Narrowing Academic Freedom, Discriminating against Israeli Nationals: A Response to the AAUP Journal of Academic Freedom, Volume 4

A recent round table of essays published in the Journal of Academic Freedom, an online publication of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), sought to bolster the case for an academic boycott of Israeli universities and scholars, seeking thereby to turn an organization long committed to values of academic freedom and fairness against those same values. Six of nine essays in the issue offered arguments for an academic boycott, taking stands against academic freedom and non-discrimination toward Israeli nationals. Cary Nelson, a former AAUP president, in his strongly critical and thoughtful response to these articles, ably defended those values and also countered several misstatements of reality about the Middle East offered in the essays. But one single critical response did not make the volume a balanced or fair issue, for it was not conceived by editor Ashley Dawson, who backs the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, either as a broad or balanced exploration or even an open and fair political discussion of what might work to end Israeli occupation; it rather had the feeling of the old political tactic of packing a room or an event.

Download "Narrowing Academic Freedom, Discriminating against Israeli Nationals: A Response to the AAUP Journal of Academic Freedom, Volume 4" or read below.