TEL AVIV, July 7: A British professor has sparked outrage and recrimination by sacking two scholars from her academic journals, allegedly just because they were Israeli.

Prof Mona Baker sacked Dr Miriam Shlesinger, a former head of Amnesty International in Israel, and Professor Gideon Toury from “The Translator” and “Translation Studies Abstract”.

Toury said it was because of their nationality.

“My termination came about after Prof Baker made clear in a letter that my being Israeli made my continued tenure at the journal impossible,” he said.

The row highlights growing unease in Europe over Israel’s often harsh countermeasures in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Baker told London’s Sunday Telegraph newspaper that the academics were actually sacked for refusing to sever ties with Israeli universities.

In April, Britain’s Association of University Teachers said it would “give consideration to the severing of academic links with institutions in Israel if their armed forces continue to occupy university premises or otherwise disrupt...the exercise of their academic freedom”.

“Many people in Europe have signed a boycott against Israel,” Baker told the newspaper.

—Reuters