The Movement to Boycott
Israeli Universities
What It’s About and
Why It’s Wrong
The Movement to Boycott
Israeli Universities
BACKGROUND
While the word “university” tends to evoke thoughts of ivy-covered
walls, dormitory bull sessions and droning lecturers, something
more insidious has gradually entered American academia. Anti-Israel
bias—increasingly vocal on some campuses—is also finding its way
into the deliberations of certain academic professional associations
and making headlines. These associations have considered, and in
some cases approved, boycotts of Israeli universities. If put into
effect, such resolutions could well end collaborative partnerships
between Israeli and American educational institutions and severely
restrict Israeli involvement in international scholarly conferences.
This phenomenon comes as something of a surprise to many Americans. Education has always been a central pillar of American life,
a key agent of social mobility and a necessary basis for a healthy
democracy. And since the end of World War II, when college attendance became accessible and affordable to the great majority of
Americans, the four-year higher-education experience has broadened
minds and reduced group prejudices, making the promise of America
more real for many more people. Those who recall their college years
in such positive terms find it hard to fathom why professors—who
by definition are supposed to be dedicated to the unbiased search for
truth—are, in their professional roles, engaging politically to hurt
the State of Israel. To be sure, this is not the first attempt to politicize
universities, as anyone old enough to remember the anti-Vietnam
War campus protests of the 1960s can attest. That, however, came
January 2014
1
2 The Movement to Boycott Israeli Universities
at a time of deep division in the country over a long and bloody war
that showed no sign of ending. Nothing approaching such a national
trauma is in evidence today, and so the virulence with which some
in the academic community attack Israel, a democracy closely allied
with our own, requires explanation.
WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING?
For those who have not been following these matters carefully, here
is a brief summary of recent events:
In April 2013, the small, 800-member Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS) became the first American academic organization to approve a resolution calling for an academic boycott of Israeli
universities, in protest of the country’s treatment of Palestinians. The
vote was unanimous, although fewer than 100 members were present
on the final day of the group’s annual conference when it was taken.
That December, a larger organization known to be leftist in its orientation, the 5,000-member American Studies Association (ASA),
approved a similar resolution by roughly two-to-one in an online
vote, with about a quarter of the membership participating. Its language, previously approved unanimously by the group’s national
council, called for a boycott on the grounds that there was “no effective or substantive academic freedom for Palestinian students and
scholars under condition of Israeli occupation.” For good measure, it
blamed the United States for “enabling” this situation. This was the
first time the ASA had ever urged an academic boycott of any country. Asked why Israel was being singled out when there were many
nations with far worse academic-freedom records, the ASA president
said, “one has to start somewhere.”
That same week, the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA), reported to have no more than a few hundred members, approved by consensus a member-generated petition calling for
Background 3
a boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions to protest “the
illegal occupation of Palestinian lands and the legal structures of the
Israeli state that systematically discriminate against Palestinians and
other indigenous peoples.”
Next up was a much larger and more mainstream academic body,
the 28,000-member Modern Language Association (MLA), which
represents professors who teach languages and literature. Its annual
meeting, held in Chicago in January 2014, featured a panel on Israel’s
treatment of the Palestinians and a proposed resolution that, while
critical of Israel, stopped short of a boycott call. The panel, “Academic Boycotts: A Conversation about Israel and Palestine,” consisted
of five academicians already on record accusing Israel of practicing
apartheid against the Palestinians. Ironically, one of them is a graduate student at an Israeli university, and thus a living example of the
educational opportunities Israel affords Palestinians. When the professor who convened the panel was asked why not one pro-Israel
voice was included, he responded that Israel’s guilt was already clear
and not open for discussion; the only subject for debate was how the
boycott weapon could best be used against Israel.
The resolution brought before the MLA urged the U.S. State Department to challenge travel restrictions that Israel allegedly placed on
American academics, especially those with Arabic names or backgrounds, who sought to teach or do research at Palestinian educational institutions. It passed by 60 to 53, but will not become official
organizational policy until it passes legal review and the full membership approves. Another resolution, proposed from the floor,
condemned the attacks that had been made on the ASA’s boycott initiative and declared support for the right of academics and their organizations to act in “solidarity with the Palestinian struggle against
racism.” This proposal did not attract enough backing to come to a
vote.
4 The Movement to Boycott Israeli Universities
WHERE DID ALL THIS COME FROM?
