Israel Matzav

Stop supporting the ASA or give up your government funding

Two New York legislators plan to introduce a bill that would cut off government funding from any university that supports the American Studies Association or any other organization that boycotts Israel.

Senate co-leader Jeffrey Klein (D-Bronx) and Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) plan to introduce a bill that would give colleges and universities in New York 30 days to withdraw their support from groups like the American Studies Association, which recently voted for such an academic boycott.

New York University, Cornell, Columbia, SUNY Buffalo and SUNY Stony Brook are among the institutions affiliated with the ASA, made up of 5,000 professors. The group overwhelmingly voted to bar Israeli academic institutions from collaborations with their campuses over the country’s treatment of Palestinians.

“Make no mistake: the ASA’s boycott is targeted discrimination against Israel that betrays the values of academic freedom that we hold dear,” Klein and Hikind said in a joint statement.

The legislation would also prohibit employees of New York State’s public universities from participating in conferences sponsored by groups that participate in discriminatory boycotts.

New York University President John Sexton and Provost David McLaughlin on Dec. 20 sent a letter expressing “disappointment, disagreement and opposition” to the boycott vote. An NYU professor, Lisa Duggan, is the president-elect of the American Studies Association.

But NYU does not support the Klein-Hikind bill.

Labels: academic boycott, BDS, liberal academia

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:36 PM