Save for some college students refusing to buy Israeli hummus, the “boycott, divestment and sanctions” movement against the Jewish state has had very few successes over the past decade. That changed last month when the American Studies Association voted to…
read moreAn American academic organization is poised to begin sweeping a respected segment of academia into the dustbin of intellectual and moral irrelevancy. At its annual meeting this week, the 30,000-member Modern Language Association will hold a session aimed at strategizing…
read moreI want to begin with a quotation from Tzvetan Todorov’s Facing the Extreme Moral Life in the Concentration Camps, because, of all the many things that might be said in opposition to the American Studies Association boycott of Israeli institutions of higher education, the…
read moreSupporters of the American Studies Association’s call for a boycott of Israel universities are distorting what the boycott is – and how it will affect academe. The “institutional boycott” is likely to function as a political test in a hidden…
read moreDear Fellow Members of the American Studies Association (ASA), We are pleased to report our progress toward our next boycott resolution. As you know, our president, Professor Curtis Marez, gained some notoriety from a quote given by him to the New York…
read moreCharacterized by the same paroxysms of self-righteousness as were evident in the much-maligned and tendentious academic boycott by the American Studies Association (ASA) last month, members of the Modern Language Association (MLA) head to Chicago during the first week of…
read moreAs I have reported here, the upcoming annual meeting of the Modern Language Association, a 30,000 member association of language and literature scholars, will include a panel entitled “Academic Boycotts: A Conversation about Israel and Palestine.” The panel is scheduled for…
read moreEXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The BDS movement is driven by anti-Zionism, but its ability to generate support depends on casting Israel as undemocratic and solely responsible for the lack of peace. Consequently, the proposed law targeting pro-BDS NGOs does more harm than good…
read moreTwo weeks ago, the American Studies Association (ASA) voted to boycott Israeli universities and asked American scholars to sever ties with Israeli academic institutions. Jewish mainstream organizations have responded with shock and anger, both on at the national level and…
read moreThere are many good reasons to oppose the American Studies Association (ASA) decision to boycott Israeli universities. But there are some bad reasons as well. Many arguments against the boycott play exactly into the hands of the pro-boycott propagandists and…
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