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Anthropology Boycott of Israeli Universities Is Misguided and Discriminatory

(Algemeiner) Cynthia Saltzman and Geoffrey E. Braswell - In a recent vote, 2,016 members of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) supported a boycott of Israeli academic institutions, while 835 opposed. Any academic boycott contradicts the AAA's core mission to serve the community of anthropologists and foster intellectual exchange. It threatens academic freedom and compromises the AAA's role as a forum for debate and scholarly investigation. Rather than foster polyvocality surrounding a complex issue, the boycott of Israel seeks to silence social critique by implementing a single official position. The boycott also will hurt the 20% of students in Israeli higher education institutions who are themselves Palestinian. The AAA boycott against Israeli universities and academics is nothing more than antisemitism hiding behind the virtue-signaling sophistry of a false morality. Cynthia Saltzman is a faculty member in the Department of Anthropology at Rutgers University-Camden. Geoffrey E. Braswell is a faculty member in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, San Diego.
2023-09-04 00:00:00
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