The AUT accused Haifa University of restricting the academic freedom of staff members who are critical of the government, and protest Bar Ilan's campus in the settlement Ariel in the West Bank, The Guardian reported.
A third boycott proposal against the Hebrew University was dropped after delegates to the meeting questioned the evidence of an alleged case of Palestinian land confiscation by the university.
The Israeli Embassy in London released a statement condemning the boycott as a biased and adverse move which, far from promoting peace efforts, it ignores and sabotages progress made between the Israelis and Palestinians.
"The resolutions are as perverse in their content as in the way they were debated and adopted. The AUT ignored overwhelming academic and public rejection of the proposed motions.
"The fact that no AUT member who wanted to argue against this decision was allowed to speak, and the case for the Israeli universities was not presented to delegates, speaks volumes about the relevance and fairness of this debate," the embassy statement read.
As the statement notes, Israeli universities are rare institutions in which Arabs and Jews work and study side by side.
"In particular, Haifa University, which was boycotted today, has a substantial Arab faculty and student body. Such institutions are at the forefront of efforts to develop cooperation between different communities and thus further steps towards peace."
"We are certain that the British Government and British university authorities will make it clear that no discrimination or bias on the grounds of nationality, race or religion will be tolerated in UK higher education. Academics should be at the forefront of international cooperation ? by passing these resolutions the AUT is doing exactly the opposite," it concluded.
Britain's Orthodox chief rabbi Jonathan Sacks expressed his disappointment in the AUT's decision.
"I am most distressed by this outcome. Academic life is about building bridges of dialogue, not destroying them; opening minds, not closing them; hearing both sides of an argument, not one alone. The AUT has betrayed the academic principles it supposedly represents. This is a sad day for British universities."
"This is a political campaign," Jonathan Spyer, Director of the European Affairs of the Global Center in International Affairs at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzeliya, told The Jerusalem Post after Friday's bote.
"Indeed," he said, "the model or metaphor for it is the campaign against South African apartheid."
"The boycott," added Spyer, who is an expert on Europe-Israel relations and on the new anti-Semitism in Europe, "should be seen as part of a broader strategy toward the de-legitimization of Israel, leading to eventual sanctions against the country.
This is a political campaign. The people behind the campaign, such as Sue Blackwell, are opposed to the continued existence of the State of Israel.
In line with PLO policy of the 1970s, they wish to see the Jewish State replaced by a 'democratic-secular state', i.e., a single state with a Palestinian Arab majority between the Jordan and the Mediterranean."
The motions had provoked a heated debate earlier this week before the AUT assembled on Wednesday for a three-day meeting in Eastbourne, in South-East England.
Pro-boycott activists were hopeful that their motions stood a better chance of being passed this year after they were turned down in 2003.
One reason for their optimism, they said earlier this month, was that they have now received the unequivocal support of the Federation of Unions of Palestinian Universities' Teachers and Employees, a sister union of the British association. The Palestinian federation has recently released a statement endorsing the British call to boycott Israeli universities.
In an interview with The Jerusalem Post earlier this month, Sue Blackwell, a Birmingham University lecturer and one of the leaders of the boycott proposal, told the Post that she "completely agreed" with comparisons between Israel and the former Apartheid regime in South Africa.
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The AUT Boycott Against Israel
Time to Boycott the Boycotters
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