[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 467 Engrossed in House (EH)]


                In the House of Representatives, U. S.,

                                                         July 11, 2007.
Whereas, on May 30, 2007, the leadership of the University and College Union 
        (UCU) of the United Kingdom voted in favor of a motion to consider at 
        the branch level a boycott of Israeli faculty and academic institutions;
Whereas the UCU was created in 2006 out of a merger of the Association of 
        University Teachers (AUT) and the National Association of Teachers in 
        Further and Higher Education (NATFHE);
Whereas both AUT (in 2005) and NATFHE (in 2006) have passed resolutions 
        supporting a boycott of Israeli academics and academic institutions;
Whereas, however, the AUT boycott resolution was overturned after one month in a 
        revote, and the NATFHE boycott resolution was voided when the two 
        organizations merged into the UCU;
Whereas Britain's National Union of Journalists called for a boycott of Israeli 
        goods in April 2007;
Whereas the UCU boycott motion appears to have spawned similar movements in 
        Britain to boycott Israel economically and culturally, and the country's 
        largest labor union, UNISON, said it would follow the union of 
        university instructors in weighing punitive measures against Israel;
Whereas these unions have a hypocritical double standard in condemning Israel, a 
        free and democratic state, while completely ignoring gross human rights 
        abuses occurring throughout the Middle East and around the world;
Whereas Article 19, section 2, of the United Nations Covenant on Civil and 
        Political Rights states that, ``Everyone shall have the right to . . . 
        receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of 
        frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or 
        through any other media of his choice'';
Whereas these and other attempts to stifle intellectual freedom through the 
        imposition of an academic boycott are morally offensive and contrary to 
        the values of freedom of speech and freedom of inquiry;
Whereas American Nobel laureate Prof. Steven Weinberg refused to participate in 
        a British academic conference due to the National Union of Journalist's 
        boycott and stated that he perceived ``a widespread anti-Israel and 
        anti-Semitic current in British opinion''; and
Whereas the senseless boycotting of Israeli academics contributes to the 
        demonization and attempted delegitimization of the State of Israel: Now, 
        therefore, be it
    Resolved,  That the House of Representatives--
            (1) condemns the vote by the leadership of the University and 
        College Union of May 30, 2007, to consider at the branch level a boycott 
        of Israeli academics and academic institutions;
            (2) urges the international scholarly community, the European Union, 
        and individual governments, to reject, or continue to oppose vigorously, 
        calls for an academic boycott of Israel;
            (3) urges educators and governments throughout the world, especially 
        democratically-elected governments, to reaffirm the importance of 
        academic freedom;
            (4) urges other unions and organizations to reject the troubling and 
        disturbing actions of the UCU leadership; and
            (5) urges the general members of the UCU to reject the call of the 
        union's leadership to boycott Israel.
            Attest:

                                                                          Clerk.