The piece below dates from just before Xmas though I think it is still totally pertinent \u2014 especially as next week the annual MLA Convention in Chicago will happen where these matters will no doubt come up, & may, hopefully, loom large in various discussions.<\/p>\n
via The Electronic Intifada<\/strong><\/em><\/a>: Israel lobby groups are marshaling their formidable forces for a fierce counterattack against the\u00a0American Studies Association<\/a> (ASA), including calls for repressive legislation, boycotts and other measures to punish and silence solidarity with Palestinians.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, members of the ASA\u00a0voted overwhelmingly in a referendum<\/a>\u00a0to endorse the\u00a0Palestinian call for the boycott<\/a>\u00a0of Israeli academic institutions which are\u00a0complicit in Israel\u2019s occupation and other violations of Palestinian rights<\/a>.<\/p>\n Individuals supporting the boycott have also been targets of intense vilification and hate campaigns.<\/p>\n Last week anti-Palestinian group\u00a0StandWithUs<\/a>, which works closely with the Israeli government, sent out an\u00a0email blast<\/a>\u00a0calling on its followers to \u201cUrge university presidents, donors and government to denounce the ASA and sever ties with the organization.\u201d<\/p>\n The ASA has\u00a0five thousand individual members along with 2,200 library and other institutional subscribers<\/a>.<\/p>\n Under such pressure two universities, Brandeis University and Penn State Harrisburg,have canceled their institutional memberships<\/a>\u00a0of the ASA.<\/p>\n Now, New York University (NYU) is under intense pressure to follow in their footsteps. A 21 December\u00a0New York Post<\/em>\u00a0editorial<\/a>\u00a0called on NYU\u2019s American studies program to \u201csever its ties\u201d with the ASA, pointing out that \u201calmost a quarter of the American Studies Association\u2019s 17 non-student councilors are from NYU, including the group\u2019s president-elect, Lisa Duggan.\u201d<\/p>\n It was the ASA\u2019s governing body, its National Council, that first endorsed the boycott and called for a full membership referendum to back its decision.<\/p>\n In a bizarre anti-Semitic twist, the\u00a0Post<\/em>\u00a0editorial emphasizes that NYU \u201cis supported by many Jewish donors and attended by many Jewish students. It features buildings and programs with names like Steinhardt and Tisch. It makes its home in the US city that has the highest number of Jews.\u201d<\/p>\n It is unclear why any of that should be relevant unless one takes the bigoted position \u2013 as the\u00a0Post<\/em>\u00a0appears to do \u2013 that all Jews are either implicated in or supportive of Israel\u2019s occupation and other human rights abuses that motivated the ASA boycott.<\/p>\n Northwestern University president Morton Schapiro was among a dozen or so leaders of academic institutions who\u00a0pro-Israel activists say<\/a>\u00a0have issued denunciations of the ASA\u2019s boycott call.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile we support the right of academicians to voice their viewpoints, Northwestern University disagrees strongly with the boycott vote of the ASA. Northwestern also rejects the actions suggested in the resolution,\u201d Schapiro wrote in a 20 December email sent to the university community.<\/p>\n A copy of Schapiro\u2019s email, co-signed by provost Dan Linzer, was sent to The Electronic Intifada by\u00a0Uri Horesh<\/a>\u00a0a lecturer in Arabic at Northwestern.<\/p>\n \u201cI myself happen to be a citizen of Israel, yet I fully support the call emanating from Palestinian civil society to boycott Israeli institutions until Israel ends its apartheid rule and recognizes the Palestinian people\u2019s right to self determination\u201d by meeting all the demands in the\u00a0BDS call<\/a>\u00a0including the right of return, Horesh wrote back to Schapiro.<\/p>\n Horesh added that Schapiro\u2019s statement is \u201codd\u201d given that \u201cthere has not been a public debate or discussion of these matters in any University forum.\u201d<\/p>\n Princeton University president Christopher L. Eisgruber expressed his \u201cdismay\u201d at the ASA\u2019s boycott decision and affirmed that \u201cMy personal support for scholarly engagement with Israel is enthusiastic and unequivocal,\u201d in a\u00a0statement sent to William Jacobson<\/a>, a Cornell University law professor and pro-Israel blogger at the publicationLegal Insurrection<\/em>.