Brandeis Univ. drops American Studies Association membership over Israel boycott
Second shoe to drop, how many will follow?
Brandeis University becomes the second confirmed university to drop its Institutional Membership in the American Studies Association over the anti-Israel academic boycott.
Earlier we reported that Penn State Harrisburg would be dropping its membership. The real key will be whether universities also will refuse to allow university funds to be used to subsidize attendance at ASA events, which is how ASA makes most of its revenue.
Yair Rosenberg at Tablet Magazine reports:
Brandeis University has become the second institution to withdraw from the American Studies Association, following the organization’s decision to boycott Israel. “We view the recent vote by the membership to affirm an academic boycott of Israel as a politicization of the discipline and a rebuke to the kind of open inquiry that a scholarly association should foster,” Brandeis’s American Studies Department posted on their web site. “We remain committed to the discipline of American Studies but we can no longer support an organization that has rejected two of the core principles of American culture–freedom of association and expression.”
The Brandeis statement reads:
A Statement from the American Studies Program on the recent move by the American Studies Association to boycott Israel:
It is a with deep regret that we in the American Studies Program at Brandeis University have decided to discontinue our institutional affiliation with the American Studies Association. We view the recent vote by the membership to affirm an academic boycott of Israel as a politicization of the discipline and a rebuke to the kind of open inquiry that a scholarly association should foster. We remain committed to the discipline of American Studies but we can no longer support an organization that has rejected two of the core principles of American culture– freedom of association and expression.
Based on the Penn State Harrisburg and Brandeis statements, it appears that these decisions may be made at many universities at the department level. Those departments run by the anti-Israeli radicals behind the boycott will not agree to drop membership, which is why University Presidents and Trustees need to be involved.
The academic boycott of Israel puts the academic freedom of entire universities at stake. Will universities stand idly by as their Israeli visiting and dual-appointment professors are subjected to discriminatory and potentially unlawul national origin bias?
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Comments
Sanity starts to prevail. I think there could be hope- because regardless of how anyone might feel about politics- a rational person ought to be soundly annoyed by small minded bigots hijacking something credible for a crusade which is far removed from its organizational charter.
It took them THIS long to react?
Why doesn’t isreal boycott American academics.?
The other reaction is – what difference would it make . A ‘ visiting academic ‘ from anywhere to anywhere is just another 2 words for HOLIDAY .
No one reads academic papers either.
Normal People just want to f***ckin pass enough subjects to get out of there.
I’m actually somewhat surprised that Brandeis took the action it did, as the university, in recent years, had seemed to me to have a definite jewicidal attitude. Apparently not everyone there is an idiot.
I just registered for my first class in an online Masters degree program at Brandeis. Good to know there is some sanity there!