A British professor has denounced the American academics who voted for a boycott of Israeli universities as living in a “fantasy world”.

Derby University professor of education Dennis Hayes attacked last month’s move by the American Studies Association, in an article in Spiked, the online libertarian current affairs magazine.

Professor Hayes, who is the director of Academics for Academic Freedom, wrote: “The ASA’s supporters are blindly or willingly happy to destroy academia to improve their own political self-esteem.”

He added: “These left-leaning academics cannot build any real solidarity movement for Palestinian academics or communicate with ordinary people.

“As a result, they are forced to create and live in a feelgood fantasy world where their proposals make them believe they are political actors on the international stage.”