More than 250 anthropologists have signed a statement endorsing the burgeoning movement to boycott Israeli academic institutions in protest of Israel’s systematic human
rights violations against the Palestinian people. These violations, in which many Israeli educational institutions are complicit, include denying Palestinians their right to
education and academic freedom.
The full statement and signatory list are at http://anthroboycott.
As scholars who specialize in how power, oppression, and structural violence affect social life, and as witnesses to the State of Israel’s multiple and egregious violations of international law that constitute an assault on Palestinian culture and society, they pledge to abide by their discipline’s stated commitment to “the promotion and
protection of the right of people and people’s everywhere to the full realization of their humanity.”
These anthropologists have determined that the policies, actions, and programs of Israeli academic institutions are complicit in the occupation and oppression of Palestinians in Israel and in the Occupied Territories in multiple ways. In calling for this institutional boycott, they pledge not to collaborate on projects and events hosted or funded by Israeli academic institutions, not to teach at or attend conferences or other events at such institutions, and not to publish in academic journals based in Israel. They remain open to collaboration with individual scholars based in the Israeli academy.
The signatories of the statement call on their anthropologist colleagues to join them, along with thousands of members of a growing number of US academic associations
(including the American Studies Association, the Association for Asian American Studies, and the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association), in answering the call from Palestinian civil society as well as from a number of Israeli anthropologists, to cease legitimizing Israeli academic institutions and thereby condoning their role in the
continued suppression of the basic rights of the Palestinian people.
Anthropologists interested in signing this statement should visit:
http://anthroboycott.
or email their name and affiliation to:
anthroboycott@gmail.com
Media Inquiries:
Nadia Abu El Haj nadiaabuelhaj@gmail.com 212 854 7628
J. KÄ“haulani Kauanui kauanui@hotmail.com 860 638 1264
Lisa Rofel lrofel@ucsc.edu
