by me if the state of British academic research is so strong that they can afford to ignore all research coming out of Israel. But I think if they really care about the Palestinian Arabs, they should make the boycott much broader.
For example, using Intel Pentium 4 and Centrino/Pentium M chips in their computers should be strictly forbidden. THey were designed in Israel, and many of the Israeli researchers came from academic backgrounds.
Similarly, Windows XP was mostly designed in Israel, so they should really boycott that entire OS.
But such sacrifices should be a small price to pay for their principles. Boycotting Israel, and not, say, Iran, shows that these academics have strong principles indeed. So as they throw their cell phones using Motorola technology developed in Israel into the Thames, I will cheer them on.
Until that happens, one must assume that they are hypocritical anti-semites.
