On April 15, members of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) will vote on a resolution to boycott Israeli universities, institutions, libraries, and scholarly journals. Richard Shweder describes the meeting last November where the resolution was approved by a preliminary vote and submitted to the AAA’s members. Even if the resolution is ultimately voted down, he writes, the BDS movement has already won this particular battle:
What I had not anticipated was the bullying that went on during the debate over [the boycott resolution]. Dissidents who were lined up and waiting to voice their views were suddenly denied access to the microphone by the president of the association and effectively silenced. Shortly before they were cut off, one young scholar did manage [a] memorable (and chilling) remark, anxiously . . . saying that she was well aware that in speaking against the boycott she would probably never get a job in an anthropology department. I wondered whether I could honestly tell her she was wrong.
These are agonistic times in anthropology. The BDS movement has been divisive, causing many members of the profession to remain silent rather than jeopardize valued relationships with friends and colleagues. . . . We are witnessing the subordination [of the ideals of the modern academy] to a political agenda. . . .
Two months ago I received an e-mail from a member of the AAA who wrote me that he was interested in inviting an Israeli colleague to his university for a semester and was “advised” that he had better check around to see what his colleagues thought of such an invitation “given the general pro-BDS atmosphere” in his department. That is one of the insidious ways this whole thing is playing out. Soon it will be time to vote. It remains to be seen whether the members of the AAA have the courage (and the wisdom) to say “no.”
Read more on Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-a-shweder/targeting-the-israeli-aca_b_9540974.html?1458837831