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University minister: 'ignore anti-Israel hotheads'

November 3, 2011 14:20
David Willetts

ByMarcus Dysch, Marcus Dysch

1 min read

Universities and Science Minister David Willetts has urged Britain and Israel to look beyond delegitimisation and boycott campaigns and instead celebrate the level of co-operation between the two countries.

He acknowledged that anti-Israel activity on British campuses remained a problem, but said business, academic and research links were "mutually beneficial and making real progress". The community should pay little attention to the "small number of hot-heads" promoting boycotts and instead "focus on the bigger picture", he said.

He denied that the government had not done enough in the past 18 months to tackle hate speech and remained "absolutely determined to crackdown" on it, but said the positive collaborations between Britain and Israel, on campuses and in business, outweighed the difficulties.

Mr Willetts said: "We are tackling the problem and we do understand the need to provide an environment in which all students can study in peace and without intimidatory hate speech. I do discuss this with the universities and vice-chancellors. They understand the legal obligations they have and we are working very closely with them on that.