BUILDING DESIGN ONLINE / UK
by Elizabeth Hopkirk
June 26, 2014

Venue bookings and donations cancelled as fallout from row continues

The RIBA’s vote to suspend the Israeli architects’ union has cost it £100,000 in lost bookings and donations, it has emerged. President Stephen Hodder told the institute’s latest Council meeting that the financial fallout from Angela Brady’s motion ran to six figures. BD has been told the lost income is a result of withdrawn donations and cancelled bookings for events such as wedding receptions and bar mitzvahs at the RIBA’s headquarters on Portland Place.

The institute approved a motion in March calling on the International Architects Union (UIA) to suspend the Israeli Association of United Architects while building continues in the occupied territories. The UIA has refused to put the motion on the agenda of its annual congress in August.

Opponents have characterised the vote as a boycott and said the RIBA should logically take action against oppressive regimes like China and Saudi Arabia.

But supporters argue the motion was attempting to call an architectural institute to account for the “criminality” of some of its members and was therefore not comparable to other instances of injustice.

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http://www.bdonline.co.uk/news/israel-kerfuffle-has-cost-riba-%C2%A3100k/5069383.article