<\/p>\n But, Eisgruber adds, \u201cI do not intend to denounce the ASA, make it unwelcome on campus, or inhibit the ability of faculty members to affiliate with it. \u2026 engagement may be better than a boycott.\u201d<\/p>\n In a 20 December press release emailed to The Electronic Intifada, the ASA\u00a0Caucus on Academic and Community Activism<\/a>\u00a0states that \u201cmembers of the American Studies Association are getting hate mail or threatening mail following the ASA membership vote in favor of a resolution calling for boycott of Israeli universities.\u201d<\/p>\n The ASA Facebook page has been \u201csubject to an avalanche of abusive postings\u201d and \u201csenior faculty have explicitly and implicitly intimidated junior faculty who support the boycott,\u201d the release states.<\/p>\n \u201cMore generally within the academy, some are threatening to cut funds for faculty who want to attend the ASA in the future. We are also learning that individuals and groups outside the academy are threatening legal action against the ASA,\u201d the press released adds.<\/p>\n Former Harvard University president Larry Summers has, for instance, called the ASA boycott \u201canti-Semitic in effect\u201d and\u00a0urged universities to deprive faculty of funds<\/a>\u00a0to participate in ASA meetings and activities.<\/p>\n Claire Potter, a professor at the New School University and long-time prominent critic of the ASA boycott, decided to vote for the boycott resolution in the end\u00a0after careful deliberation<\/a>.<\/p>\n Since then, \u201cI have been receiving nasty and threatening electronic messages from those supposedly defending Israel: swastikas and pictures of concentration camps arrive daily, as well as accusations that I am promoting another Holocaust,\u201d\u00a0Potter writes<\/a>\u00a0at her widely read\u00a0Tenured Radical<\/em>\u00a0blog.<\/p>\n \u201cExpressions of hate and intimidation, even if they come from isolated individuals, constitute part of a larger pattern of attack on anyone who criticizes Israel or Zionism. These disturbing messages can take the form of threats. As such, they should not be dismissed or discarded,\u201d the Caucus on Academic and Community Activism says in its press release.<\/p>\n It urges ASA members to report threats and intimidation both to the caucus and to the appropriate officials at their institutions.<\/p>\n Unsatisfied by the campaigns already underway,\u00a0Michael Oren<\/a>, former Israeli ambassador in Washington, called for more than mere denunciations of the ASA\u2019s action.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s needed is a way to fight back, and Congress can do it,\u201d the American-born Oren, who\u00a0renounced his US citizenship<\/a>\u00a0in 2009,\u00a0writes<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0Politico.<\/em><\/p>\n Oren cited as a desirable precedent a 1977 US law \u201cmaking it illegal for US companies to cooperate with any boycott of Israel and imposing stiff penalties on those that did.\u201d<\/p>\n It is unclear whether Oren is unaware that such laws, in an academic context, would grossly violate First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and association \u2013 the very values that opponents of the boycott claim they want to protect.<\/p>\n Still, Oren may find a receptive audience in Congress where the leaders of the bipartisan Israel Allies Caucus have\u00a0strongly denounced the ASA<\/a>.<\/p>\n Anti-Palestinian groups likely believe that with a strong counterattack they can raise the price to any other group that might want to follow in the ASA\u2019s footsteps and thus deter anyone else from taking action in solidarity with Palestinians.<\/p>\n Israel lobbying groups\u2019 outrage and bullying tactics may claim a few more victories, just as Brandeis and Penn State Harrisburg moved to boycott the ASA.<\/p>\n Yet the repressive backlash also exposes the lie that many boycott opponents are concerned about \u201cacademic freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n In the long run, the only thing such tactics are likely to achieve is to spread the debate about Israel\u2019s abuses and the merits of boycott as an ethical solidarity strategy to campuses across the United States.<\/p>\n
\nby\u00a0\u00a0Ali Abunimah<\/p>\nPressure on universities<\/h3>\n
Targeting NYU<\/h3>\n
Northwestern president\u2019s preemptive strike<\/h3>\n
Princeton resists<\/h3>\n
Bullying and intimidation<\/h3>\n
Call for government repression<\/h3>\n
Backlash likely to backfire<\/h3>\n