1 This is not a decision to institute a boycott. That decision can only be made by the whole membership through a ballot. That was the commitment on which Sally Hunt was elected as General Secretary. Congress also backed a policy which does not allow a boycott of Israeli academic institutions unless it is called for by Israeli campus trade unions. Which it won't be.

2 UCU Congress has today voted for a roadshow touring colleges and universities drumming up support for an exclusion of Israelis - and only Israelis - from our campuses, our conferences and our journals. The union is mandated to finance this tour and to stack the debate in favour of a pro-boycott outcome.

UCU can still be rescued by its membership. It is not bound by Congress' support for the boycott campaign. It will have the last word.

But this vote demonstrates that we live in dangerous times. The zeitgeist is now such that a representative body of the British intelligentsia is prepared to say, in all seriousness and after due consideration, that criticism of Israel can never be antisemitic.

David Hirsh