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Jewish Journal

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PA Liberal Arts College Reaffirms Anti-BDS Stance

[additional-authors]
Picture of Aaron Bandler

Aaron Bandler

February 28, 2020
Photo from Wikimedia Commons.

Dickinson College, the small liberal arts college in Pennsylvania, reaffirmed their stance against boycotts on Feb. 27, including boycotts against Israel.

Neil Weissman, the college’s provost, told the student-run Dicksonian newspaper that the college is opposed to boycotts because they “interfere with the free flow of exchanges of ideas and peoples.”

Weissman explained that Dickinson’s anti-boycott policy was first adopted in 1907, and the college renewed their commitment to the policy in 2014, when the American Studies Associations voted to boycott Israeli academic institutions.

In December, Dickinson’s Student Senate passed a resolution urging the college to ban Sabra hummus from being sold on campus. The resolution stated that the Strauss Group partially owns Sabra hummus, and the group supports “the Israeli Defense Force brigade, which maintains a cycle of oppression for Palestinian peoples in violation of international law.”

The college announced after the resolution’s passage that they would not ban Sabra hummus from campus. Weissman told The Dicksonian, “If students or anyone choose not to buy Sabra hummus, it’s their choice. But as far as I know, we are not intending to take it off the shelves. We’re strongly committed to the policy and intend to maintain it.”

After the Dickinson Student Senate passed the resolution in December, Journal contributor and Israeli-based writer Hen Mazzig sarcastically tweeted, “RIP Israel’s economy.” He added in a subsequent tweet that Sabra is “based in [New York] and is operated by PepsiCo and was started by a rabbi in West Hempstead, NY, on Long Island. So are they boycotting it because Hummus is an Israeli dish? I’m so lost.”

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