A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Boycott

The heretofore-obscure American Studies Association, which recently voted to boycott Israeli academic institutions, quite obviously lives in a sealed room of its own manufacture.

Its leadership appears a bit shell-shocked that its vote to oppose the free exchange of ideas (because that is what an academic boycott accomplishes) wasn’t hailed across academia. Quite the opposite, in fact: University presidents have announced their opposition by the dozens. The American Association of University Professors has lambasted the group. And in an obviously unintended consequence, a number of universities have quit the ASA in protest.

Clearly wounded by the criticism, the ASA’s Caucus on Academic and Community Activism has defended itself in language that is simultaneously Orwellian and grammatically troubled: “The association’s endorsement of the boycott is an expression of the academic freedom, whose commitments to social equality, anti-racism and anti-colonialism have been at the forefront of critical transformations in the humanities and the social sciences.”

As a bonus, this defense of the ASA cites the support of one Richard Falk, a prominent Sept. 11 truther, who serves — against the wishes of the U.S., Israel and, notably, the Palestinian Authority — as the United Nations special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories. As Yair Rosenberg detailsin Tablet, Falk has written on his blog about “the ‘apparent cover up’ of 9/11, and the ‘eerie silence of the mainstream media, unwilling to acknowledge the well-evidenced doubts about the official version of the events.’” Falk also has a history of promoting the work of “scholars” who question the “historicity” of the Holocaust.

Falk isn’t the sort of person the ASA would want in its corner, if it is indeed trying to convince more mainstream academics to join its boycott of Israel, or at least to temper the criticism its decision has provoked. Four academic institutions — Brandeis, Indiana University, Kenyon College and Penn State Harrisburg — have already quit the organization, and dozens of universities, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Brown — have condemned the boycott. Particularly strong and impassioned denunciations have come from the presidents of Kenyon College and Middlebury College. Their thoughts are worth highlighting at length.

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