Two British officials, one from the government and one from academe, spoke out in Israel today against an academic-boycott proposal recently advanced by Britain’s large new faculty union. British universities unanimously oppose the boycott initiative, James Drummond Bone, head of Universities UK, an organization of university executives, told The Jerusalem Post. And the cabinet minister who oversees higher education, Bill Rammell, said at a news converence at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem that “a boycott is fundamentally wrong.”

Delegates to the annual congress of the University and College Union passed the boycott motion late last month. The motion, which will now be circulated for discussion among local branches, urges union members to “consider the moral implications of existing and proposed links with Israeli academic institutions.” Mr. Bone told the Post that the initiative had “no support at all” within his organization and “very little support” within Britain at large. Mr. Rammell said he hoped the two officials’ visit would send “a strong message of the views of the British government and people.” —Charles Huckabee