Academic Friends of Israel
The Academic Friends of Israel is a pressure group formed in 2002 to 'fight the academic boycott of Israel'. It works closely with the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Union for Jewish students. [1] It was incorporated as a limited company in November 2004. Founder and president Ronnie Fraser is a UK-based academic and member of the UCU. Fraser has dedicated his academic career to researching the attitudes and policies of the British trade unions, the Left, and the Trades Union Congress toward Israel.[2]
In March 2013, an employment tribunal in a case brought by Fraser against the Universities & College Union said in its ruling:
- The Claimant does much of his campaigning through the ‘Academic Friends of Israel’ (‘AFI’), an impressively-presented organisation with a PO Box address, a mission statement and a letterhead showing its patron as the Chief Rabbi and its advisory board as comprising a list of dignitaries including the President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews. Despite appearances, as the Claimant engagingly told us, AFI consists of him, his wife and a computer. Like any experienced political activist, he is alive to the PR benefits of disseminating his own views in such a way as to seem to be speaking for a significant number of others.[3]
The Tribunal ruled that "The Claimant’s complaints of unlawful harassment are not well-founded."[4]
Contents
Principals
- Ronnie Fraser - Founder, President
- Rabbi Jonathan Sacks - Head Patron
Advisory Board
Dr Manfred Gerstenfeld - Chairman of the Board of Fellows, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
Henry Grunwald Q.C. - President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews
Amir Lev
John D A Levy - Director of the Academic Study Group on Israel and the Middle East
Andrew R. Marks, M.D. - Columbia University, USA
Dr Robin Stamler
Professor Leslie Wagner CBE
Rt Hon Lord Young of Graffham[5]
Documents
- Ronnie Fraser, "The Academic Boycott of Israel: A Review of the Five-Year UK Campaign to Defeat It," The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs[6]
Notes
- ↑ PDF of <http://www.academics-for-israel.org/index.php?page=about us> created 19 March 2010
- ↑ The Academic Friends of Israel, The Academic Friends of Israel Documents Page, accessed on 13 August 2010
- ↑ Claimant and Respondents Mr R Fraser University & College Union JUDGMENT OF THE EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNAl, judiciary.gov.uk, 22 March 2013, p.20.
- ↑ Claimant and Respondents Mr R Fraser University & College Union JUDGMENT OF THE EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNAl, judiciary.gov.uk, 22 March 2013, p.1.
- ↑ PDF of <http://www.academics-for-israel.org/index.php?page=about us> created 19 March 2010
- ↑ The Academic Boycott of Israel: A Review of the Five-Year UK Campaign to Defeat It
