Academic boycott
It is unlawful for the student union (a charity) or its officers in their capacity as officers of the student union to promote an academic boycott (a political campaign), whether to the university, students or others. Examples of unlawful motions include providing for a plaque supporting a boycott to be displayed in the student union or requiring student union officers to press the university to implement an academic boycott or some form of discrimination against academics who are or have connections with Israelis.
In addition, academic boycotts are themselves unlawful. Under the Equality Act 2010, it is illegal for a university to boycott Israeli universities or academics.
Under Part 5 of the Act, discrimination by universities against staff (or prospective staff) on grounds of nationality, ethnicity or religion is prohibited. Under Part 6 of the Act, discrimination by universities against students (or prospective students) on these grounds is also prohibited.
In addition, under section 149 of the Act, the University has a positive duty (the Public Sector Equality Duty, PSED) to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between persons of different nationalities, ethnicities and religions:
It is well established that Jews are an ethnic group and that Judaism is also a religion; and clearly Israelis are a nationality. A boycott of Israeli universities would amount to illegal discrimination against Jews as well as against Israelis, because Jews are more likely to have links with Israelis and Israeli institutions than non-Jews:
see the Opinion of Michael Beloff QC and Pushpinder Saini QC, which also refers to an earlier Opinion of Lord Lester QC that has been accepted by the UCU Executive, which has ruled that motions promoting Israel boycotts are out of order, void and of no effect and see also its statement.
A boycott of Israeli universities would be by its nature discriminatory on grounds of nationality. The discrimination would be all the more serious and racist, in the absence of any similar measure being taken in relation to any other countries in the world, including those in occupation of other disputed territories such as Turkey, Russia, China and Morocco; or those responsible for appalling human rights violations such as Syria, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Iran.