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BDS Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 11, 2014 27 Comments
The University of Illinois Board of Trustees just voted on the recommendation of a tenured position for Steven Salaita. The issue became highly controversial when UI at Urbana-Champaign Chancellor Phyllis Wise first declined to forward the recommendation to the Board. Salaita's tweets about Jews, Israel and Gaza caused a wide-ranging debate on social media and among academics. Our prior posts are under the Steven Salaita Tag. After weeks of protest and threats of a lawsuit, the recommendation was forwarded for vote today. There were several editorials from major Illinois publications in the past week supporting Wise and arguing that Salaita's tweets crossed a line, including the Urbana News-Gazette, Chicago Tribune, and Chicago Sun Times. The Tribune Editorial Board wrote:
Salaita was dumped because his tweets crossed the line from caustic commentary to hate speech. Some of his remarks come uncomfortably and irresponsibly close to endorsing violence against individuals or groups of people. Some are racist. At the very least, they would create a hostile environment in which others must work or study.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 10, 2014 33 Comments
[Featured Image credit: Kaitlin Owens video] [Note: The title of this post and Featured Image were changed once I obtained the video which demonstrated that the student leader arrested was reading a Legal Insurrection blog post when arrested.] We previously covered how Meghan Marzec, the President of the Ohio University student Senate, hijacked the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge to bash Israel with a Blood Bucket Challenge. It reflects the nature of the anti-Israel movement on campus that they would politicize a charity fundraiser for an incurable disease. What kind of people do such things? Anti-Israel campus activists, that's the type of people. At a Student Senate Meeting tonight, pro-Israel students protested this abuse and, according to reports, several of the pro-Israel students were escorted out and arrested by campus police, via the student newspaper, The Post, Four students arrested at Wednesday's Student Senate Meeting:
Ohio University Police Department Chief Andrew Powers told The Post that four students were arrested at Wednesday night's Student Senate meeting in Walter Hall. OUPD officers escorted Bobcats for Israel President Becky Sebo out of the Student Senate meeting Wednesday night. Rabbi Danielle LeShaw, who went with the arrested students to OUPD's station, told The Post they were charged with a fourth degree misdemeanor for disturbing a lawful meeting.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 05, 2014 8 Comments
I know readers probably are skeptical when I constantly tell you how pathological the hatred of Israel is among many Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) supporters on campus. I am not exaggerating. At all. Israel hatred consumes their lives such that everything is politicized and used as an excuse to attack Israel. Even ordinary foodstuffs like hummus, coffee or couscous, are turned into political weapons. It's all about their politics -- they feel no compunction about dominating student government and trying to turn assembly and senate meetings into tools in the war against Israel, and to dominate campus discussion to the exclusion of all other issues. (language warning) (Related Post) They proudly proclaim that even when they lose a divestment vote, they won because they forced student government to spend hours or days talking about how bad Israel supposedly is. One of the most egregious examples was the student senate President -- yes, President -- at Ohio University, Megan Marzec, who used the ALS ice bucket challenge to bash Israel.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 04, 2014 7 Comments
In opposing the anti-Israel boycott, divest and sanctions (BDS) movement on campuses, it's natural to frame the argument as opposition. Campus BDS is aggressive, and may get even more so this year (although there is one counter-indicator). Whether it's divestment initiatives, or attempts at academic BDS, the campus war on Israel never rests. While opposition is important and necessary, it's not the complete answer. The other half is continuing to build academic ties with Israeli academic institutions and individuals. The Times of Israel reports that expanding ties are taking place despite boycott calls, Universities profit from ignoring Israel boycott:
Anti-Israel activity and especially boycott drives make considerable noise on university campuses, but the record shows that schools that ignore or reject the pressure can profit from relationships with Israeli institutions of higher learning — and not just academically. Cleveland State University recently signed an agreement with the University of Haifa to “develop joint learning opportunities between the two universities,” an official memorandum of understanding (MoU) said. This is CSU’s first academic agreement with an Israeli university The agreement was signed by CSU President Ronald Berkman and University of Haifa Rector David Faraggi, who was in Cleveland for a two day visit. The MoU, said CSU Communications Director Kevin Ziegler, “provides an affirmation from both sides that we’re going to work together to make this happen. It’s [a way] of saying we’re serious. That we’re going to treat each other like partners on this and make things happen.... Another university already partnering with Israel is Texas A&M, which in 2013 signed a deal with to open a new campus in Nazareth. Texas A&M already has a facility in Israel; the US institution has been working with Ben-Gurion University for several years, and runs an R&D lab with BGU in Beersheba.
