Lawyers call out academics boycotting Israeli academic institutions, universities

The American Anthropological Association (AAA) endorsed a resolution that boycotts all Israeli academic institutions as it was being warned about the motion’s anti-Semitic message. 

AAA announced the endorsement July 24 after a month-long referendum ending July 14. 

”Israeli academic institutions are complicit in the Israeli state’s regime of oppression against Palestinians” the resolution states. It also calls Israel an “apartheid regime” and claims that the United States is breaking international law by engaging with Israel. 

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On July 20, lawyers at The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law (LDB) sent a letter to AAA. 

“Endorsing this academic boycott promotes the policy of anti-normalization, whereby Israel is cast as uniquely malevolent and criminal among the nations of the world,” the letter states.  “Attempts at mutual understanding and dialogue are avoided, and those who support Israel are cast as pariahs.” 

Denise Katz-Prober, attorney and the director of Legal Initiatives at LDB told Campus Reform that it is important to take legal action. 

“The passage by the AAA of a resolution to boycott Israeli academic institutions is yet another example of an academic association sacrificing its scholarly mission for political activism,” Katz-Prober told Campus Reform. 

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”The Brandeis Center has long fought to prevent the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement – because it is anti-Semitic and discriminatory, poses a threat to academic freedom and the free exchange of ideas, and creates a hostile environment on campus for Jewish students and faculty,” she added. 

Campus Reform contacted all relevant parties listed for comment and will update this article accordingly. 

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