Petition Against Academic Boycotts

Congressional testimony ties anti-Israel groups in America to Islamist terrorism and racism
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Letters to MLA President from Academics

As a Canadian, at a Canadian university, I had the privilege of heading an interdisciplinary academic institute from 1997 to 2007, that is, during much of the presidency of George W. Bush. Like most of my colleagues, I was distressed by the belligerent policies of his administration, policies that ultimately dragged the US and many of its allies into two prolonged, bloody, costly wars. For not one instant, however, did it ever occur to me or to any of my colleagues to boycott American academics, artists, or institutions. … The idea that all Americans should be held collectively guilty for the policies and actions of a Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, or Wolkowitz was unthinkable. We needed to invite and welcome more American scholars, not fewer. Now that we are facing the prospect of four years of Donald Trump and the policies he and his cabinet will propose, the folly of potentially boycotting American universities and academics could not be clearer.

… I also maintain that boycotting Israeli artists and academics and their institutions – which is to say, some of the most forceful and eloquent critics of those policies and the profound ethical issues they raise – is not only misguided, but runs counter to a core belief in the power of intellectual exchange. … It is worth noting that polls have repeatedly demonstrated that a majority of Israelis – as opposed to some of their leaders – favour a two-state solution and are willing to make concessions to achieve a lasting peace. To further isolate those voices is to undermine their effectiveness and, in the end, does little to advance the justifiable needs and interests of Palestinians and Israelis alike.

~ Sima Godfrey, Associate Head of French, Hispanic & Italian Studies, the University of British Columbia


I am writing to convey my discomfort with the MLA’s increasing transformation into a political forum. During the year mass emails are mailed to every member of the organization with opinions and prompts that convey political rather than scholarly messages. At the convention, the Delegate Assembly has been dominated, and will be so this year, by a discussion of Israel.

letter2

… I would like to point out that as an Israeli who has been an MLA member for twenty years, I am more than tired of being singled out obsessively …

The saddest thing about all this is that such anti-Israeli activities only strengthen a feeling in Israel that it is ambushed and must do everything to protect itself. This is not even helping Palestinians, and it is doing nothing for the peace process.

~ Yael Halevi-Wise, Associate Professor of Literature, McGill University


letter3MLA is a professional organization for scholars and teachers of modern languages, literatures and cultures. Its annual convention is where one can go hear a talk on “Queer Readings of Shakespeare’s Sonnets,” or “Palestinian Poetry and the Aesthetic of Resistance,” or “Immigrant Voices in the Modern Hebrew Novel.” Or all three. As citizens, as academics, as human beings we each have a right, indeed an obligation to speak out on issues that concern us. But we must do this as individuals or by joining with like-minded colleagues.

… My research and teaching concerns German refugees from Nazism. I attend conferences at Israeli universities and I draw upon libraries and archives there. If MLA becomes “political” and caves in to BDS pressure, it says to me and to my students that we are unwelcome here.

~ Jonathan Skolnik, Associate Professor of German, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

To see these letters in their entirety, please click here.

Petition Against Academic Boycotts

As present and former members of the Modern Language Association, we the undersigned oppose the Resolution to Endorse the Boycott of Israeli Academic Institutions put forward for discussion and vote at the January 2017 meeting of MLA’s Delegate Assembly. We urge members of the DA to vote against this resolution, and we urge other MLA members to contact friends and colleagues on the DA to recommend that the resolution be defeated. The following are among the reasons for doing so that individual MLA members have put forward:

  1. MLA does not need a foreign policy. If adopted, this resolution would alter the organization’s core mission to promote the study of language and literature. It would divide the organization and politicize it, undermining its ability to support the humanities in a politically neutral manner.
  2. Academic boycotts subvert the principled commitment to the free exchange of ideas and professional opportunities that is the bedrock of higher education in democratic countries worldwide.[i]
  3. Since the first academic boycott proposals surfaced in 2002, the purported distinction between boycotting individuals and institutions has proven consistently unsustainable. Institutions offer individual students and faculty members opportunities for collaborative research and international study. People conduct much of their professional lives through their colleges and universities. When a faculty member refuses to evaluate a colleague’s research proposal or promotion case from an Israeli university, or refuses to write a letter of recommendation for a North American student applying to study in Israel, the result is both an institutional and an individual boycott.[ii]
  4. Israeli universities have steadily increased their enrollment of Arab citizens over the last decade. Israeli Arabs teach in and hold administrative positions in Israeli institutions of higher education. Israeli universities are committed to making further progress in these areas and do not deserve to be boycotted for doing so.[iii]
  5. Israeli universities take no formal position on the military occupation of the West Bank, any more than US colleges and universities take stands on US government policy. Academic freedom preserves the right for faculty and students to voice individual and group political opinions without their institutions seeking to speak for them. Although Israeli politicians have sometimes condemned student or faculty political opinion during times of conflict, Israeli universities have a good record of supporting academic freedom and resisting calls to sanction their community members for their political views. Some Israeli institutions conduct military research, while others do not, but universities are not responsible for the occupation. Israeli faculty members are among the most severe critics of government policy.
  6. Daily life at Palestinian universities is far more pervasively influenced by the Palestinian Authority and by Palestinian political and paramilitary groups than by the Israeli government or the Israeli Defense Forces. There are regular violations of academic freedom at Palestinian universities by forces within Palestinian society. It is inaccurate to blame Israel for these problems.[iv]
  7. Many MLA members are strongly supportive of a two-state solution that would provide for the political ambitions of both Israelis and Palestinians. Justice, many of us feel, is best promoted by political action directed toward governments themselves and by practical support for the many area NGOs that promote dialogue and mutual understanding. Those NGOs—from those that bring young Israelis and Palestinians together to share customs, culture, and history to those that teach professionals negotiating skills—depend on foreign donations to support their work. MLA members can offer both time and resources to these efforts.[v] And MLA members can teach courses that give students nuanced and in depth historical and cultural knowledge. The idea that an academic boycott would pressure unspecified changes in government policy is both counterfactual and counterproductive. MLA members instead can participate in groups and organizations with a primary commitment to foreign policy initiatives.

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Petition Against Academic Boycotts

Congressional testimony ties anti-Israel groups in America to Islamist terrorism and racism
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