The American Studies Association (ASA) began an ongoing boycott of Israeli educational institutions in December 2013. The ASA's decision to boycott was controversial because it was the first major American scholarly organization to do so. In April 2016, four ASA members aided by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law sued the ASA, but the lawsuit was dismissed in 2019 when the judge ruled that plaintiffs lacked standing.
Decision to boycott Israel In December 2013, members of the ASA voted to join the boycott of all Israeli educational institutions. The boycott was in response to the Palestinian-led BDS movement which since 2005 has called for comprehensive boycotts against Israel for alleged human rights violations against the Palestinians. The vote followed a similar one taken in April 2013 by the Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS) to boycott Israeli educational institutions.
In a statement on the boycott, ASA's National Council encouraged members to vote in support of the boycott because of "Israel's violation of international law and UN resolutions; the documented impact of the Israeli occupation on Palestinian scholars and students; [and] the extent to which Israeli institutions of higher education are a party to state policies that violate human rights." Some faculty, however, have objected that it is inappropriate for senior administrators to publicly position their college or university on an issue that faculty believe is one of academic freedom.
After a ten-day online voting period, the resolution passed with 66.05 percent of voting members endorsing the boycott, 30.5 percent voting against it, and 3.43 percent abstaining.
The boycott has since been joined by the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, the African Literature Association, the Critical Ethnic Studies Association, and the National Women's Studies Association. Organizations that have voted against similar resolutions include the Modern Language Association.
Criticism
Israeli officials and the Anti-Defamation League reacted by stating that political and academic debates should not be mixed and accused the ASA of discrimination against Israel and "Orwellian antisemitism", a charge denied by supporters of the boycott such as George Bisharat,Applause for the academic boycott of Israel by George Bisharat, Chicago Tribune, January 30, 2014. David Lloyd and Colin Dayan. The Israeli ambassador to the US, Ron Dermer, stated, "Rather than standing up for academic freedom and human rights by boycotting countries where professors are imprisoned for their views, the A.S.A. chooses as its first ever boycott to boycott Israel, the sole democracy in the Middle East, in which academics are free to say what they want, write what they want and research what they want." UCLA professor Robin D. G. Kelley argued that such statements “grossly mischaracterized” the ASA resolution “as an assault on academic freedom. On the contrary, it is one of the most significant affirmative acts any scholarly organization has proposed in defense of academic freedom since the anti-apartheid movement. Palestinian students and faculty living under occupation do not enjoy academic freedom, let alone the full range of basic human rights.”
Senior administrators at over 200 universities have rejected the academic boycott of Israel and four universities have withdrawn from the organization: Brandeis University, Indiana University, Kenyon College, and Penn State Harrisburg. Prominent university and college presidents who have publicly condemned the boycott include Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger, Princeton University President Christopher L. Eisgruber, New York University President John Sexton, Amherst College President Carolyn Martin, University of Rochester President Joel Seligman, MIT President L. Rafael Reif, Wesleyan University President Michael S. Roth,Boycott of Israeli universities: A repugnant attack on academic freedom by Michael S. Roth, Los Angeles Times, December 19, 2013. Bard College President Leon Botstein, Case Western Reserve University President Barbara Snyder, Boston University president Robert A. Brown, Oberlin College President Marvin Krislov, and Harvard University President Drew Gilpin Faust.US academia split over boycott targeting Israel by Marcella Bombardieri, The Boston Globe, December 25, 2013.MIT joins list of campuses denouncing US scholarly group's boycott of Israeli academic institutions by Matt Rocheleau, Boston.com, December 30, 2013.
The Association of American Universities, the American Association of University Professors, and the American Council on Education have all publicly denounced the boycott as a violation of the academic freedom of not only Israeli but also US scholars as well. The AMCHA Initiative maintains an updated list of universities that have terminated their ASA membership, and a list of universities that reject the boycott.
Some politicians have expressed criticism through open letters and legislation. Democratic Congressman Eliot Engel sent a letter to the ASA's president in which he criticized "the unfair double standard Israel is regularly and unfairly subjected to by organizations such as yours."Dozens of universities reject academic boycott of Israel (update) by Valerie Strauss, The Washington Post, December 23, 2013. In January 2014, 134 members of Congress (69 Democrats, 65 Republicans) signed a letter to ASA president Curtis Marez and president-elect Lisa Duggan, which accused the ASA of engaging in a "morally dishonest double standard." The letter stated that: "Like all democracies, Israel is not perfect. But to single out Israel, while leaving relationships with universities in autocratic and repressive countries intact, suggests thinly-veiled bigotry and bias."134 members of US Congress denounce ASA’s Israel boycott by Maya Shwayder, The Jerusalem Post, January 19, 2014.Congressional Letter: Academic Boycott of Israel is 'Thinly Veiled Bigotry' by Lori Lowenthal Marcus, Jewish Press January 10, 2014 (updated: January 14th, 2014.)
