The anti-Israel activists employed as professors who led the fight at the American Studies Association to pass the academic boycott of Israel in December 2013, have been patting themselves on the back ever since.
Forget that over 250 university presidents and the major academic organizations condemned the move as a gross violation of academic freedom. Even the NY Times called the ASA a “pariah.”
The ASA humiliatingly had to back down from its plan to bar representatives of Israeli academic institutions from its annual meeting, eventually promising that even Bibi Netanyahu could attend.
The profs seething with hatred of Israel, and anti-Zionist websites which promoted their academic boycott agenda, saw it differently. In their own minds, they were on the cusp of a historic anti-Israel paradigm change. The future belonged to the boycotters, in their minds.
The reality has not worked out that way. Other than some very small faculty organizations, no major academic group has adopted the boycott. No university in the U.S. is even considering a boycott.
But the hyperbolic hateful rhetoric by the profs did have an effect...
Forget that over 250 university presidents and the major academic organizations condemned the move as a gross violation of academic freedom. Even the NY Times called the ASA a “pariah.”
The ASA humiliatingly had to back down from its plan to bar representatives of Israeli academic institutions from its annual meeting, eventually promising that even Bibi Netanyahu could attend.
The profs seething with hatred of Israel, and anti-Zionist websites which promoted their academic boycott agenda, saw it differently. In their own minds, they were on the cusp of a historic anti-Israel paradigm change. The future belonged to the boycotters, in their minds.
The reality has not worked out that way. Other than some very small faculty organizations, no major academic group has adopted the boycott. No university in the U.S. is even considering a boycott.
But the hyperbolic hateful rhetoric by the profs did have an effect...
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