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BDS Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 18, 2013 16 Comments

I just sent my first e-mail to a University President regarding the academic boycott of Israel by the American Studies Association, and the similar boycott just announced by the small and relatively new Native American and Indigenous Studies Association. I could not find a direct e-mail...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 18, 2013 77 Comments
I have received a surprisingly large number of emails of support from people outraged at the anti-Israel academic boycott passed by the American Studies Association.  Almost all of those emails come from new readers. The question many of them ask is what they can do to help me not only in the challenge to ASA's tax-exempt status, but also to oppose the boycott. Readers can take action themselves by contacting University Presidents and Trustees for those 83 universities who are Institutional Members of the ASA, as well as the head of the university sytem for state institutions. Institutional Membership lends the good name of the university to a boycott that is anti-academic freedom and that subjects visiting Israeli scholars and faculty who hold joint appointments to discrimination on the basis of national origin.  Those memberships also likely reflect that university funds are used to support faculty participation in ASA events, ASA's main source of revenue. I will be writing today to the President of Cornell University, whose Cornell-Technion campus being built in New York City will be subject to the boycott and whose visiting Israeli scholars and joint appointees will be subject to discrimination by ASA on the basis of national origin. I also think it is appropriate to contact Senators, Congressmen, and Governors (for state university systems who maintain an Institutional Membership) since taxpayer money is used to subsidize participation in ASA events. It would be nice to have a single contact list, right? That's where you can help me.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 17, 2013 16 Comments
As detailed in numerous posts over the past weeks, the American Studies Association has passed an academic boycott of Israeli universities. Although the resolution does not make this distinction, ASA asserts in its explanation that the boycott applies only to the institutions and "not individual scholars, students, or cultural workers who will be able to participate in the ASA conference or give public lectures at campuses, provided they are not expressly serving as representatives or ambassadors of those institutions, or of the Israeli government." The explanation continues that the boycott also applies to "participation in conferences or events officially sponsored by Israeli universities." This would mean the boycott applies to programs and projects jointly sponsored by U.S. and Israeli academic institutions, like the Cornell-Technion campus under construction in New York City, the Brandeis-Middlebury Program at Ben Gurion University, dozens of other programs for terms abroad in Israel run by U.S. universities but hosted at Israeli universities, and many other joint university programs. In the talking points ASA provided to its members on how to address criticism from University Administrators, Deans and Faculty, ASA states that "U.S. scholars are not discouraged under the terms of the boycott from traveling to Israel for academic purposes, provided they are not engaged in a formal partnership with or sponsorship by Israeli academic institutions." Now you can see how pernicious the ASA academic boycott becomes. ASA's boycott requires monitoring of individual Israeli scholars interacting with ASA and having such scholars disavow representation of their institutions.  No scholar from any other nation is required to disavow representation of their institutions.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 16, 2013 28 Comments
An announcement just was posted on the American Studies Association website, and reads in part:
ASA Members Vote To Endorse Academic Boycott of Israel The members of the American Studies Association have endorsed the Association’s participation in a boycott of Israeli academic institutions. In an election that attracted 1252 voters, the largest number of participants in the organization’s history, 66.05% of voters endorsed the resolution, while 30.5% of voters voted no and 3.43% abstained. The election was a response to the ASA National Council’s announcement on December 4 that it supported the academic boycott and, in an unprecedented action to ensure a democratic process, asked its membership for their approval....
Of note, the total number of votes equals only about one-quarter of the total ASA membership of 5000. Those voting Yes represent approximately 16% of the total membership, yet it will be a vote that will stain the ASA for years to come. As I announced prior to the vote result, the Tax-Exempt Status of American Studies Association to be challenged if Israel boycott resolution passes. More to follow: So what's my take-away from this? I'm most shocked at the low turnout for the vote.  Given the time and energy devoted by the anti-Israel backers of the boycott, only 825 or so votes were in favor.  At the same time, opponents (who were ambushed by the proposal) only managed to get about 375 people interested.  Effectively, most people didn't care.  Apathy is perhaps the saddest lesson from this given the odious nature of the proposal, and it's how anti-Israel zealots are able to drive issues far out of proportion to their actual numbers.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 15, 2013 24 Comments

