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Members of the American Studies Association, the “oldest and largest association devoted to the interdisciplinary study of American culture and history” in the United States, according to its website, voted this month to endorse an academic boycott of Israeli institutions.
As pointed out by renowned Prof. Alan Dershowitz in an editorial published in Israeli daily Haaretz, titled: “Boycotting Israeli universities: A victory for bigotry:
“Singling out Israelis for an academic boycott is not only a blatant example of double standards; it is an act of complicity with the enduring prejudice against Jews.”
The boycott, Dershowitz writes, “wasn’t against China, which imprisons dissenting academics. It wasn’t against Iran, which executes dissenting academics. It wasn’t against Russia, whose universities fire dissenting academics. It wasn’t against Cuba, whose universities have no dissenting academics. It wasn’t against Saudi Arabia, whose academic institutions refuse to hire women, gay or Christian academics. Nor was it against the Palestinian Authority, whose colleges refuse to allow open discourse regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. No, it was against only academic institutions in the Jewish State of Israel, whose universities have affirmative action programs for Palestinian students and who boast a higher level of academic freedom than almost any country in the world.”
Israeli Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer, calling the ASA academic boycott if Israel a “travesty,” said on his Facebook page:
“Rather than standing up for academic freedom and human rights by boycotting countries where professors are imprisoned for their views, the ASA 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.
“With this decision, the ASA follows other infamous organizations that have twisted the notion of human rights beyond recognition so that those democratic countries who actually uphold human rights are cast as the greatest violators of human rights…. The singling out of the Jewish state for boycott is no different than the many attempts throughout history to single out Jews and hold them to a different standard. There is a name for that phenomenon. Perhaps one of the distinguished professors of the ASA could teach his boycotting colleagues what it is.”
The American Studies Association (ASA) states that the academic boycott of Israel resolution “responds to a request from the Palestinian people, including Palestinian academics and students.”
Indeed, accusing Israel of discrimination against Arabs is a propaganda ploy by anti-Israel activists.
Mais Ali-Saleh, an Arab-Israeli woman, was valedictorian at Haifa’s world-renowned Technion-Israel Institute of Technology for the past academic year. As published on Algemeiner.com, she points to the falsehood that Israel is an apartheid state.
The ASA justifies the academic boycott of Israel with misinformation; for example, it falsely claims that Israel “devastates Palestinian lives.”
To the contrary: Barkan Industrial Park, for example, is located in Samaria near the city of Ariel. Employees at its many factories are at least 50-percent Palestinian Arab. They are treated equally, receiving full benefits according to Israeli labor law. Similarly, hundreds of Arab students attend Ariel University, which has also been a popular boycott target, and they deny the existence of racism on campus.
In a column on Israel National News, well-known author and human rights activist Phyllis Chesler states:
“American Studies Association: You have just voted to endorse the oldest form of racism on earth. You should be ashamed of yourselves.”
United with Israel agrees with Chesler’s statement. We urge you to demand an end to this anti-Semitic boycott.
Defend the State of Israel, a shining democracy in the Middle East with equal rights for all its citizens. Protest against an academic boycott of Israel.
Following is the contact information for the American Studies Association:
Phone: 202.467.4783, Fax: 202.467.4786
Email: asastaff@theasa.net
Web Page: http://www.theasa.net/contact/
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