BDS ON CAMPUS

ACADEMIC BOYCOTTS

Some faculty and student groups advocate for the suspension of academic collaborations with Israeli institutions. This includes calls to end research partnerships and exchange programs. 

Notably, Ghent University in Belgium recommended ending research collaborations with Israeli institutions. [1]

BDS openly advocates for cutting all ties with Israeli institutions, researchers, and scholars, undermining bedrock principles upon which universities are built - academic freedom and the free exchange of ideas. Such BDS campaigns have previously elicited condemnations by the Association of American Universities, 250-plus university and college presidents, and several other academic associations. [2] [3] [4]

Sari Nusseibeh, the former president of the Palestinian Al Quds University, publicly opposed academic boycotts of Israel, calling instead for “cooperation based on mutual respect.” [5] In 2022, Mona Khoury-Kassabri, Vice President for Strategy and Inclusion at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and the first Arab Israeli Vice President at the university, said she does not support academic boycotts. [6]

In past years, thirty-eight Nobel Laureates signed a joint letter discouraging a proposed boycott of Israel because it is “antithetical to principles of academic and scientific freedom, antithetical to principles of freedom of expression and inquiry, and may well constitute discrimination by virtue of national origin.” [7]

BDS’s academic boycott guidelines are a prime example of why the movement is so problematic. The guidelines include calls for boycotts of:  

  • Study abroad programs in Israel.  

  • All cooperation projects involving “Palestinians and/or other Arabs on one side and Israelis on the other” in which the Israeli side fails to capitulate to BDS’s political demands in advance fully. In effect, this means Israelis would have to support the elimination of their own state and the violation of their own rights.  

  • Events co-sponsored by not only Israel and all of its academic institutions, but also by organizations that “support” Israel. What “support” for Israel means is undefined.  

  • Events that take place in Israel, even if they are sponsored by international organizations rather than Israeli institutions.  

  • Any event where Israeli officials or representatives of Israeli academic institutions speak. 

  • Hillel and other Jewish (including non-Israeli) organizations. 

This ideological assault on Israeli universities and professors is deeply concerning not only because it undermines hopes for a just peace, but also because it erodes academic freedom, the free exchange of ideas, and intellectual integrity. In effect, BDS campaigns demand that universities and academics sacrifice their most fundamental principles at the altar of anti-Israel extremism.