The Tower further reports:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 02, 2014 12 Comments
I have noted before the disturbing trend of anti-Israel Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) supporters blaming Israel and/or Zionism for the recent outbursts of anti-Semitism around the world. I first noted the issue in connection with a tweet from Professor Steven Salaita, where he tweeted that "By eagerly conflating Jewishness and Israel, Zionists are partly responsible when people say antisemitic shit in response to Israeli terror." [Salaita's tweets became a big issue, although that tweet has not receive a lot of attention.] In that post, I noted that Salaita was far from alone. There has been a trend to use the "Zionism causes anti-Semitism" verbiage as a way of deflecting the grossly anti-Semitic BDS-led protests seen around the world under the guise of protesting the Gaza conflict. Fast forward to last week at Cornell, when Students for Justice in Palestine held what was to be a mobilization rally on campus related to Gaza. Casey Breznick is Editor-in-Chief of the conservative Cornell Review undergraduate journal. Casey also writes for Legal Insurrection (posts here) and College Insurrection (posts here), sustaining our long history of providing conservative Cornell undergraduates with a platform.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 22, 2014 11 Comments
Prior to a few minutes ago, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign had not commented publicly about the reasoning behind the decision not to complete the hiring process for Professor Steven Salaita. There was a lot of protest, including a petition and academic boycotts, meant to pressure the university into changing its mind.  That does not appear to be happening, from the latest news report. That, of course, does not preclude some sort of financial settlement, which might take into account that Salaita resigned his prior tenured position at Virginia Tech before learning his contingent offer from UI-UC would not be approved. The Urbana-Champaign News-Gazette now reports that Chancellor Phyllis Wise has sent a campus-wide email:
In her first public statement about Professor Steven Salaita, University of Illinois Chancellor Phyllis Wise said her decision to not forward his appointment to trustees for formal approval was not influenced by his criticism of Israel. The university, she said, cannot tolerate “personal and disrespectful words or actions that demean and abuse either viewpoints themselves or those who express them.” “We have a particular duty to our students to ensure that they live in a community of scholarship that challenges their assumptions about the world but that also respects their rights as individuals. A Jewish student, a Palestinian student, or any student of any faith or background must feel confident that personal views can be expressed and that philosophical disagreements with a faculty member can be debated in a civil, thoughtful and mutually respectful manner. Most important, every student must know that every instructor recognizes and values that student as a human being. If we have lost that, we have lost much more than our standing as a world-class institution of higher education,” Wise sent in a mass e-mail to the campus community Friday afternoon.
(Update) In addition, later in the afternoon, the Board of Trustees, the Chancellors of the Chicago and Springfield campuses, numerous university senior officials, and the President of the Faculty Senates, issues a statement supporting the decision. The full Chancellor email, as reprinted by the News-Gazette, is as follows (added -- original email here):

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 21, 2014 26 Comments
When I told you on July 16 that I was Expecting anti-Israel violence on campuses this fall, you might have thought I was needlessly worried. But I have observed over the past academic year the increasing fury and frustration of the campus BDS movement -- and that was before Gaza. So in my post I predicted:
Merely unhinged BDS on campus will be the good old days.
And it may already have come true, just as most universities are seeing students return to campus for the fall semester. Via Truth Revolt, Temple Univ. Jewish Student Punched In Face And Called ‘Kike’ In Anti-Semitic Attack:
A Jewish student on the campus of Temple University was assaulted on Wednesday afternoon and called “kike” and “baby killer” by members of the anti-Semitic student group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). [Name removed on request], a Camera on Campus fellow and a member of the Jewish fraternity AEPi, was punched in the face by a violent member of the anti-Israel organization SJP at “Templefest” which is organized for students on campus to gain new information about campus clubs a week before the start of classes.[name removed on request] is a managing information systems major at the Fox School of Business at the university.....

