American Studies Association coaches members how to defend ASA academic boycott against criticism by Deans, Administrators and Faculty....
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.
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...
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)
An interesting thing happened at the funeral of Nelson Mandela. Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority, rejected the Boycott Divest and Sanction campaign against Israel, urging only a boycott of Israeli products made in the West Bank. While in South Africa this week for the memorial...
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.
Mob rule now determines academic freedom....
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...
Perhaps it's time for a "boycott me too" movement to counter anti-Israel academic boycotts....
Academic supporters of the Israel boycott should understand that what goes around comes around....
Will they now boycott universities in Islamic countries that discriminate against Jews and Christians, women, and gays?...
It's hard being a principled member of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement. With Israel being a leader in computer, medical and other technologies, one would have to enter a time machine back to the 1950s to truly boycott Israeli products. The Cornell Students For Justice...
We have written so many times about the anti-Israel Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement. The BDS movement is particularly strong on campuses in part because of the support from anti-Israel faculty and outside groups that target campuses: Brown U. divestment committee faculty member signed 2009 letter calling...
I received the call in the late afternoon, “do you want to go to BDS 101 at The University of Washington tonight?”
BDS stands for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction of Israel and represents a radical movement bent on the destruction of the Jewish State. The D in BDS should stand for demographic destruction as the core demand of the BDS movement is the flooding of Israel with over five million hostile Arabs. Such an influx would mark the end of a Jewish majority in Israel and thus the end of Israel as a Jewish state. The Anti Defamation League, the American Jewish community’s central human rights and advocacy organization has identified BDS as an anti-Semitic movement .
The BDS 101 program was held in a lecture hall filled with a mix of Muslim and Progressive students and a small handful of pro-Israel students and community members. The program featured a four member panel anchored by Stefanie Fox of the anti-Israel group, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and included Cindy Corrie, mother of the infamous Rachel Corrie. Two co-ed hosts from the sponsoring group (SUPER-UW) opened the event by declaring their solidarity with all of the other righteous struggles on the planet “we condemn all injustice” they said.
The panel members each on cue took their turn at demonizing Israel. The perky Ms. Fox educated the students that Israel is a rogue apartheid state run by war criminal olive tree killers that must be penalized until in compliance with basic civilized norms.
NGO Monitor keeps watch on anti-Israeli non-governmental organizations, and provides valuable research contesting many of the outlandish claims made by these mostly left-wing groups financed by European governments. The NGOs, some of which are staffed by Israeli leftists, subject Israel to a microscope no society could...
(Naoko Shibusawa)[/caption]
In the wake of the Kelly shout-down, Shibusawa wrote a Letter to the Editor of The Brown Daily Herald on November 1, fully supporting the events that took place (emphasis added):
