By A.M. Goldstein

HAIFA —Anthony Julius, the British litigator, is once again defending Israeli academic institutions.  Speaking today at the opening session of the University of Haifa’s Board of Governors Meeting, Julius revealed that he was representing an American professor at Oxford who is against the boycott that his union, the Association of University Teachers (AUT), may be forced to accept without debate when it merges on May 30th with the National Association of Teachers in Higher Education (NATFHE). 

The latter is expected to pass a resolution at the end of the week (May 27) calling for the boycott of all  Israeli universities, not just specific institutions.  The 60,000-member NATFHE is a larger union, but mainly represents teachers less prestigious colleges, according to Julius.

“What happens if the resolution passes?” Julius “Does it bind the new union?” “This,” he continued, “is the pressing legal question now being debated in England.”

Julius, who successfully defended Deborah Lipstadt against Holocaust denier David Irving, last helped overturn the AUT boycott against the University of Haifa and the Hebrew University. 
The University of Haifa conferred an honorary doctorate on Julius this evening.

Describing boycotts as “the weapon of choice” in assaults against Israel, the litigator said that he expected to be the first “correspondent” of the new union.  His client will introduce a motion declaring the NATFHE motion illegal and without validity if it is passed and appears to be binding on the joint union. 

AUT officials told him that there is nothing they can do at this point, since they cannot interfere in the affairs of another union.  Julius thought the response disingenuous.  He said the union had an obligation to safeguard its members, but was doing nothing about the new boycott attempt.
“It is not clear whether the resolution will be binding,” he admitted.  If it is, then his client is not being an opportunity to speak out against it and his dues will be used to finance speakers promoting the boycott.

He related that the new motion invites members to “consult their consciences” in regard to a boycott, rather than mandating it outright as did the AUT resolution last year.  The present move, he said, is more sophisticated and harder to beat down.

Julius thought that boycott issue was finally gaining the attention of Israel’s friends unlike the situation several years.

A.M. Goldstein is the English language editor for the University of Haifa's Department of External Affairs.