Two US academic institutions withdrew their membership in the American
Studies Association this week, after the national body endorsed a boycott of
Israeli academic institutions earlier this month, with its members approving
the measure on Monday.
Penn State Harrisburg was the first university to
announce a break with the ASA on Tuesday, with Brandeis University following
suit Wednesday.
Penn State’s Dr. Simon J. Bronner, chairman of the American Studies
department, announced that his school was dropping its institutional
affiliation, saying the ASA’s boycott measure would “curtail academic freedom.”
“The withdrawal of institutional membership by our program and others allows us to be independent of the political and ideological resolutions issued by the ASA and concentrate on building American Studies scholarship with our faculty, students, and staff,” Bronner added in a statement.
A similar message was posted on Brandeis’s American Studies program homepage.
“We view the recent vote by the membership to affirm an academic boycott of Israel as a politicization of the discipline and a rebuke to the kind of open inquiry that a scholarly association should foster.“We remain committed to the discipline of American Studies but we can no longer support an organization that has rejected two of the core principles of American culture– freedom of association and expression,” the statement read.
The ASA’s boycott has not gone unnoticed by lawmakers.
On Wednesday, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) released a statement
blasting the decision, which he said “applies a deeply offensive double
standard.”
Nadler said that the ASA had “embraced an approach that is anathema to
our desire for Israelis and Palestinians to co-exist in peace and security...” ...
...Earlier this week, Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY) also criticized the
vote.
...The Anti-Defamation League called the vote to endorse the boycott
“manifestly unjust.”
“This shameful, morally bankrupt and intellectually dishonest attack on academic freedom by the American Studies Association should be soundly condemned by all who are committed to the ideal that open exchange of ideas is the most effective way to achieve change,” said National Director Abraham Foxman in a statement...
*Rebecca Shimoni Stoil, Stuart Winer, Raphael Ahren and JTA contributed
to this report.
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