Palestinian academics and Cambridge lecturers join call for boycott Students at Cambridge will start voting Friday in a referendum calling on the University to cut ties with a company implicated in Israeli human rights abuses. The referendum, scheduled for 21-24 October, calls on CUSU (Cambridge University Students Union) to campaign to have the University cut ties with Veolia, a company involved in infrastructure projects in Israeli settlements, and employed by the University on a waste disposal contract. Read more about Press Release: Cambridge students to begin vote on company with Israeli settlement ties 

The Israeli government and the Palestinian movement Hamas today began implementing their agreement to release 1,027 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for one captured Israeli soldier. Meanwhile, PFLP leader Ahmad Saadat has been taken to Al Ramla Prison hospital due to health complications following 20 days of hunger strike. Read more about Imprisoned PFLP leader Ahmad Saadat hospitalized after 20 days of hunger strike 

Sharp disagreements have intensified among leading US pro-Israel groups on the best methods to suppress criticism and discussion of Israel’s apartheid, occupation, colonization and human rights abuses, or support for Palestinian rights, on US college campuses. The dispute centers on the use of US civil rights statutes to lodge complaints against universities, alleging that discussion of Israel amounts to an infringement of the civil rights of Jewish students who might be made “uncomfortable” by hearing such discussions. Read more about US Zionists sharply divided over how to censor Palestine speech on campus