Israel is a modern, developed nation state, like many others. And like any other nation state, Israel is subject to legitimate criticism. In particular, there is the issue of Palestinian rights.
For many critics of Israeli policies and actions in the occupied territories, the Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions movement (BDS) has become both a rallying point and a pressure tactic to help bring about change.
Since its inception, the BDS has gained momentum as a form of protest against Israeli policies and actions in the occupied territories, and understandably so. Boycott has sometimes been a very successful tactic for protest movements in the post-WWII world. The American Civil Rights movement and the South African anti-apartheid movement are just two examples of economic boycotts that had a profound impact and helped achieve positive change. In addition to economic ramifications, boycotts can also have the effect of bringing increased attention and scrutiny to an issue.
To that end, I respect the decision of those who commit to boycotting Israeli businesses that profit from the situation in the occupied territories. Personally, I have no economic connections to Israel but, for example, I would have no problem with my pension plan divesting from Israeli institutions that do business in the occupied territories (I don’t actually know my pension plan’s policy on the matter).
However, I want to address one specific component of the BDS with which I strongly disagree: the wholesale academic boycott of Israeli universities.
The reason for my opposition to the academic boycott is not a sign of support for Israelis policies or actions in the occupied territories. Rather, I am opposed to a wholesale academic boycott of Israeli universities because I am generally opposed to the academic boycott of any school or research institution that retains its own academic freedom and does not directly participate in colonial activities. Allow me to explain.
The lifeblood of academia is the free exchange of information and ideas. That is the essential premise upon which nearly all academic activity is based. Whether conducting and presenting research, teaching students, or engaging the public, academics are devoted, first and foremost, to the gathering, development, discussion, and dissemination of information and ideas. Almost every other professional activity is secondary. Almost everything else we do as academics flows from this primary mission.
Thus, anything that impedes the flow of academic information and ideas is antithetical to academia, a strike against its raison d’être.
For this reason, the notion of one group of academics boycotting another group of academics is something I find very difficult to countenance. It is a stance against academic freedom, and as such, it defies the cardinal rule of academia.
However, there are no absolutes in life. There can be exceptions.
One legitimate reason for academic boycott would be if a university has disowned its own academic freedom or has had it stripped away by external forces (typically governments).
Schools or institutions that officially restrict the academic freedom of their faculty and students, or have been stocked with propagandists instead of scholars, or are substantially compromised by censorious external forces, are not worthy of membership in the academic community. They are legitimate targets of academic boycott. But so long as scholars and teachers have the freedom to pursue the truth, including the right to be wrong, this justification is null and void.
The other legitimate reason for academic boycott, so far as I am concerned, would be if a school maintained academic freedom for teachers and students, but nevertheless actively advanced colonialism as as an institution. Then the academic boycott of such a school would be warranted, for the school itself would be fundamentally betraying academic values.
As a scholar of Indigenous Studies, I”m well aware of the role universities have historically played in abetting the colonial conquest and dispossession of Native peoples around the world. Many scholars have studied and exposed academic complicity in colonialism, perhaps most convincingly Maori scholar Linda Tuhiwai Smith in her 1999 book Decolonizing Methodologies. Historians, anthropologists, and other university based academicians around the world spent decades directly and indirectly supporting, glorifying, and enabling colonial dispossession and conquest.
But it is important to differentiate between the actions of individuals and official institutional policies. Modern instances of universities officially betraying core academic values on large scale are actually quite rare. The Nazification of German universities during the 1930s is perhaps the most notorious example. Today, one can only imagine what goes on in North Korean universities.
In the event an academic institution does behave badly or work in support of reprehensible policies, boycott is a legitimate response. But that is a far cry from the wholesale boycott of every school in an entire nation.
Furthermore, I do not believe that guilt by association is enough to warrant a wholesale boycott of all of the universities in a nation. While universities have a relationship with their governments, they are not members of it and have virtually no control over it. Universities are responsible for their own political actions; if they are behaving in a manner consistent with academic values, it is not reasonable to inflict upon them the ultimate academic punishment because of the actions of local, provincial, or national governments within which they reside.
It is important to remember just how severe a punishment academic boycott is within the context of academic actions. Academic boycott itself is a clear violation of academic integrity. In other words, the boycotters themselves are violating their own core values. Because of this it is fundamentally different from economic boycott where you simply refuse to buy something. It’s more on par with a priest who refuses to share the word of Christ: a true violation of one’s professional purpose.
Therefor, if it is to be used at all, and academic boycott must be used responsibly: the justifications must be of the highest academic order; the evidence must be incontrovertible; and the weapon of boycott must be wielded with extreme precision, more like a scalpel than a shotgun.
In that spirit, I am open to discussions of a more limited and responsible approach to academic boycott. For example, perhaps Israeli universities that defy international law and build on Palestinian land in the occupied territories, should be boycotted (there are instances of this happening). This seems like a reasonable conversation to me. But it is vitally important to differentiate between those universities that directly participate in colonial actions and those that happen to be in a nation that engages in colonial activities. Indeed, every American university and nearly every European university is within a nation that has spent centuries engaging in colonial activities and continue to do so.
It would also be worth discussing boycott if Israeli universities on Israeli lands were to develop policies that restrict their own academic freedom. And indeed, there is evidence of isolated incidents that are worthy of protest. However, isolated instances are not enough. The official or systemic denigration of academic freedom by a university would be the better litmus for so drastic a step.
For example, if a school refused to hire Arab scholars or punished scholars who published material critical of the Israeli occupation. A school that disavows its own academic freedom has no academic freedom to protect, but such is not currently the case in Israel so far as I know, and hopefully will never be.
Both as a scholar and a human being, I generally pride myself on being open-minded. I have heard many arguments in favor of a wholesale academic boycott of Israel. Some of them have been quite flawed, but many of them are important, well thought out, and worth examining further. Along the way, my own attitudes have evolved and grown, and I suspect they will continue to do so as I learn more and continue to discuss the issues, ie., as I engage in the free flow of information and ideas.
I am more receptive to the idea than I used to be, allowing for the limited causes and approaches I’ve outlined in this essay. However, while I have been swayed to some degree, I have yet to hear any arguments that trump my basic opposition to academics restricting academic discourse on a wholesale basis. Should I ever encounter one that does, or find that the aggregate of many good ones do, then I reserve the right to change my mind. But until then, I stand opposed to a complete academic boycott of all Israeli universities.
Let me close by saying I think the best thing we academics can do is precisely the opposite of academic boycott. I truly believe that speaking truth to power is a fundamental concern of academia, and that sometimes the most effective place to do so is in the belly of the beast. Instead of cutting off conversations, we should nurture and build them. Instead of boycotting all Israeli universities, people who care deeply about this issue should look for ways to engage them. We should bring our information and ideas to them, and share them. Instead of saying we won’t go there or collaborate with them, let’s got there and collaborate with them. Perhaps a conference on comparative colonialism. Perhaps a special journal issue on comparative Indigenous Studies. Let the sparks fly, let voices be raised, but better that than silence.
As academics, we are at our best when we are engaging, sharing, writing, and discussing. When seeking ways to effect positive change, we should play to our strengths, not run from them. We should engage colleagues instead of turning our backs on them, including those we disagree with vociferously. Especially those we disagree with vociferously. And we should promote the free exchange of information and ideas instead of restricting them.
For these reasons I stand opposed to a wholesale academic boycott of Israeli universities.
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A longer version of this article originally appeared at 3 Quarks Daily