LONDON, Dec. 6 (UPI) -- British academics have begun a campaign to break links with Israeli universities, leading to accusations of inciting hatred.
The new boycott organization, the British Committee for Universities in Palestine, was launched at a conference at the London University School of Oriental and African Studies Sunday.
Jewish groups said the title of the conference -- "Resisting Israeli Apartheid: Strategies and Principles" -- was inciting hatred.
Gavin Gross of the SOAS Jewish Society told the Guardian: "I see this conference as an out-and-out hate conference, which is solely there to delegitimize Israel and its people. It makes no pretence of balance."
But Awad Joumaa, a coordinator of the Palestinian Society, which organized the event, said: "We are promoting peace and equality for the Palestinian people.
"We are not the ones inciting hatred here. We are the ones under attack. If having an academic conference is inciting hatred, I don't know what their definition of it is."
Colin Bundy, director of SOAS, told the Guardian he was upset the school had been accused of institutional bias.
"In fact we probably do more on the Middle East than any other university," he said.
