In mid December, news reached the world that the American
Studies Association, an interdisciplinary organization of over 5,000 university
professors, had endorsed and called for an academic boycott of Israel
Universities and visiting Israeli professors internationally. Smart people can be so stupid sometimes.
To quote the ASA National Council’s announcement:
The resolution is in solidarity with scholars
and students deprived of their academic freedom and it aspires to enlarge that
freedom for all, including Palestinians. The ASA’s endorsement of the academic
boycott emerges from the context of US military and other support for Israel;
Israel’s violation of international law and UN resolutions; the documented
impact of the Israeli occupation on Palestinian scholars and students; the
extent to which Israeli institutions of higher education are a party to state
policies that violate human rights; and finally, the support of such a
resolution by a majority of ASA members.
As with the Durbin conference, and other moments of
Anti-Israel bias, no other country was named or considered: China, North Korea,
Russia, Cuba… no military regime with control of academia was condemned: Iran,
Syria, Egypt, Burma, … No, just Israel.
Israel, where academic freedom combines with freedom of the
press, television and radio… Israel where free expression in society and on the
internet are core values of the very identity of every Israeli… Israel, the
only functioning democracy in its region… Israel. Yes, it is Israel that they choose to
boycott.
And it is not criticism which is so wrong. Everyone has a right to an opinion. It is the
concept of an academic boycott. Why burn
books, when you can silence academic thinkers entirely? Cut out the middle man,
and refuse to let your students be exposed to their ideas or experiences. That
is the way of the ASA.
It is unthinkable that an organization of teachers would
boycott academics of any origin. A university is supposed to be where ideas are
put into play and challenged by peers and history. But it is not about
ideas. It is simple anti-Israel bias. It
is prejudice masquerading as piety.
Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Brown, Cornell, University of Chicago, Northwestern University and
New York University
condemned the boycott in a growing chorus of universities, including 26 schools
have so far rejected the ASA boycott in the days following its passage.
Additionally, two universities–Brandeis and Penn State Harrisburg–have cancelled their
institutional membership in the organization.
The chancellor of Washington St. Louis University,
Dr. Mark S. Wrighton wrote: [We are] deeply troubled and dismayed that the American
Studies Association (ASA) , among others, has engaged in a boycott of Israeli
academic institutions We believe strongly that a boycott of academic
institutions directly violates academic freedom, which is not only one of our
university’s fundamental principles but one of American higher education in
general. This boycott clearly violates the academic freedom not only of Israeli
scholars but also of American scholars who might be pressured to comply with
it.
Forceful comments like these have been made by several
university leaders. Is your university
one of them? I encourage you to write the head of any university that you or
your children attended, and express your view asking for their statement. In
this country, such blind bias against freedom and learning is intolerable.
At the core, this is not about human rights. If it were, they would be boycotting other
countries as well. This is about the
idea that a Jewish and Israeli connection to the land of Israel is not
legitimate. It is an assumption that the
State of Israel itself is intolerable and must be erased from social
discourse. The idea that Israel is not
only “not wrong,” but “good” would never occur to them.
This is why we
must learn our history, stay active on the political stage, and form our own
relationship with Israel and all that it is facing. I will be teaching 3 classes this
Winter/Spring about our eternal relationship with the land. I hope that you will come to all of them, and
join me as we see these historical sites in July on our congregational journey.
Monday, January 13th 7 PM: Our Eternal Connection to Jerusalem
Tuesday, February 4, 7 PM: Our
Ancestors in the Negev
Tuesday, May 6, 7 PM: Great
Moments in Zionism – Multimedia
Am Yisrael Chai,
Rabbi Robert L. Tobin
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