Lecturers threw their weight behind an effective boycott of Israeli universities and academics yesterday, in protest over Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.

In a move that campaigners have branded illegal, members of the University and College Union, UCU, said Israeli academics had “apparent complicity” in the “humanitarian catastrophe imposed on Gaza by Israel”.

The union, which represents over 120,000 academics, voted to “consider the moral and political implications of education links with Israeli institutions” by a clear majority in a show of hands at their annual conference in Manchester.

The result will further sour relations between British academia and international scholars after a similar vote last year provoked outrage around the world.

Steven Weinberg, the Nobel prize-winning physicist, cancelled his visit to Britain in protest against calls for boycotts of Israel by journalists and doctors and the UCU motion in 2007.

Jewish organisations in Britain condemned yesterday’s vote. Jeremy Newmark of Stop the Boycott Campaign said: “UCU has again demonstrated how out of touch it is with the vast majority of its membership and with the wider academic community. This motion does nothing to help the Palestinians.”

Lawyers for the Stop the Boycott, say the motion will "expose Jewish members of the union to indirect discrimination" and could make the UCU liable for an "act of harassment on grounds of race or nationality".

Sally Hunt general secretary of the UCU said: “We have passed a motion to provide solidarity with the Palestinians, not to boycott Israel or any other country’s academic institutions. I made clear to delegates that the union will defend their right to debate this and other issues. Implementation of the motion will now fall to the national executive committee (NEC).”

The motion said that criticism of Israel and Israeli policy are “not, as such, anti-Semitic” and Israeli occupation of Palestinian land led to the “killing of civilians and the impossibility of civil life, including education.”

The boycott issue has been high on the agenda for the last five years.

Three years ago two unions, which later merged to become UCU, caused worldwide outrage when they demanded a similar boycott. They eventually overturned their resolutions.

Tom Hickey who proposed the motion stressed it stopped short of backing a full boycott. He said: “We are urging people to reflect on whether it is appropriate for them to maintain their links with Israeli institutions. It is one step short of urging people to consider a boycott,” he said.

David Willetts the Shadow Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills, said: “It is entirely wrong to be threatening academic boycotts of Israel. It is a threat to the high principles of academic freedom to be caught up in such anti-Israel campaigns, and will do nothing to help peace in the region.”

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