OXFORD University has launched an inquiry after a leading professor rejected an Israeli PhD student simply because of his nationality, writes Geraldine Hackett.

Andrew Wilkie, Nuffield professor of pathology, told Amit Duvshani he would not accept him as a student because of the “gross human rights abuses” Israel inflicts on Palestinians.

The rejection is the latest action in a controversial campaign by British academics to refuse to work with Israelis. The campaign has led to accusations of anti-semitism, which are denied by those involved.

Duvshani, 28, who is completing a masters degree in molecular biology at Tel Aviv University, applied to join Wilkie’s laboratory as part of his work towards a PhD.

His CV included his mandatory national service in the Israeli army.

Wilkie, a fellow of Pembroke College, replied by e-mail on June 23 saying: “Thank you for contacting me, but I don’t think this would work. I have a huge problem with the way that the Israelis take the moral high ground from their appalling treatment in the Holocaust and then inflict gross human rights abuses on the Palestinians because they wish to live in their own country.

“I am sure that you are perfectly nice on a personal level, but no way would I take somebody who has served in the Israeli army.”

An Oxford spokeswoman said the university had launched an inquiry. Wilkie could face disciplinary action and even dismissal.

The university said that although Wilkie had expressed a personal view it would not accept behaviour that appeared to discriminate on grounds of ethnicity or nationality.

“We don’t want to go further into the matter because an investigation is under way. A report is being prepared for Sir Colin Lucas, the vice-chancellor,” added the spokeswoman.

Wilkie last night apologised “unreservedly” and said he would reconsider the student’s application. “I am not a racist or anti-semitic,” he added.

Last year the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology criticised Professor Mona Baker for dropping two eminent scholars from the boards of her privately run translation journals because they worked at Israeli universities.

However, in May a third of members of the AUT lecturers’ union supported a motion calling for an academic boycott of Israel. The plan was finally rejected amid concerns it would alienate “progressive” Israeli academics who share the union’s concerns about the country’s human rights record.

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