Chancellor opposes boycott of Israeli scholars

UC Irvine Chancellor Michael Drake issued a statement Friday decrying a recent proposal by the British University and College Union to boycott Israeli academic institutions and scholars, saying he believes in a separation of politics and education.

The union voted in May to consider boycotting Israeli academics due to the conflict with Palestine, although no official boycott has been implemented.

In a statement posted on UCI's website, Drake said UCI had a number of valuable contacts with Israeli scholars and that the actions of the Israeli government, however controversial, should not interfere with the free exchange of ideas.

"As chancellor of a campus that has seen its share of contentious discourse around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I know firsthand these dialogues can be quite difficult," Drake wrote. "But an attempt to shun an entire community of scholars based on what appears to be political opposition to the policies of the incumbent government is misguided, outrageous and wrong."

The conflict between Israel and Palestine has spilled over to UCI repeatedly in recent years, as both Jewish and Muslim student groups have accused the university of condoning politically biased speakers and events. A pair of investigations, one by the federal government and one by the Hillel Foundation of Orange County, are attempting to determine whether anti-Semitism is a problem on campus.

— Michael Miller