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05/25/2005:

"US call to end Israel boycott"

An American scientists' group has urged Britain's biggest university teachers' union to repeal its boycott of two Israeli universities.

The boycott is "counter to the positive role of free scientific inquiry in improving the lives of all citizens of the world and in promoting cooperation among nations," said the board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science yesterday.

The Association of University Teachers (AUT) voted last month to boycott Haifa and Bar Ilan universities for actions which it said undermined Palestinian rights and academic freedom. It also referred a motion to its executive committee to boycott the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. It said last week it would reconsider the boycott.

Alan Leshner, president of the US body, said: "Multinational research collaboration should never be compromised to advance a political agenda." The 120,000-member AAAS is the world's biggest general scientific society. Last week, the American Federation of Teachers, the largest university faculty union in the US, also called for a repeal of the boycott.
Full: guardian.co.uk

"Advance a political agenda"...No. It's called taking an ethical stand, something with which most academics are apparently unfamiliar.