With the collapse of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations in 2000-01
and the outbreak of the second intifada, opponents of Israel devised
a strategy to delegitimize the state by convincing the world that it
was irredeemably racist. Their model was the successful effort to
delegitimize apartheid-era South Africa, a campaign that had managed to bring down that regime through crippling international boycotts. The anti-Israel initiative’s slogan was “Boycott, Sanctions and
Divestment,” or BDS for short. It made greater headway in the academic world than in any other sector of society, although more so
in Europe than the U.S. In 2004, a new international organization,
the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of
Israel (PACBI), was formed to press specifically for boycotts of Israeli
universities. An American group allied with it, the U.S. Campaign
for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, with close to 1,000
members, is largely responsible for raising the recent anti-Israel initiatives in American academia.
THE ACADEMIC BOYCOTT MOVEMENT
IN CONTEXT
Although concern is surely warranted, there is no reason for Israel’s
friends to panic. Bear in mind that despite years of intense pressure
on university boards to divest from Israel, not a single institution has
done so.
The recent anti-Israel actions of four academic professional organizations hardly reflect rejection of Israel by the professoriate as a
whole. For one thing, all four represent fields in the humanities and
the social sciences, and as we recall from the experience of the 1960s,
these are particularly prone to capture by “progressive” elements
that identify with causes and groups perceived as non-Western and
“downtrodden,” in this case the Palestinians. No attempts have come
to light of professors in the hard sciences or those on the faculties
of professional schools organizing anti-Israel panels at their conferences.
Putting It in Context 5
Furthermore, it is striking that Israel’s opponents in the MLA, the
only one of the groups that can justly claim to be mainstream, did not
propose a boycott resolution. Unlike their counterparts at the three
smaller organizations, they knew it would lose badly. The panel they
convened and the limited resolution they passed regarding alleged
Israeli denial of entry suggest they realized the most they could hope
for was to begin molding organizational opinion in an anti-Israel
direction so as to lay the groundwork for pushing a boycott in the
future.
The strongest reason for skepticism about the boycott’s potential
clout in academia is the extraordinary degree of denunciation the
movement has drawn from professors, university presidents and
organizations that represent academia in its various forms. These
critics point out that boycotting Israeli universities contradicts the
academic freedom that lies at the heart of the entire academic enterprise. Denied participation in the farcical MLA panel on boycotts and
refused space at the meeting to conduct a session presenting Israel’s
viewpoint, dissident MLA members convened at a nearby hotel and
held their anti-boycott counter-panel there. Rutgers Professor David
Greenberg provided, in The New Republic, the names of the leading scholars in the field of American studies, all of whom publicly
opposed the ASA boycott but could not vote on it because “they had
quit the organization or let their membership lapse, often because of
its ridiculous politics.” A number of universities responded to the
boycott resolution by severing their institutional memberships in
the ASA in protest. The American Association of University Professors (AAUP), the American Association of Universities (AAU) and
the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) forthrightly denounced the call for a boycott, and a growing list of university presidents now numbering in the hundreds—their institutions
ranging from the Ivy League to local community colleges—have done
the same (see the list at the end of this publication).
6 The Movement to Boycott Israeli Universities
QUESTIONS AND CONCERNS
While a decidedly minority view in academia, the pro-boycott thrust
creates challenges for the pro-Israel community in a number of ways.
Here are some common questions that may confront us, and suggested approaches to handling them.
1. Why should we care what a bunch of American professors think?
Israeli universities rank with the best in the world, and will survive
just fine.
True enough, but for the boycotters this is just one phase in a longterm campaign to delegitimize the State of Israel by defining it as
uniquely racist in its policies toward the Palestinians. As noted
above, the term apartheid is used again and again, equating Israel
with the old white-ruled South Africa, in the hope that large-scale
boycotts might bring down the former just as it did the latter. Combating the academic boycott movement, then, means far more than
just defending Israeli academia. This is a fight to maintain Israel’s
equal place in the family of nations.
2. But if the proponents of the academic boycott are bringing attention to Israel’s mistreatment of the Palestinians, aren’t they performing a service?
Israelis are well aware that the Palestinian issue must be resolved.
Recall that in 1967 Israel did not invade the Jordanian-controlled
West Bank—it took control of the territory in the course of defending itself from attack by Jordanian troops stationed there, and after
the war assumed that the Arab world would finally recognize Israel
and reach a territorial compromise. The Arabs were not interested.
