To the UW-Madison community,
We, Students for Justice in Palestine and the International Socialist Organization at UW-Madison, would like to invite all members of the UW-Madison community to a Teach-In on the campaign of Boycotts, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israeli institutions in light of recent debates about academic freedom and the call for academic boycott on Israeli academic institutions. The event will take place April 17 at 7:00 PM in the Agriculture room at Union South.
The call for BDS was issued in 2005 and has been supported by dozens of Palestinian civil society organizations, including labor unions, refugee rights associations, and many others. The goals of the BDS movement are to pressure the State of Israel to abide by international law by ending its occupation of all Arab lands (Gaza Strip, West Bank, Golan Heights), granting the fundamental rights of Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality, and respecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties.
Students in the United States have played a major and growing role in the BDS movement, introducing resolutions recommending that their universities divest from companies which operate in Occupied Palestine or profit from maintaining or advancing the occupation of Palestinian land. Students at the University of Michigan occupied the student government chamber for a week in order to pressure them to consider a boycott resolution, and resolutions have passed in the last two weeks at University of Michigan-Dearborn and Loyola University-Chicago. Faculty have also gotten involved. A recent resolution by the American Studies Association (ASA) adopting a policy of boycott on Israeli academic institutions has triggered reactions from within academic communities across the nation.
University administrations have responded. Over a hundred university presidents and chancellors – including Chancellor Blank (see the January 10 entry on her blog) – wrote statements condemning the ASA's boycott decision or even revoked universities' memberships to ASA without consulting faculty. The Northeastern University chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine at Northeastern has been banned by the administration, and students have been suspended for activities promoting BDS. Despite this, interest in BDS and the struggle for justice in Palestine has been growing rapidly.
The debate at UW so far has been one-sided. In addition to Blank's statement, a special UW-Madison Faculty Senate committee is reviewing a resolution proposed in February condemning the ASA for their support for BDS and the use in general of “any academic boycott or similar policy.”
We would like to extend this discussion to include the wider UW-Madison community, in order to make sure that a diversity of voices are heard. It is our conviction that the call for academic boycott stems from, among other things, a deep concern for academic freedom, especially for whom it is most systematically denied – Palestinian researchers and academics. We therefore would like to get the opportunity to review the call for BDS in detail. In particular, we wish to focus on the question at the heart of the matter which we believe has not yet been addressed: How can members of the international academic community respond positively to the call from Palestinians to support their struggle for justice?
The Wisconsin tradition is characterized by a spirit of ‘Sifting and Winnowing’ ideas. As UW-Madison is in the process of shaping an official institutional position regarding academic boycott, it is highly important that all interested parties participate in an educated discussion on the matter.
We look forward to seeing you there.
With any questions, you may email Zeyad at zelomari@wisc.edu.