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 20, 2014 5 Comments
We have seen how on Twitter, and on the streets of Europe and elsewhere, the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) movement tells us how they really feel. And how they really feel is that Israel must be destroyed. That's not, of course, what they and their compatriots as groups like Jewish Voice for Peace, tell gullible students on campuses. On campuses, they talk about ending the "occupation," but what they don't say is that they consider all of Israel (not just the "West Bank") to be occupied territory. In Oakland, BDS protesters tried to stop a ZIM line ship from unloading. ZIM is associated in the public mind with Israel, but it's only one-third owned by Israelis. J.E. Dyer at Liberty Unyielding has excellent background, Anti-Israel BDS nuttery at the port of Oakland on the people involved and the futility of the protests. And yes, there is a heavy socialist-communist element: Oakland Block the Boat socialist banner In this case, after a delay, the ship was unloaded anyway. But not before dockworkers let it be known how they felt about these protesters interfering:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 09, 2014 13 Comments
If reports are true, Steven Salaita's horrific and bizarre Twitter feed cost him a job offer at U. Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. As of this moment, the reason behind the denial of a position is not known, but that hasn't stopped Salaita's supporters from portraying the denial as based on Salaita's anti-Israel views. As if there is some new blacklist against anti-Israel views, despite the fact that so many faculty members are anti-Israel and proud to express those views. One thing about Salaita's tweets -- he said how he feels. And how he feels is that Israel should be destroyed ("decolonized" in his lingo). That's what the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement really is all about -- it's struggle until Israel is gone. There are some naive dupes who actually believe that academic boycotts are about changing Israeli policies, but the leadership knows that it's about destroying Israel. The reaction to the denial of an offer to Salaita has been furious. One supporter of the academic boycott of Israel now wants a boycott of UI-Urbana-Champaign. Another professor is refusing to show his film there. The American Association of University Professors has weighed in against the denial, although it admits "a number of facts concerning this case remain unclear." There has been an attempt to portray Salaita as a world-reknowned scholar, but that's an exaggeration. Most of his work was simply devoted to bashing Israel in a now-typical melding of political activism and academics. Whether Salaita's initial selection was political to begin with is being questioned. Much of the organizing has been focused on a Petition for Corrective Action on Change.org posted by Rima Merriman: Salaita Change.org Petition Rima Merriman

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 08, 2014 12 Comments
For background on the controversy surrounding Steven Salaita, who was denied a job offer at U. Illinois at Urbana-Champaign allegedly due to his tweets, see my prior posts: No one knows for a fact why his job offer was denied at U. Illinois, but the presumption is that it concerned his bizarre, vulgar and unhinged tweets. His defenders try to portray this as viewpoint discrimination, as if he lost out just because he criticized Israel; at this point that is entirely speculative as to the basis for the university's actions. For more background see arguments for the denial of a job offer, and against the denial of a job offer. [See video discussion here, couldn't be embedded due to formatting problems][new embed code added - thanks to commenter] The whole thing may come down to contract law.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 07, 2014 8 Comments
I have argued strenuously against the academic boycott of Israel, led by people like Steven Salaita, on a number of grounds. Not the least of those grounds is that academics who insist on violating the academic freedom of Israelis and those who wish to interact with Israelis do damage to the system in its entirety. That is one of the reasons why the American Association of University Professors, numerous university associations, and over 250 University Presidents issued statements opposing the academic boycott of Israel passed by the American Studies Association in December 2013. There is a related point to how academic boycotts have a negative ripple effect. On what ground do the academic boycotters of Israel claim their own academic freedom if they are so quick to deny it to others? Because they think they are right? What if the people who want to boycott the boycotters believe just as firmly in their own correctness? Now you can see why universities reacted so swiftly in rejecting the academic boycott -- it's easy to start, but hard to stop. As posted earlier, Inside Higher Ed reports that Salaita allegedly was denied an offer at U. Illinois at at Urbana-Champaign because of his tweets. I don't know if that's true, if it was the anti-Israeli views expressed in the tweets, or if it was that the tweets arguably presented Salaita as an unhinged and unstable demagogue who would bring disrepute on his institution and intimidate his students; or any or none of the above. Many of those rushing to Salaita's defense on the ground of academic freedom, however, themselves are among the worst violators of academic freedom through the anti-Israel academic boycott. They would turn away a Dean or representative of an Israeli academic institution, would bar joint programs and research, and even cooperation in journal publications.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 23, 2014 6 Comments
