Academic Pluralism

"The resolution, which purports to support academic freedom in which scholars are free to pursue ideas without being targeted for repression, discipline, or institutional censorship, in actuality urges a sweeping boycott of Israeli academic institutions based on tortured logic, factual inaccuracies and distortions of the role of Israel’s universities, public and private, in the implementation of government policy." 
"The process of endorsing the resolution, which consisted of an electronic membership vote that closed on December 15, raised issues regarding open member discourse and transparency.  The call for a membership vote followed a recommendation by the ASA National Council, a small body of two dozen people that sets policy for an organization of only 5,000 members.  The resolution faced vocal opposition by eight former ASA Presidents, ASA award winners, and members that wrote an open letter condemning the resolution with 70 signatories."
"Until challenged, the leadership did not provide dissenting views or access to the membership to opponents of the resolution.  ASA leaders who claim to champion academic freedom withheld alternate views from their colleagues, resulting in a vote where only one side of a complex conflict was formally presented. This reflected the same imbalance seen at the ASA’s recent annual meeting, where a panel discussion on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict featured only panelists in favor of a boycott." 
Geri Palast, Managing Director of The Israel Action Network

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, as resistant as he is to recognizing Israel formally as a Jewish state, also knows that the economy of the West Bank and Gaza is inextricably intertwined with Israel's to the great benefit of the Palestinian Territories. Were Israel to remove all employment opportunities for Palestinians, and to refuse to help them with potable water access, with energy needs and with multiple additional aids, their condition would be far more parlous than it is, charity from the EU and UN aside.

Which is the reason that he declared, while in South Africa, to attend the funeral of Nelson Mandela, that he is not in favour of boycotting Israeli goods, let alone any of its agents and agencies. He is in favour of a specific boycott of West-bank-produced goods that are manufactured or grown at West Bank settlements by Israelis, employing Palestinian workers to huge benefit, but not to an overall boycott of any kind.

Which has doubtless infuriated far more anti-Israel groups and individuals than he might ever have envisaged, including opponents of his own from within the PA and Gaza. While some groups, like the United Church of Canada, which ha specifically sought a boycott of West Bank-produced goods may feel vindicated, others like the American Studies Association (ASA) will feel disgruntled that Abbass's argument has undermined their own.

The ASA national council has voted 'unanimously' in favour of a boycott resolution, claiming to have put the vote to its five thousand membership roll. In fact it would appear that in reality about 800 members of the five thousand, representing two thirds of those who voted, approved the boycott. An evident example of the tail leading the dog. It's called arse-backward righteousness whose result is to overturn the tradition of exempting academia from politics.

What they have amply accomplished by this move is to pit American scholars and their organizations against each other with a heated debate revolving about the ethics of academic boycotts, along with the motives behind the campaign and whether Israel is being -- as generally occurs in other such instances and on other like occasions -- singled out unfairly. This happens from sites such as the United Nations all the way over to trade unions, selecting Israel for biased campaigns. 

"The idea that of all the countries in the world that might be thought to have human rights abuses, that might be thought to have inappropriate foreign polices, that might be thought to be doing things wrong, the idea that there's only one that is worthy of boycott, and that is Israel", is deserving of a reverse boycott with universities reconsidering footing the bill for faculty members to belong to the ASA or to participate in its events, as far as Lawrence Summers, former Harvard University president is concerned. 

The American Association of University Professors, with its 487,000 membership, has repeated its position against academic boycotts. Claiming that they "strike directly at the free exchange of ideas", and in their obviously biased approach to protests against oppression, stifling the kind of interaction might aid human rights. In a manner of speaking, a reflection of the perceptions and actions of the late, lamented Nelson Mandela.

Which he preached often without practising, and which the ASA is now practising to preach.