BDS on American Campuses Echoes 1930s' Anti-Semitism

University administrators ignore the anti-Semitism lurking beneath the boycott/divestment/sanctions movement against Israel.

American university leaders’ condemnation of BDS in the name of academic freedom while ignoring the anti-Semitism behind the movement echoes their predecessors’ willful blindness to Nazi policies that “cleansed” German universities of Jewish scholars. Writing in the Miami Herald, Winfield Myers, MEF director of academic affairs and Campus Watch, condemns their moral preening, which lends a veneer of legitimacy to attacks on Israel:

In the aftermath of the American Studies Association’s (ASA) December 2013 vote to support the boycott/divestment/sanctions (BDS) movement against Israeli universities and scholars, the heads of 250 American universities voiced their opposition to both the ASA’s decision and to academic boycotts in general as violations of academic freedom.

Typifying their stance was that of Brown University president Christina Paxson, who said that such action “would be antithetical to open scholarly exchange and would inhibit the advancement of knowledge and discovery.”

Yet in failing to address the odiousness of singling out Israel for boycott, such reactions ignore the black heart of BDS: its profound anti-Semitism hiding under the guise of anti-Zionism, anti-colonialism or any cause de jour. A university president harboring intensely anti-Israel or anti-Semitic beliefs could still oppose BDS on academic freedom grounds while leaving unaddressed this key moral issue.

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Winfield Myers

Winfield Myers is managing editor of the Middle East Forum and director of its Campus Watch project, which reviews and critiques Middle East studies in North American universities. He has taught world history and other topics at the University of Michigan, the University of Georgia, Tulane, and Xavier University of Louisiana. He was previously managing editor of The American Enterprise magazine and CEO of Democracy Project, Inc., which he co-founded. Mr. Myers has served as senior editor and communications director at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and is principal author and editor of a college guide, Choosing the Right College (1998, 2001). He was educated at the University of Georgia, Tulane, and the University of Michigan.

BDS on American Campuses Echoes 1930s’ Anti-Semitism