Britain's biggest university lecturers' union yesterday voted to overturn its controversial boycott of two Israeli universities after weeks of heated debate on its merits. AUT members had voted last month to end links with the two institutions over their alleged complicity in human rights abuses. Opponents rightly and successfully argued it was an unacceptable attack on academic freedom, which undermined the free exchange of views that is central to the concept of a university.

Supporters of the boycott made much of its targeted nature. Haifa university - said by its defenders to be an "island of coexistence" between Jews and Arabs - was accused of restricting the academic freedom of staff critical of the Israeli government. Bar-Ilan university was boycotted for its links to the College of Judea and Samaria in the West Bank settlement of Ariel which is illegal under international law.