Dear Sir/Madam

In the absence of Government taking decisive action to condemn the illegal Israeli occupation the onus has shifted to civil society to apply moral pressure. The campaign to boycott academics from Israel is a clear message to Israel that it is committing moral outrage. A regime armed with F-16s that it deploys against civilians in urban settlements is unlikely to be immediately swayed by such a campaign. However as Bishop Tutu has remarked, the apartheid government of South Africa was very powerful, but today it no longer exists. If apartheid ended, so can the occupation, but moral force and international pressure will have to be just as determined. We therefore support the boycott of Israeli academic institutions. Additionally, emulating the strategy for dealing with apartheid South Africa, we call on academic communities in the UK to advocate a more general policy of divestment of British academic, financial and commercial investments from Israel.