Sally Hunt, who heads the UK’s University and College Union (UCU), said: "As I have made clear in the past, and as I reiterated on the floor of congress this morning, I do not believe a boycott is supported by the majority of UCU members, nor do I believe that members see it is a priority for the union."

Hunt said individual branches of the union should now have the opportunity to vote on the issue.

“Today’s motion on boycott means all branches now have a responsibility to consulate all of their members on the issue and I believe that every member should have the opportunity to have their say. The earlier motion means that any future calls for a boycott must pass key tests before a boycott can implemented.”

UCU members passed the motion by a vote of 158 to 99 at the union’s inaugral congress in the town of Bournemouth, southern England.

In a statement, the UCU said it "is recognised that this is a difficult area," but stressed that "there is always a balance to be drawn between boycotting and damaging those colleagues in the hope that the state will address the harm that it is inflicting on academia, and the harm that the boycott itself inflicts on academia."

This is the third major boycott motion passed by UK academics in the last three years.

Under the terms of the motion, the union must now circulate calls from Palestinians for a boycott of Israeli universities to all its branches nationwide for discussion. Delegates at the conference in Bournemouth, southern England, also backed a motion calling for a moratorium on "research and cultural collaborations with Israel" funded by the European Union.

In 2005 a similar motion by the Association of University Teachers was eventually overturned following campaigning from the local Jewish community and the following year a boycott by the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education was also stopped.

The UCU is a merger between the two institutions. The union said it will begin stopping all academic cooperation with Israel, which is currently conducted through the European Union and called for the freezing of EU funding for Israeli academic institutions.

Communal concern

Jewish community leaders in Britain and abroad as well as Israeli politicians have severely criticised the boycott.

Jon Benjamin, chief executive of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, called on the union’s leadership to work towards reversing the vote.

In April, the National Union of Journalists voted in favour of a boycott of Israeli goods and demanded that sanctions be imposed on Israel by the government and United Nations. And more than 100 doctors in the UK have called for a boycott of the Israeli Medical Association, which represents physicians.

Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel Executive Zeev Bielski said that the Jewish Agency will work together with the Jewish community in Britain to revoke the decision.

"It is a shame that academics who are always a bastion of democracy and free speech should resort to such a discriminatory, stereotyped and warped manner of behavior," Bielski said.

And Ronnie Fraser, who heads the British group Academic Friends of Israel, added: "The vote proved that nothing has changed within the ranks of the UK’s academic unions. This is another boycott."

UK government "firmly" against boycotts

The move was condemned by both the British and Israeli governments, with Israeli cabinet minister Yitzhak Herzog who is responsible for issues related to anti-Semitism, telling Britain’s ambassador Tom Phillips that the boycott is "scandalous, discriminatory and one-sided.", adding that he believed that it should provoke "soul-searching on that part of all citizens of Britain."

Last week, Steven Weinberg, an American Nobel Prize-winning physicist, cancelled a planned visit to Britain, saying that calls for boycotts of Israel were anti-Semitic.

The vote earned a rebuke from British Education Minister Bill Rammell, who said the government was "firmly against" boycotts of Israel or Israeli academics.

"I am very disappointed that the union has decided to pass a motion which encourages its members to consider boycotting Israeli academics and education institutions," he said in a statement.

"I profoundly believe this does nothing to promote the Middle East peace process. In fact the reverse."

His Israeli counterpart, Yuli Tamir, highlighted the "irony" in lecturers condemning Israel as "Sderot students and students at an Israeli college are being bombarded by Palestinian Qassam rockets every day".