Issue: Conflict on CampusRSS feed

The following is drawn from my book, “The Conflict over the Conflict: The Israel/Palestine Campus Debate,” pp. 46-47: Consider again the claim that Israelis are “settler colonialists.” On 4 July 2018, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) wrote to the Iroquois Confederacy — Native nations from New York and Canada […]

Issued shortly before the current ceasefire took hold, the following statement is from the executive committee of MLA Members for Scholars’ Rights, a group opposed to academic boycotts of Israel: THE GAZA CONFLICT: LOOKING FORWARD As Israelis rush to shelter from thousands of rockets and Palestinians in Gaza endure daily bombardment, there is urgent need […]

TTN members discussed the merits and demerits of the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism, which drew the signatures of more than 200 Jewish scholars and a few activists, as an alternative to the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) working definition.  Although viewed skeptically by some of us as a way to legitimize or enable opposition to Israel […]

I highly recommend this book discussed in my new Times of Israel blog post.  These excerpts from my post focus on BDS:  Jonathan Marks’s “Let’s Be Reasonable: A Conservative Case for Liberal Education“ shows what higher education can be at its best. But his subtitle has it wrong. Marks may be a conservative, and he may […]

The Alliance for Academic Freedom condemns the treatment of Rose Ritch, a Jewish undergraduate at University of Southern California who resigned under pressure as vice president of the Undergraduate Student Government following a campaign that featured denunciations of her support for Israel, including some with antisemitic overtones. Not only was it clearly reprehensible for fellow […]

An Open Letter to Members of the Society for the Study of Social Problems July 2020 The Alliance for Academic Freedom (AAF), a multidisciplinary faculty organization that opposes academic boycotts and supports a two-state solution that would facilitate political self-determination for both Israelis and Palestinians, is concerned that the Society for the Study of Social […]

REQUEST TO THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION CHILLS ACADEMIC FREEDOM Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar last week wrote Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to request an investigation into whether University of Arizona programs comply with federal funding requirements. He expressed concern specifically about whether the campus’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES) engages in anti-Semitic activities or […]