Eighty-seven Jewish and pro-Israel organizations signed a letter urging the Department of Education to bar federal funding to university programs that have members engaging in academic boycotts of Israel.
The April 20 letter, which was spearheaded by the AMCHA Initiative and signed by organizations like the Simon Wiesenthal Center, StandWithUs and Zionist Organization of America, stated: “We are deeply concerned that in the wake of the recent Middle East Studies Association (MESA) vote endorsing an academic boycott of Israel, some directors and affiliated faculty in federally-funded Middle East Studies National Resource Centers (NRCs), most of which are institutional MESA members, may feel emboldened to implement the boycott in ways that will substantively hurt [American] students and faculty.” MESA voted in favor of the boycott on March 22 following two-month-long vote among their members.
The letter also noted that NRCs were established under federal law predicating funding on the promotion of “access to research and training overseas, including through linkages with overseas institutions.” “An academic boycott, however, calls for the exact opposite: it seeks to deny access to research, training and education in and about the targeted country, and to break linkages with the targeted country’s educational institutions,” the letter argued.
Furthermore, the 87 organizations expressed concern over the fact that “recent studies have shown that Middle East Studies faculty who support an academic boycott of Israel are likely to bring their support for the boycott into academic space.” “While acknowledging that a faculty member’s right to express support for an academic boycott of Israel is protected by academic freedom, it is unacceptable that federal funds could be used to implement an academic boycott that directly contravenes the purposes for which these funds have been granted,” the letter stated. It concluded with a call for the Department of Education to issue a statement warning NRCs that their funding could be impacted by academic boycotts of Israel and that grant applications should “establish safeguards” to ensure that academic boycotts don’t occur.
87 Jewish and pro-Israel orgs urge Department of Education to bar federal funding to university programs with faculty members engaging in academic boycotts of Israel following the Middle East Studies Association's endorsement of BDS. Via @AMCHAInitiative pic.twitter.com/qHQB1PXqYo
— Aaron Bandler (@bandlersbanter) April 20, 2022
Since MESA’s endorsement of the resolution supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, at least seven universities have disassociated themselves from the organization. New York University also issued a statement on March 30 rejecting the resolution and urged MESA to “reconsider.”