Lawmakers in New York described the ASA boycott as "targeted discrimination against Israel that betrays the values of academic freedom that we hold dear."Incoming American Studies Association president supports Israel boycott, Fox News, January 03, 2014.State lawmakers battle Israel boycott by university organization American Studies Association by Kenneth Lovett, New York Daily News, January 4, 2014. In January 2014, they put forward an anti-BDS law that would have banned universities and colleges from funding organizations that "have undertaken an official action boycotting certain countries or their higher education institutions." But the proposed law faced sharp criticism over its implications on free speech and was discarded.
Individual academics and commentators have sharply criticized the boycott through editorials and op-eds. George Mason University professor David Bernstein, described the ASA as having moved from, "the ordinary lunatic fringe" into "the racist lunatic fringe," and Stanley N. Katz of Princeton University questioned the practical effect of the resolution, stating that the ASA "lacks any formal ties with Israeli institutions in the first place." Canadian journalist Rex Murphy argued that the ASA "seeks to amputate all connection with thousands of other scholars. Not because of the content of those scholars’ ideas, their research, their intelligence, or their field of study. But because they are Israelis. Or teaching and researching in Israel."The failed boycott campaign against Israel by Rex Murphy, National Post, January 4, 2014.
In a January 2015 speech to Columbia Law School's Center for Law and Liberty, former Harvard University President Lawrence Summers said that in response to the ASA boycott, "universities should make clear that their names cannot be invoked as the purported sponsor for conferences or dialogues in which the primary thrust is demonization of Israel.... And it goes without saying that they should not allow themselves to be used as economic leverage against Israel."Summers, Lawrence H. "Academic Freedom and Anti-Semitism." Lawrence H. Summers. 29 January 2015. 4 February 2015.
Eight past ASA presidents have signed a letter which described the boycott as "antithetical to the mission of free and open inquiry for which a scholarly organization stands." The letter also criticized the fact that “ASA Members were provided only the resolution and a link to a website supporting it. Despite explicit requests, the National Council refused to circulate or post to the ASA’s website alternative perspectives."On the Eve of a Vote by Elizabeth Redden, Inside Higher Ed, December 12, 2013.
Response from the ASA Curtis Marez, the president of the American Studies Association and an associate professor and chair of the ethnic-studies department at the University of California at San Diego has responded to critics of the boycott by arguing that the ASA is "targeting Israeli universities because they work closely with the government and military in developing weapons and other technology that are used to enforce the occupation and colonization of Palestinian land, while university-associated think tanks develop political and communications strategies to advance government aims and defend them internationally." He has also predicted that "one day, after the tide turns, boycotts against Israel and the apartheid regime it has instituted will be viewed in the same way" as the Academic boycott of South Africa during the years of apartheid is now viewed, and that this comparison is especially apt just after the death of Nelson Mandela.
Speaking to The New York Times, Marez argued that America has "a particular responsibility to answer the call for boycott because it is the largest supplier of military aid to the state of Israel." Marez acknowledged that the United States has previously, and is currently, the largest supplier of military aid to many governments, including some with poor human rights records, but explained that Israel is the only country in which "civil society groups" had specifically asked the ASA to launch a boycott. Further responding to accusations that the ASA was singling out Israel while ignoring many other nations that have comparable or even worse human rights records that Israel (including many of Israel's neighbors), Marez replied: "One has to start somewhere."Scholars’ Group to Disclose Result of Vote on an Academic Boycott of Israel by Richard Perez-Pena, The New York Times (online edition), December 15, 2013.
Marez has written on the organization's long-standing commitment to social justice, and the ASA's belief in nonviolent strategies as a tool to effect change. "The academic boycott of Israel," writes Marez, "is grounded in the same anti-discrimination principles as other historical divestment and boycott strategies used to protest repressive state practices, including those employed against the South Africa apartheid regime and racial segregation in the United States." Marez goes on to note that the United States Supreme Court holds these kinds of boycotts, ones which "aim to effect 'political, social, and economic change," to be constitutionally protected speech activities.