Gross Debates Academic Boycott on BBC

On BBC Radio Ulster’s Sunday Sequence program, Prof. Oren Gross and retired U.K. social policy Prof. Hilary Rose debated whether British academic organizations should boycott Israeli universities and colleges to protest Israel’s “illegal occupation of Palestine,” as called for by the U.K.’s largest academic trade union—the University and College Union (UCU). Prof. Gross, an Israeli citizen, strongly opposed the boycott, saying it was selective in singling out Israel. He called the proposal hypocritical, immoral, anti-Semitic, and a threat to the fundamental principal of academic freedom.