On December 1, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published an oped titled, “Those Israel Boycotts Are Illegal” after members of the American Anthropological Association overwhelmingly voted in favor of endorsing a resolution calling for the academic boycott of Israeli institutions. The following is a letter to the editor in response which the WSJ did not publish.
To the Editor:
Re “Those Israel Boycotts Are Illegal (opinion, Dec. 1):
Sure, educational associations “may be sued” for endorsing the academic boycott of Israel — anyone can be sued for anything — but any such suit would be a sure loser.
This is probably why the authors have cited exactly zero cases where a court has found a nonprofit boardmember liable for violating the purpose of their corporate charter — much less a case where the so-called violation is taking a principled stance on a human rights issue.
The authors’ reasoning is also laughable: that because an association’s charter says “nothing about social change” its boycott of Israeli academic institutions “[is] illegal.” As any law student who’s taken a Corporations 101 course can tell you: modern statutes impose almost no limits on corporate purpose or powers. Such “ultra vires” suits went into decline along with jello salad and hot rods.
Even so, educational associations’ decisions to boycott Israeli institutions are aimed at promoting academic freedom for Palestinian scholars and students and thus fall squarely within the educational purposes for which such scholarly societies are established.
Less laughable is how such meritless threats are increasingly being used for the purpose of intimidating groups from engaging in protected First Amendment activity; a tactic documented in a recent report by Palestine Legal and the Center for Constitutional Rights.
Radhika Sainath
Staff Attorney
Palestine Legal
Cooperating Counsel
Center for Constitutional Rights
New York City
THIS is the reason ZioThug Murdoch bought WSJ! Control of MSM is central to the Hasbara Propaganda campaign to prevent honest criticisms and discourse concerning Apartheid Israel. Even an official representative of an organization being attacked and lied about cannot get their letter to the editor published. Just one more basic U.S. freedom stolen from us by Zionist terrorists!
Whether it’s FauxNews or WSJ, it doesn’t really matter. Honest criticism of Israel is forbidden in the “Occupied MSM”! But we will not give up. Herr Goebbels had complete control of Nazi Germany’s media and that didn’t stop the truth or defeat of evil either!
Zionists seem to have no desire or ability to reason logically. Not allowing information to be considered is a pretty good insurance policy against any reasoning taking place.
Has anyone ever compared the similarities zionism has to a virus?
What are the cases that PL have fought, and most importantly, won?
It is always laughable when Zionist opponents of an Academic boycott of Israel bring up academic freedom, because it is so clearly a ploy to silence BDS rather than it coming from a genuine interest in academic freedom. What makes me say this?
The vast majority of Israeli academics only seem to be interested in academic freedom when it comes to BDS, in a letter by Israeli professor Tanya Reinhart, she stated that:
“Never in its history did the senate of any Israeli university pass a resolution protesting the frequent closure of Palestinian universities [by Israel], let alone voice protest the devastation sowed there during the last uprising.”
This view is further reinforced by the petition/social experiment of Israeli professor Menachem Fisch et al, who in the aftermath of the bombing of the Islamic University in Gaza during the war in 2008, circulated a petition among Israeli academics to denounce this attack against academic freedom and Palestinians right to education. Out of the 9000 academics contacted (5000 of which were senior faculty academics), a mere 4.4% of them agreed to sign the petition.
So forgive me if I’m skeptical that Zionists care about academic freedom.
Sources:
Reinhart, Tanya. Academic boycott: in support of Paris VI. Znet, April 4th 2003.
Fisch M, Falk R, Jablonka E, Gissis S, Academic freedom for whom?, 2009.