The series of votes at the Delegate Assembly at the MLA convention in Vancouver showed some significant weaknesses to BDS and limits to its support. It’s important to look at the results closely and draw some conclusions.

Five votes deserve scrutiny: the initial vote to adopt the Delegate Assembly Organizing Committee (DAOC) two-year moratorium…[Read more]

The recent Delegate Assembly meeting in Vancouver included a robust discussion on a set of issues, prompted by the clash of two different proposed resolutions–one supporting academic boycotts, one opposing them. The Delegate Assembly Organizing Committee has wisely created space for discussion of these matters (an agreement that included a w…[Read more]

The recent Delegate Assembly meeting in Vancouver included a robust discussion on a set of issues, prompted by the clash of two different proposed resolutions–one supporting academic boycotts, one opposing them. The Delegate Assembly Organizing  Committee has wisely created space for discussion of these matters (an agreement that included a…[Read more]

The DAOC program involves an extended, two-year  discussion of topics relevant to the boycott–in order to explore their complexity and in order to inform the membership. These would seem to be desirable goals.

A disheartening outcome of the DA was that, in the initial vote as to whether to accept the DAOC proposal, about one third of the DA…[Read more]

The Delegate Assembly Organizing Committee has initiated a series of venues (including this commons group) to discuss issues around BDS. In particular, it dedicated much of the open discussion section of the DA meeting to this: these are opportunities to get insight into the various opinions at stake.

One key take-away for me from the DA…[Read more]

“[…] the ethical responsibility of every free person and every association of free persons, academic institutions included, to resist injust supersedes other considerations about whether such acts of resistance may directly or indirectly injure academic freedom.”

–Omar Barghouti, “Boycott, Academic Freedom, and the Moral Responsibility to U…[Read more]

A revealing feature of BDS discourse is an intentional ambiguity about its target.  Claims for respect for individual freedom go hand in hand with a threat that–nonetheless!– anyone can be  subjected to a “common sense boycott.” Consider the passage from the definitive PACBI guidelines (emphasis added):

“While an individual’s freedom of exp…[Read more]

BDS proponents uses a maximalist rhetoric–boycott Israel in order to end the regime and terminate the State of Israel–but when a law suit looms, their timidity quickly shows. That’s what happened with ASA, and now there’s an interesting parallel with British architects, which you can read about here.  Is this the face of BDS radicalism:…[Read more]

At its recent convention, AHA-the professional organization of historians, just as the MLA is the association of scholars of language and literature–turned back a BDS-inspired initiative.  In a procedural vote, the historians rejected an anti-Israel statement put forward by a radical group. The failed proposal itself fell far short of a boycott…[Read more]

BDS proponents claim that the boycott will not impinge on anyone’s academic freedom. (In fact, as posted already, Omar Barghouti well understands the threat to academic freedom–he just thinks it’s worthwhile.)

Previous MLA resolutions on foreign policy issues have been statements of sentiment, condemning this or that political situation. In…[Read more]

BDS proponents claim a boycott will not harm individuals and safeguards academic freedom. However the history of boycott practice proves the contrary, as for example in the so-called Mona Baker Affair:  two Israeli scholars were purged from the board of translation studies journals in the UK solely on the basis of their connection to Israeli u…[Read more]

Explanation of Vote at the Security Council Session on the Situation in the Middle East, Including the Palestinian Question, by Ambassador Samantha Power, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, December 30, 2014

Thank you Mr. President,
In recent years, no government has invested more in the effort to achieve Israeli-Palestinian…[Read more]

Check out this Review of the Case Against the Academic Boycott in which Mark Wagner discusses the volume edited by Brahm and Nelson, and on the way explores the way the dogmatic politicization of scholarship through the BDS movement is undermining practices of scholarship. The important issue behind this whole debate is whether the professional a…[Read more]