Nevertheless, for more than two decades Israeli governments have
sought to achieve a two-state solution—the Jewish state of Israel
side-by-side with a Palestinian state—and such negotiations are still
going on today, under U.S. sponsorship. Public-opinion polls consistently show a solid majority of Israelis in favor of the creation
of a Palestinian state. However that majority does not believe that
the Palestinian leadership has shown itself willing to live in peace
Questions and Concerns 7
with Israel. Those who seek to promote the welfare of the Palestinian
people should be working to further the peace process, not threatening boycotts. And it is particularly ill-advised to target Israel’s universities, since they constitute the most pro-Palestinian element in
Israeli society. Punishing the universities, ironically, would limit the
expression of the very voices in Israel that are most sympathetic to
the vision of a Palestinian state.
3. What are people who object to Israeli policies in the territories to
do to express their views? The pro-Israel side decried the first and
second intifadas for using violent means to protest the situation, and
now you say that a nonviolent boycott is also out of bounds!
Certainly, nonviolent means are preferable to bloodshed. However
to be effective in achieving peace, those who espouse nonviolence
must assert the legitimacy of the two national movements, Israeli
and Palestinian, both of which merit national sovereignty. In striking contrast, the boycott movement aims at the end of the State of
Israel, alleging that it is racist by its very nature. That kind of boycott
rhetoric only emboldens extremists on both sides who want to scuttle
peace talks.
4. We sometimes hear Israel’s defenders describe the efforts of the
boycott proponents as anti-Semitic. Isn’t that just a tactic to avoid
confronting the real issues and shut down debate over Israel’s actions?
As we have seen, there are cogent reasons to oppose the academic boycott—the need to protect academic freedom, the importance
of preventing the delegitimization of Israel, and the boycott’s utter
lack of relevance to the search for peace—without invoking antiSemitism. Nevertheless, there is good reason to suspect that, in some
sectors of the pro-boycott movement, anti-Semitism forms one component. As Lawrence Summers, the former president of Harvard, put
it, the boycotts are “anti-Semitic in their effect if not necessarily in
their intent.” Classical anti-Semitism uses a double standard whereby
the supposed misdeeds of Jews are subjected to microscopic scrutiny
while actual crimes committed by others are ignored. That is the case
8 The Movement to Boycott Israeli Universities
in this instance as well. Israel is the only democracy in the Middle
East and its academicians engage in freewheeling debate on every
issue under the sun, including their country’s policies. Yet their universities are the object of boycott threats while major powers such
as China and Russia, and Israel’s Middle Eastern neighbors such as
Iran, Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia restrict individual rights, including free expression, and maintain such tight control over what goes
on in their universities that academic freedom simply does not exist.
The fact that academic bodies call for boycotting Israeli educational
institutions, but never those of truly repressive systems, suggests the
old anti-Semitic double standard at work.
WHERE DOES YOUR UNIVERSITY STAND?
More than 200 universities have laudably denounced the academic
boycott of Israel.
A list of those universities and presidents or chancellors who have
issued public statements can be found below.
Fortunately, this list is growing daily.Visit ajc.org for the latest
information.
American University
President Cornelius M. Kerwin
Boston University
President Robert A. Brown
Amherst College
President Carolyn A. Martin
Bowdoin College
President Barry Mills
Arizona State University
President Michael Crow
Brandeis University
President Frederick M. Lawrence
Auburn University
President Jay Gogue
Brooklyn College, CUNY
President Karen Gould
Bard College
President Leon Botstein
Brown University
President Christina Hull Paxton
Barnard College
President Debora Spar
Bryn Mawr College
Interim President Kim Cassidy
Bates College
President Clayton Spencer
California State University
Chancellor Timothy P. White
Birmingham Southern College
President Charles C. Krulak
California State University, Northridge
President Dianne F. Harrison
Where Does Your University Stand? 9
Carnegie Mellon University
President Subra Suresh
Drake University
President David Maxwell
Case Western Reserve University
President Barbara R. Snyder
Drexel University
President John A. Fry
Catholic University of America
President John H. Garvey
Duke University
President Richard H. Brodhead
City University of New York
Interim Chancellor William P. Kelly
Eckerd College
President Donald R. Eastman III
Clark University
President David P. Angel
Elon University
President Leo M. Lambert
Clemson University
President Jim Clements
Emory University
President James Wagner
Cleveland State University
President Ronald M. Berkman
Fairfield University
President Rev. Jeffrey P. von Arx, S.J.
