{"id":57499,"date":"2017-11-21T18:00:17","date_gmt":"2017-11-21T16:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=57499"},"modified":"2017-11-12T12:12:25","modified_gmt":"2017-11-12T10:12:25","slug":"21-00-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=57499","title":{"rendered":"BDS Activists Took Over American Studies Association"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Report: BDS Activists Secretly \u2018Took Over\u2019 American Studies Association Before It Endorsed Israel Boycott<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Shiri Moshe<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Supporters of the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign. Photo: Alex Chis.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Anti-Israel activists implemented a \u201ccovert campaign\u201d to gain leadership positions at the American Studies Association (ASA), which they subsequently manipulated into endorsing an academic boycott of Israel, a Jewish human rights group said on Thursday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law \u2014 which is representing four plaintiffs suing the ASA over its 2013 adoption of the boycott \u2014 revealed that newly-uncovered emails showed how activists with the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI) \u201ctook over\u201d and used the ASA to advance their political agenda.<\/span><\/p>\n

A proposed second amended complaint filed by the plaintiffs \u2014 all current and former American Studies professors \u2014 named five of the 10 individual defendants as USACBI leaders: Sunaina Maira, Neferti Tadiar, J. Kehaulani Kauanui, Jasbir Puar, and Steven Salaita.<\/span><\/p>\n

The defendants \u201cmisappropriated the American Studies Association\u2019s funding, name, prestige, membership lists, and respected institutional voice\u201d on behalf of USACBI, thereby subverting ASA\u2019s \u201capolitical mission and scholarly purpose,\u201d the plaintiffs said.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the complaint, the \u201cdefendants obtained control of the nominations process by which the American Studies Association chose its leaders,\u201d then restricted nominations to individuals affiliated with USACBI and who would support the ASA\u2019s proposed boycott of Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis constituted a violation of the American Studies Association bylaws, which require that nominations for the American Studies Association National Council and President reflect the diversity of the membership,\u201d the plaintiffs argued.<\/span><\/p>\n

The scheme was allegedly spearheaded by Puar, an assistant professor of women\u2019s studies at Rutgers University who has come under fire for supporting terrorism against Israelis and repeating accusations that Israel harvests Palestinian organs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Puar, also a USACBI leader, acted \u201cto ensure that only signed supporters of USACBI were nominated for American Studies Association President\u201d \u2014 a requirement she did not disclose to ASA members, according to the complaint.<\/span><\/p>\n

In one alleged email exchange between nominees to the ASA\u2019s National Council \u2014 who were debating whether to reveal their support for BDS in their nomination statement \u2014 USACBI leader Maira claimed, \u201cI feel it might be more strategic not to present ourselves as a pro-boycott slate. We need to get on the Council and I think our larger goal is support for the resolution, not to test support at this early stage from \u2018outside\u2019 the NC.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Another USACBI leader, David Lloyd, replied, \u201cI would definitely suggest not specifying BDS, but emphasizing support for academic freedom, etc.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Nikhil Singh, who was already a National Council member, cautioned against this approach.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c[W]e all know that \u2018academic freedom\u2019 is not good enough,\u201d he wrote. \u201cMy real question: what do we hope to gain from election of pro-BDS members to the American Studies Association national council if we have not made any of the stakes of their election clear to the membership?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think that not revealing something this important and intentional and then hoping later to use the American Studies Association national council as a vehicle to advance our cause will not work and may well backfire, because it will lack legitimacy,\u201d Singh added.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of the three nominees involved in the discussion, only one \u2014 Alex Lubin \u2014 mentioned support for \u201cthe academic and cultural boycott of Israel\u201d in his statement.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe lost the election\u201d while the other two candidates won, demonstrating that \u201ca nominee\u2019s commitment to the boycott of Israel and its academic and cultural institutions\u201d was a material fact to ASA members, the plaintiffs argued.<\/span><\/p>\n

By the end of her three years on the Nominating Committee, Puar and two other USACBI endorsers \u201chad turned the American Studies Association National Council from a body primarily comprised of American Studies professors and scholars, and otherwise diverse members \u2026 to one overwhelmingly comprised of individuals with a singular focus on adopting the USACBI Boycott,\u201d the complaint continued.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ultimately, seven of the twelve ASA members nominated for the 2013 National Council had also endorsed USACBI. This did not reflect the diversity of the ASA\u2019s approximately 4,000 members at the time, which only contained some 800 USACBI endorsers, according to the plaintiffs. This was a breach of the ASA\u2019s constitution, which mandates that nominees \u201cshall be representative of the diversity of the association\u2019s membership.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The complaint included what it said were several other incriminating emails from the defendants, including one from Maira, who wrote, \u201cJasbir is nominating me and Alex Lubin for the Council and she suggests populating it with as many supporters as possible.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In another email, Puar claimed, \u201cI think we should prepare for the longer-term struggle by populating elected positions with as [many] supporters as possible.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A third email, this time from Lubin, read, \u201cIn my conversations with Jasbir it\u2019s clear that the intent of her nominations was to bring more people who do work in, and are politically committed to . . . the question of Palestine . . . we were nominated in order to build momentum for BDS even though the question of BDS in American Studies Association may or may not emerge while we\u2019re on the council.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The plaintiffs listed multiple other complaints against the defendants, including that they \u201crefused to post or circulate letters and other information opposing the boycott\u201d before the ASA vote.<\/span><\/p>\n

The ASA\u2019s 2013 vote to implement a boycott of Israeli universities and academic institutions marked its first-ever \u2014 and thus far only \u2014 boycott of a nation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Several universities terminated their ASA membership over the vote, which was condemned by over 200 senior university administrators and multiple academic organizations, including the American Association of University Professors, American Association of Universities and American Council on Education.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Report: BDS Activists Secretly \u2018Took Over\u2019 American Studies Association Before It Endorsed Israel Boycott Shiri Moshe Supporters of the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign. Photo: Alex Chis. Anti-Israel activists implemented a \u201ccovert campaign\u201d to gain leadership positions at the American Studies Association (ASA), which they subsequently manipulated into endorsing an academic boycott of Israel, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57499"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57499"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57512,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57499\/revisions\/57512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}