British Committee for Universities of Palestine

The British Committee for Universities of Palestine (BRICUP) is an organisation of academics based in the United Kingdom set up in response to the call for international support in 2004 from the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel.
and to the wider Palestinian Boycott National Committee call, adopted in 2005, for a policy of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) directed at Israel.
The latter call is supported by more than 170 organisations representing Palestinian refugees, Palestinians under occupation, and Palestinian citizens of Israel. It appeals to international civil society organisations and people of conscience throughout the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the Apartheid era.
BRICUP's twin missions are
#to support Palestinian universities, staff and students, and
#to oppose the continued illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands with its concomitant breaches of international law, its refusal to accept UN resolutions or rulings of the International Court of Justice, and its persistent suppression of Palestinian academic freedom.

The boycott advocated by PACBI and supported by BRICUP is an institutional boycott. It does not target individuals, except where they are clearly acting as agents or representatives of the Israeli state or one of its institutions. The central planks of the boycott call to academics and professionals are:
*to refrain from participation in any form of academic and cultural cooperation, collaboration or joint projects with Israeli institutions;
*to advocate a comprehensive boycott of Israeli institutions at the national and international levels, including suspension of all forms of funding and subsidies to these institutions.
BRICUP is a founder member of the European Platform for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (EPACBI, whose purpose is to coordinate the activities of academic and cultural groups across Europe. Since its formation in 2010, groups from eight European countries have joined EPACBI and more are expected to join soon.
BRICUP welcomes supporters (see information becoming involved), who are invited to support its activities and to attend occasional meetings organised by the Committee.
The BRICUP web page maintains regularly updated information on the progress of the academic and cultural boycott. A booklet, ‘Why Boycott Israeli Universities?’ explaining BRICUP’s purpose and responding to the usual challenges of boycott opponents, is available as a free download.
BRICUP publishes a monthly newsletter [http://bricup.org.uk/#nletter available online] and emailed to supporters; BRICUP maintains a Twitter feed @bricup

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