The internationally respected British Medical Journal has reignited debate over an academic boycott of Israel by running two opinion pieces on the subject last week.

In response, several physicians in Britain and the United States have proposed a boycott of BMJ, the official organ of the British Medical Association, and among the leading journals in its field worldwide.

The features section of the July 21 edition presented opposing views under the title, "Head to head: Should we consider a boycott of Israeli academic institutions?" The first article was by Tom Hickey of the University of Brighton, who was among the initiators of the resolution adopted by the University and Colleges Union, which he chairs, to consider imposing a boycott of Israeli academic institutions. The second article, opposing a boycott, was by Michael Baum, a professor emeritus of surgery at University College London. BMJ also put the question to a vote in an online poll.

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The University and Colleges Union's resolution prompted condemnation from academics, Jewish groups in North America and Britain, and even the British government, which dispatched its higher education minister for a series of meetings in Israel.

Deborah Cohen, BMJ's features editor, who commissioned and edited the debate, told Haaretz in an e-mail interview that the journal is on record condemning any academic boycott of Israel. However, in view of recent boycott proposals by several professional unions in Britain, BMJ felt it appropriate to discuss a matter relevant to many of its readers, Cohen said.

"The BMJ is reflecting a debate that is currently occurring on academic campuses within the U.K. Both sides of the debate have their views represented and there is an opportunity for readers to respond electronically," she added.

Nevertheless, physicians have attacked BMJ's decision to air the debate. The argument continued in the pages of the Guardian, where Ann Robinson, a practicing physician and health journalist, commented: "The BMJ has no place in discussing the politics of the Middle East it would do better to deal with the plethora of health inequalities on our doorstep."