Legislation intended to limit academic groups’ protests against Israel was abruptly withdrawn from consideration by the New York State Assembly after a chorus of educators and legal groups denounced it as a bold assault on academic freedom.

After a similar bill sailed through the State Senate last week, the legislation, sponsored by the New York State Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, was headed for a vote in the Assembly on Monday. But Assemblywoman Deborah J. Glick, a co-sponsor of the bill and the chairwoman of the Higher Education Committee, said she removed it from the committee’s consideration because she felt that “we needed to take a longer look.”

Extolling the virtues of global education “that is not bound by borders,” the bill would prohibit colleges from directing any state aid toward groups that initiate boycotts of other countries. But not all other countries: The language of the bill mentions only those “that host higher education institutions chartered by the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York.”

There are four such countries: Lebanon, the Czech Republic and Hungary, none of which are currently the target of major academic boycotts, and Israel, against which two professors’ organizations recently passed boycotts that attracted immediate international debate.