An association of 5,000 academics on Monday became the largest U.S. scholarly organization ever to join the boycott of Israeli academic institutions.
The American Studies Association, which calls itself “the nation’s oldest and largest association devoted to the interdisciplinary study of American culture and history,” announced Monday that its membership passed a resolution stipulating the organization “endorses and will honor the call of Palestinian civil society for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions.”
The resolution, which was introduced last year and unanimously endorsed by the ASA’s national council on November 4th, attracted an unprecedented number of voters, with 66.05% endorsing the resolution, 30.5% against, and 3.43% abstaining, according to the ASA statement.
“The overwhelming majority that voted in favor of the resolution illustrate that we refuse to lend complicity to Israel’s aggression,” Steven Salaita, associate professor of English at Virginia Tech and a member of the ASA Activism Caucus, told Common Dreams. “This stance in solidarity with Palestinian freedom is historic and signals a new era of engagement with colonized populations.”
The resolution passed with an outpouring of support from ASA members, including renowned activist, author, and scholar Angela Davis. “The similarities between historical Jim Crow practices and contemporary regimes of segregation in Occupied Palestine make this resolution an ethical imperative for the ASA,” she wrote. “If we have learned the most important lesson promulgated by Dr. Martin Luther King—that justice is always indivisible—it should be clear that a mass movement in solidarity with Palestinian freedom is long overdue.”
The ASA has faced an onslaught of criticisms and attacks from pro-Israel forces, including calls from former Harvard president and Obama administration official Larry Summers for a boycott of the ASA on grounds that the resolution violates academic freedom and perpetuates anti-Semitism.
Yet Alex Lubin, Director of the Center for American Studies and Research at the American University of Beirut, slammed such accusations writing last month in The Nation,
“The boycott resolution is intended to address a profound case of discrimination against Palestinians and is consistent with the ASA’s previous endorsement of anti-racist positions in other areas,” Lubin stated upon endorsing the resolution. “The resolution does not target Israelis, Jews, or any individuals; indeed, the ASA’s support for the boycott affirms its opposition to all forms of racial discrimination, including, but not limited to, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.”
The call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel emerged from Palestinian civil socieity organizations in 2005 in a bid to win human rights, self-determination, and freedom from occupation for Palestinians, using tactics similar to those levied to transform apartheid South Africa.
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