Colby College
President William D. Adams
Fairleigh Dickinson University
President Sheldon Drucker
Colgate University
President Jeffrey Herbst
Florida Atlantic University
Interim President Dennis J. Crudele
College of Charleston
President P. George Benson
Florida International University
President Mark B. Rosenberg
College of the Holy Cross
President Philip L. Boroughs, S.J.
Fordham University
President Joseph M. McShane, S.J.
College of Mount St. Joseph
President Tony Aretz
Franklin & Marshall College
President Daniel R. Porterfield
College of New Jersey
President R. Barbara Gitenstein
George Mason University
President Angel Cabrera
College of Staten Island
President William J. Fritz
George Washington University
President Steven Knapp
College of William & Mary
President W. Taylor Reveley III
Georgia Institute of Technology Georgia Tech
President George P. “Bud” Peterson
Colorado State University
President Anthony A. Frank
Columbia University
President Lee C. Bollinger
Connecticut College
President Katherine Bergeron
Cornell University
President David Skorton
Dartmouth College
President Philip J. Hanlon
Dickinson College
President Nancy Roseman
Georgetown University
President John J. DeGioia
Gettysburg College
President Janet Morgan Riggs
Goucher College
President Sanford J. Ungar
Gratz College
President Joy W. Goldstein
Hamilton College
President Joan Hinde Stewart
10 The Movement to Boycott Israeli Universities
Where Does Your University Stand? 11
Harvard University
President Drew Gilpin Faust
Middlebury College
President Ron Liebowitz
Purdue University
President Mitch Daniels
Syracuse University
Interim Chancellor Eric F. Spina
Haverford College
President Daniel Weiss
Mississippi State University
President Mark E. Keenum
Ramapo College
President Peter Philip Mercer
Temple University
President Neil D. Theobald
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
President Mark Gearan
Missouri University of Science
and Technology
Chancellor Cheryl B. Schrader
Rhode Island College
President Nancy Carriuolo
Thomas Edison State College
President George A. Pruitt
Rice University
President David W. Leebron
Touro College and University
System
President Alan Kadish
Hofstra University
President Stuart Rabinowitz
Hunter College
President Jennifer J. Raab
Indiana University
President Michael McRobbie
Iowa State University
President Steven Leath
Ithaca College
President Thomas Rochon
Johns Hopkins University
President Ronald Joel Daniels
Kansas State University
President Kirk Schultz
Kean University of New Jersey
President Dawood Farahi
Kenyon College
President Sean M. Decatur
Lafayette College
President Alison Byerly
Lawrence University
President Mark Burstein
Lehigh University
President Alice P. Gast
Louisiana State University System
President and Chancellor F. King
Alexander
Loyola University Maryland
President Rev. Brian F. Linnane, S.J.
Massachusetts Institute
of Technology
President L. Rafael Reif
Miami University
President David C. Hodge
Michigan State University
President Lou Anna K. Simon
Montclair State University
President Susan A. Cole
New Jersey City University
President Susan Henderson
New Jersey Institute of Technology
President Joel Bloom
New York Medical College
Chancellor Edward C. Halperin
New York University
President John Sexton
North Carolina State University
Chancellor Randy Woodson
Northeastern University
President Joseph E. Aoun
Northeastern Illinois University
President Sharon Hahs
Northwestern University
President Morton O. Schapiro
Nova Southeastern University
President George Hanbury
Oberlin College
President Marvin Krislov
Occidental College
President Jonathan Veitch
Ohio State University
President Joseph A. Alutto
Pennsylvania State University
President Rodney Erickson
Rider University
President Mordechai Rozanski
Rockefeller University
President Marc Tessier-Lavigne
Roger Williams College
President Donald J. Farish
Rowan University of New Jersey
Ali Houshmand
Rutgers University
President Robert Barchi
San Francisco State University
President Leslie E. Wong
Sarah Lawrence College
President Karen Lawrence
Sewanee: The University of the South
President John M. McCardell, Jr.
Skidmore College
President Philip Glotzbach
Smith College
President Kathleen McCartney
St. Lawrence University
President William Fox
Stanford University
President John L. Hennessy
State University of New York
Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher
Pomona College
President David Oxtoby
State University of New York
at Buffalo
President Satish K. Tripathi
Portland State University
President Wim Wiewel
Stockton College
President Herman Saatkamp
Princeton University
President Christopher L. Eisgruber
Swarthmore College
President Rebecca Chopp
Towson University
President Maravene Loeschke
Trinity College
President James F. Jones, Jr.
