British academics gathered in the seaside town of Eastbourne, England, for their annual council are not just debating their payslips; international issues are firmly on the agenda as well.

Given the profusion of serious human rights emergencies from Sudan to North Korea, one could reasonably wonder which of these laudable concerns has been prioritized by the delegates to the conference of the Association of University Teachers.

The answer is: none of them. Sadly, if predictably, Israel has once again been cast as the ultimate global villain.

The call to boycott Israeli academic institutions has hundreds of supporters in Europe, nourished by a growing climate of anti-Zionism that is often indistinguishable from anti-Semitism.

Since April 2002, when more than 100 academics demanded a moratorium on European funding of Israeli universities, this disturbing campaign has been picking up steam. Cases of discrimination in Britain have included two Israeli academics' firing from the editorial board of a translation journal and an Israeli postgraduate who was refused doctoral supervision because he had served in the Israeli Army.

Having failed to win their case at the 2003 conference of the Association of University Teachers, the British boycott proponents are trying a new tack. If the boycotters get their way, a call from Palestinian academics urging a freeze on cooperation with Israeli institutions will be circulated to every British university teacher. The only Israelis who would be exempt are those willing to denounce "their state's colonial and racist policies."

At the same time, three prominent Israeli universities are in the firing line: the Hebrew University, for allegedly stealing land belonging to a Palestinian family; Haifa University, for allegedly threatening the job of Professor Ilan Pappe, a leading advocate of both the academic boycott and the dissolution of Israel as a Jewish state; and Bar-Ilan University, for supervising degree programs at the College of Judea and Samaria in the West Bank.

The Hebrew University is renowned as a place of tolerance and academic excellence. Arab students make up 30 percent of the student body. None of that makes any difference to the boycotters, who doggedly insist that the university has grabbed adjacent land belonging to the Al Helou family. In fact, repeated court proceedings have found in favor of the university, and the dispute has now been settled through direct negotiations.

Regarding the case of Dr. Pappe, Haifa University has continually said that his position is secure, despite his record of personal attacks on those who have criticized his research regarding war crimes supposedly committed by Israeli forces during the 1948 war.

As for Bar-Ilan, that university's supervision of 3 percent of the courses at a college situated in the West Bank is an outlandish reason for launching a boycott. One might also ask why similar scrutiny is not applied to those Palestinian universities where Hamas, recognized internationally as a terrorist organization, holds sway.

It is particularly unforgivable that the boycott demand has resurfaced at a time when Israeli and Palestinian academics are again discussing cooperation. Last May, for example, senior academics from several Israeli universities, among them the Hebrew University and Haifa, met in Rome with Palestinian counterparts from universities including Al Quds, Hebron and Bethlehem. They resolved to work together in such vital areas as the natural sciences, economic development and the preservation of cultural heritage.

Those European academics willing to stigmatize their Israeli colleagues have to realize that such initiatives will suffer as a result.

Those who now urge a boycott of Israeli universities must know that such a boycott is an assault on the very idea of the university as a citadel of intellectual freedom and informed debate.

Abraham H. Foxman is National Director of the Anti-Defamation League and author of "Never Again? The Threat of the New Anti-Semitism."

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.