American Studies Association Discriminatory Boycott of Israel Faces Legal Challenges

Last month, Jewish Press reported US Academic Group May Boycott Israeli Universities. At issue is the American Studies Association (ASA), which at its annual meeting in Washington, D.C. entertained a resolution to boycott Israeli academic institutions.

The reason?

A primary reason offered in the body of the petition in support of the boycott resolution is that the Israeli “Occupation” has a severely deleterious effect on the academic freedom rights of Palestinian Arabs. To wit:

Palestinian universities and schools have been periodically forced to close as a result of actions related to the Occupations, or have been destroyed by Israeli military strikes and Palestinian students and scholars face restrictions on movement and travel that limit their ability to attend and work at universities, travel to conferences and to study abroad, and thereby obstruct their right to education.

The petition goes on a bit in that vein, and includes the fact that foreign academics face interference when trying to reach “Palestinian” academic institutions.

As Lori Lowenthal Marcus, the irony -- or ignorance -- displayed by the ASA is that none of the 19 degree-granting institutions serving the Arab Muslim population of the "West Bank" or Gaza existed before 1967.

Logo of the American Studies Association:
encouraging the exchanging of ideas through discrimination

But beyond the challenge of logic, the American Studies Association will be facing legal challenges as well.