AUT ISRAEL-BOYCOTT UPDATE: Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks has a "Credo" column in yesterday's Times of London: "Why academic freedom is a religious matter". I want to excerpt the whole thing (so do read it all), but I'll limit myself to this small section:

The late Sir Stuart Hampshire used to say that justice means hearing all sides of a conflict. In that sense the university was a place of justice. It wasn�t always so. Until the 1820s neither Jews nor Catholics could get degrees. Academic life was bound by doctrinal orthodoxy. If you held the wrong opinions you were excluded.

There is nothing inevitable about intellectual openness. Historically it has been the exception, not the rule. Today in many parts of the world holding the wrong opinions can get you barred, imprisoned, tortured or killed. That is why academic freedom matters. It took a long time to achieve. It can be lost overnight.

Indeed.

Keep the pressure on.