The anti-Israel academic boycott movement has been under the radar the past month, but that doesn't mean it hasn't been working to destroy academic freedom where it can. Two small academic groups recently were added to the short list of academic professional organizations boycotting Israel. The Critical Ethnic Studies Association recently endorsed the academic boycott of Israel. This should not be much of a surprise given that when CESA was formed in 2012, one of its first acts was to plan how to help the anti-Israel academic and cultural boycott movement. CESA  previously supported the boycott passed by the American Studies Association.  CESA represents just about everything that has gone wrong with academia, as expressed in its mission statement:
The Critical Ethnic Studies Association (CESA) aims to develop an approach to scholarship, institution building, and activism animated by the spirit of the decolonial, antiracist, and other global liberationist movements that enabled the creation of Ethnic Studies, and which continues to inform its political and intellectual projects. We seek to move away from current critical deadlocks, to counteract institutional marginalization, to revisit the political ideas that precipitated ethnic studies’ founding moment within the US academy, and to create new conversations. Our Vision:
 Ethnic studies scholarship has laid the foundation for analyzing how racism, settler colonialism, immigration, imperialism, and slavery interact in the creation and maintenance of systems of domination, dispossession, criminalization, expropriation, exploitation, and violence that are predicated upon hierarchies of racialized, gendered, sexualized, economized, and nationalized social existence in the United States and beyond. Our vision of Critical Ethnic Studies highlights how systematized oppression is coterminous with the multitude of practices that resist these systems.
The African Literature Association also passed a boycott resolution at its annual meeting in South Africa.  The ALA's mission statement describes its goals as follows:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 22, 2014 44 Comments
I tweeted about this yesterday: Now Yair Rosenberg of Tablet Magazine has the video: This is part of a worldwide phenomenon, and puts the lie to the claim that in modern political reality there is any difference between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 18, 2014 14 Comments
There has been a lot of vile anti-Israel propaganda in social media, going along with open anti-Semitism in social media and the streets. It's part of a pervasive dehumanization of Israeli Jews to justify Hamas' deliberate rocket fire into the middle of cities and perpetual war to destroy Israel. This tweet caught my eye because it distills how deviant the propaganda has become comparing not just Israelis, but Zionism itself, to Nazism.  The tweet shows the founder of modern Zionism, Theodor Herzl, giving birth to Hitler: Twitter - @bound0479 - giving birth hitler Zionism As if that's not bad enough, note the reaction from Max Blumenthal, one of the leading anti-Israel and pro-BDS campus speakers and authors:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 16, 2014 10 Comments
If you followed our coverage of the Boycott Divest and Sanction movement on campuses this past academic year, you would know that the BDS movement on campus was on the verge of violence. From confrontations with professors, to dorm storming, to vandalism, to publication of a Nazi cartoon, to disruptions of speeches and demands for Zionists to get off campus, to takeovers of student government offices, to demands for a new Intifada, to intimidation of Jewish students, to defacing pro-Israel posters, to seeking disqualification of pro-Israel students from student government, to threats from faculty at one college to boycott me, and so on. The tactic was to completely dehumanize Israeli Jews, and BDS gets support from some influential faculty in such endeavors. The campus BDS movement came unhinged this past academic year in part because of failures on campus, leading to calls for "direct action." And that was before the July 2014 Gaza conflict. Now we are witnessing a worldwide upsurge of open anti-Semitism in which BDS is part of the message, accompanied by threats and in some cases violence, including in the United States.  We already have seen  in the reaction The threatening face of anti-Israel boycotters in America. (language warning) Haaretz reports, Anti-Israel protests go viral - and violent - in U.S. and Europe:
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