Discrimination law

Part 5 of the Equality Act 2010 prohibits discrimination by universities against staff (or prospective staff) on grounds of nationality, ethnicity or religion.

Part 6 of the same Act outlaws discrimination by universities against students (or prospective students) on these grounds.

Jews are both an ethnic and a religious group, and Israelis are a national group. It may be relevant that when anti-Israel campaigners, in the public sector and elsewhere, refer to "Israelis" they invariably mean Jewish Israelis and not Arab, Druze or Christian Israelis (or any other variety).

A boycott of Israeli universities, academics or students would amount to illegal discrimination against Jews as well as against Israelis, because Jews are more likely to have links with Israelis and Israeli institutions than non-Jews.

We acknowledge the work done by UK Lawyers for Israel in providing some of the information on this page.