The American Studies Association academic boycott of Israel is premised on complying with a call from Palestinian civil society:
It is resolved that the American Studies Association (ASA) endorses and will honor the call of Palestinian civil society for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions.
In justifying the academic boycott of Israel, the faculty boycotters frequently cite the fact that they are responding to a request. Some even go so far as to suggest they would boycott U.S. universities if requested to do so.
Okay, I call on the anti-Israel academic boycotters to boycott themselves.
Using their own narratives of colonial domination, indigenous peoples’ rights, and complicity of their universities in the military-industrial state, intellectual honesty and consistency compels them to boycott themselves.
It’s all explained in the talk I gave earlier this week at Cornell against the academic boycott. A Cornell Daily Sun article about the talk focused on one aspect of the talk, Professor: Academic Boycott of Israel Would ‘Hurt’ Students (slow link, but works).
The full video is here.
Here is a clip where I talk about the arrogance of faculty and call upon the academic boycotters to boycott themselves:
Of course, I don’t expect them to walk the walk.
As Henry Richman, chair of the Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure at the American Association of University Professors wrote in opposition to the academic boycott, we shouldn’t hold our breath waiting for the academic boycotters to boycott themselves:
In 2006 the ASA adopted a resolution condemning the U.S. invasion of Iraq, noting among other things that the invasion “threaten[ed] academic freedom” (whether in Iraq, the U.S., or both is unclear). Were I an ASA member I would surely have supported that resolution. Yet the ASA did not even consider an academic boycott of American universities in response to the American occupation of Iraq as they do now in response to the less murderous Israeli occupation of Palestine. Well, some might say, they can’t really advocate a boycott of themselves, can they?
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