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While supposedly “committed to justice, dignity, equality and peace,” the NWSA has exposed its own hypocrisy by voting to boycott Israel. Not only is the organization prejudiced, it is also clearly ignorant of the facts.

The National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) based in America endorsed a resolution calling for a boycott on Israel.

The resolution, which was put forward by Feminists for Justice in Palestine at the NWSA annual convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, passed at a 653 to 86 vote in mid November.

The resolution placed the NWSA among other academic associations that have officially endorsed the anti-Israel BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement, the largest of these being the American Studies Association.

The misguided resolution asserts that, while “our counterparts in Palestine face daily violations of their human rights, including their academic rights to free speech, assembly, association, and movement,” Israeli institutions of higher learning “have not challenged, but instead legitimized, Israel’s oppressive policies and violations. These violations, which severely impact the daily lives and working conditions of Palestinian scholars, students, and the society at large, are also enabled by US tax dollars and the tacit support of western powers, thus making any taxpayer in the West complicit in perpetuating these injustices.”

As clarified by Inside Higher Ed, the NWSA measure does not limit itself to a boycott just of Israeli academic institutions, but rather affirms the association’s endorsement of “the 2005 call by Palestinian civil society for boycott, divestment and sanctions of economic, military and cultural entities and projects sponsored by the state of Israel.”