As I have previously indicated, I believe the anti-Israel academic boycott resolution of the American Studies Association calls into question ASA's 501(c)(3) tax exemption. Voting on the resolution ends at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, December 15.  If the resolution passes, I intend on challenging ASA's 501(c)(3) status through...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 15, 2013 15 Comments
The U.N. General Assembly in 1975 passed the odious Zionism is Racism resolution, which has since been rescinded. Voting closes today at the American Studies Association on an equally odious resolution singling out Israel, and Israel alone, for academic boycott. It is, as former Harvard President Lawrence Summers notes, "anti-Semitic" in its effect "if not in intent." The resolution has been harshly criticized by the American Association of University Professors and eight Past Presidents of the ASA as an abominable attack on academic freedom, among many other denunciations:
In no other context does the ASA discriminate on the basis of national origin—and for good reason. This is discrimination pure and simple. Worse, it is also discrimination that inevitably diminishes the pursuit of knowledge, by discarding knowledge simply because it is produced by a certain group of people.
Nonetheless, the anti-Israel venom is so strong among the leadership and membership of the ASA, that there is a strong possibility the resolution will pass. Reading the comments and arguments of those favoring the anti-Israel academic boycott, there is little doubt that they view Zionism as Racism and would equally support the now discredited 1975 U.N. Resolution if put to a vote at the ASA. (full speech embedded at bottom of post)

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 13, 2013 15 Comments
Lawrence Summers, former President of Harvard University, has commented on the proposed resolution by the American Studies Association to boycott Israeli academic organizations.  The membership voting on the anti-Israel boycott resolution concludes on December 15. For background on the proposed academic boycott and those anti-Israeli "academics" who worked for years on the resolution and then ambushed pro-Israel and/or pro-Academic Freedom members, see my prior posts: Here is the Summers interview with Charlie Rose specifically on the ASA boycott resolution (full interview here, segment starts at 35:00)):
This particular academic boycott is much worse, it is much worse because the idea that of all the countries in the world that might be thought to have human rights abuses, that might be thought to have inappropriate foreign policies, that might be thought to be doing things wrong, the idea that there's only one that is worthy of boycott, and that is Israel, one of the very few countries whose neighbors regularly vow its annihilation, that that would be the one chosen, is I think beyond outrageous as a suggestion.... Charlie, I said some time ago with respect to a similar set of efforts, that I regarded them as being anti-Semitic in their effect if not necessarily in their intent. And I think that's the right thing to say about singling out Israel. If there was an academic boycott against a whole set of countries that stunted their populations in some way, I would oppose that because I think academic boycotts are abhorrent, but the choice of only Israel at a moment when Israel faces this kind of existential threat I think takes how wrong this is to a different level.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 11, 2013 37 Comments

I had a conversation on Twitter today with Professor Claire Potter, the subject of the post Tenured radicals cannot be trusted with our academic freedom. Potter first forcefully and repeatedly opposed the academic boycott of Israeli educational institutions proposed by the American Studies Association because it...

Posted by David Gerstman on December 10, 2013 9 Comments
One of the tactics of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) movement is to disrupt appearances not only by Israeli speakers, but also dancers, artists and musicians. In 2010, for example, the Jerusalem Quartet had to stop its performance in London after a BDS protester would not stop shouting. In September 2011, a concert by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in London also was disrupted. I had not been aware of the history of the Israel Philharmonic until recently. The orchestra was founded as the Palestine Orchestra by a Polish Jewish violinist, Bronisław Huberman. Huberman anticipated the rise of the Nazis, and set about creating the orchestra to save Jewish musicians in Europe. In all - including the musicians and their families - he is credited with saving nearly 1000 people. Throughout its history the Israel Philharmonic has featured some of the greatest contemporary musical talent. One of the guest artists who performs with the orchestra, is two-time Grammy winning Russian pianist Evgeny Kissin.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 05, 2013 12 Comments
I don't use the word "evil" very often here, but it certainly would be justified as to the Boycott Divestment Sanction (BDS) movement against Israel and BDS supporters in academia. See the BDS Tag for my prior writings on the BDS movement for background. Now that the National Council of the American Studies Association has endorsed an academic boycott of Israel, the ASA has joined the Jihad against Israel. The ASA National Council's justifications are flimsy and historically incorrect and biased. They cite the separation "wall" (actually mostly a fence, only a wall in certain places) as a justification without noting that the "wall" was build only after a year of unrelenting Palestinian suicide bombings at cafes, reception halls, buses, and even at Hebrew University. Several hundred Israelis civilians died in these suicide bombings. The "wall" put an end to that. So too did checkpoints, where even to this day sophisticated weapons for use against Israel are stopped.
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