On my campus, UCLA, anti-Israel sentiment is fairly mild, especially compared to other UC campuses such as Irvine, Santa Cruz and Berkeley. The reasons for this aren’t entirely clear to me.
My discipline, Anthropology, is quite another story. The two most recent issues of the in-house publication of the American Anthropological Association (Anthropology News) have featured anti-Israel propaganda pieces. The January 2007 issue had two such articles. Needless to say, no
pro-Israel articles have appeared in the AN recently. I am frankly surprised that there’s been no serious attempt to pass an anti-Israel resolution at the AAA’s annual meeting, given the organization’s fondness for resolutions dealing with political controversies. I expect that this will happen within the next 1-3 years.
The reasons for this aren’t difficult to fathom. Anthropology is dominated by postmodernism, extreme cultural relativism, “postcolonialist” perspectives, and an infatuation with any and every “non-Western” ideology. From this starting point, it’s a very short step to favoring the elimination of the State of Israel. Of course, many anthropologists don’t subscribe to these views, but very few actively oppose them.
Joseph H. Manson
Associate Professor
Department of Anthropology, UCLA
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1553
(310) 267-4337
jmanson@anthro.ucla.edu
