by Sharon Udasin
Staff Writer

Less than a year and a half after a British academics’ boycott against Israel failed to take off, 15 West Coast professors are trying to mount the first-ever such campaign in the United States.

In response to Israel’s three-week incursion into Gaza, the American professors launched the US Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel on Jan. 22.

Their battle comes only a few weeks after the Canadian Union of Public Employees of Ontario proposed a province-wide boycott of Israeli academic institutions and as groups from countries all over the world threaten to do the same. 

By Monday, the US Campaign said it already had accrued 205 endorsements, 155 from the American academy. But their pro-Israel counterparts around the world are girding for a fight. Continue reading…