Tufts University
President Anthony P. Monaco
Tulane University
President Scott S. Cowen
Union College
President Stephen Ainlay
University of Alabama
Chancellor Robert E. Witt
University of Arizona
President Ann Weaver Hart
University of California System
President Janet Napolitano
University of California, Berkeley
Chancellor Nicholas Dirks
University of California, Davis
Chancellor Linda P. B. Katehi
University of California, Irvine
Chancellor Michael V. Drake
University of California,
Los Angeles
Chancellor Gene Block
University of California, Riverside
Chancellor Kim A. Wilcox
University of California, San Diego
Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla
University of California,
San Francisco
Chancellor Sue Desmond-Hellmann
12 The Movement to Boycott Israeli Universities
University of California,
Santa Barbara
Chancellor Henry Yang
Where Does Your University Stand? 13
University of Louisville
President Jim Ramsey
University of Oregon
President Michael Gottfredson
University of California, Santa Cruz
Chancellor George Blumenthal
University of Maryland,
Baltimore County
President Freeman Hrabowski
University of Pennsylvania
President Amy Gutmann
University of Chicago
President Robert J. Zimmer
University of Maryland, College Park
President Wallace D. Loh
University of Cincinnati
President Santa J. Ono
University of Massachusetts
Amherst
Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy
University of Colorado
President Bruce Benson
University of Colorado Boulder
Chancellor Philip P. DiStefano
University of Massachusetts,
Dartmouth
Chancellor Divina Grossman
University of Connecticut
President Susan Herbst
University of Miami
President Donna E. Shalala
University of Delaware
President Patrick T. Harker
University of Michigan
President Mary Sue Coleman
University of Denver
Chancellor Robert D. Coombe
University of Minnesota
President Eric Kaler
University of Florida
President J. Bernard Machen
University of Mississippi
Chancellor Dan Jones
University of Hartford
President Walter Harrison
University of Missouri
President Timothy M. Wolfe
University of Illinois System
President Robert A. Easter
University of Missouri - Columbia
Interim Chancellor Steve Owens
University of Illinois at Chicago
Chancellor Paula Allen-Meares
University of Missouri - Kansas City
Chancellor Leo E. Morton
University of Illinois at Springfield
Chancellor Susan J. Koch
University of Missouri - St. Louis
Chancellor Thomas F. George
University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign
Chancellor Phyllis Wise
University of Nebraska
President James B. Milliken
University of the Incarnate Word
President Louis J. Agnese, Jr.
University of Iowa
President Sally Mason
University of Kansas
Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
President Neal Smatresk
University of New Hampshire
President Mark W. Huddleston
University of New Mexico
President Robert G. Frank
University of Kentucky
President Eli Capilouto
University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill
Chancellor Carol L. Folt
University of La Verne
President Devorah Lieberman
University of Notre Dame
President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C.
University of Pittsburgh
Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg
University of Rhode Island
President David M. Dooley
University of Rochester
President Joel Seligman
University of South Carolina
President Harris Pastides
University of South Florida
President Judy Genshaft
University of Southern California
President C. L. Max Nikias
University of Texas, Austin
President William C. Powers
University of Texas at Dallas
President David E. Daniel
University of Tulsa
President Steadman Upham
University of Vermont
President Tom Sullivan
University of Virginia
President Teresa Sullivan
University of Washington
President Michael K. Young
University of Western Ontario
President Amit Chakma
University of Wisconsin - Madison
Chancellor Rebecca M. Blank
University System of Georgia
Chancellor Hank M. Huckaby
Vanderbilt University
Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos
Vassar College
President Catharine Hill
Virginia Commonwealth University
President Michael Rao
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and
State University - Virginia Tech
President Charles W. Steger
Wake Forest University
President Nathan O. Hatch
Wayne State University
President M. Roy Wilson
Washington University in St. Louis
Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton
Wellesley College
President H. Kim Bottomly
Wesleyan University
President Michael S. Roth
Willamette University
President Stephen Thorsett
William Paterson University
President Kathleen Waldron
Williams College
President Adam Falk
Wright State University
President David R. Hopkins
Xavier University
President Father Michael Graham
Yale University
President Peter Salovey
Yeshiva University
President Richard M. Joel
*As of January 17, 2014
AJC would like to thank Avi Mayer
(avimayer.tumblr.com) and William
A. Jacobson at Legal Insurrection
(legalinsurrection.com) for compiling
this authoritative list.
www.ajc.org
AJC Mission:
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and Israel;
To advance human rights and democratic values
around the world.