Stand Against Apartheid Lawfare!
Stand with the American Studies Association!
#boycottracism!
The Louis D. Brandeis Center is engaged in lawfare against members of the American Studies Association, against the association itself, and against the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (http://www.usacbi.org/). This lawfare takes the form of a frivolous and racist lawsuit.

As experts at Palestine Legal have explained: “The Brandeis Center is seeking to fix the failed theory of their original lawsuit against the American Studies Association (ASA) by asking the court for permission to add new theories and new defendants. Doubling down on the harassment campaign, the Brandeis Center is also on a McCarthyist media blitz accusing ASA scholars of a covert campaign to take over the ASA” (https://palestinelegal.org/news/2016/4/20/palestine-legal-statement-on-lawsuit-against-asa).

This lawsuit, as the brief filed by the ASA notes, “is being used as a platform from which Plaintiffs and their supporters can mine for data with which to harass anyone whose views differ from the Plaintiffs” and their supporters.”

In March 2017, the court dismissed most of the Brandeis Center”s charges against the ASA. The court found that the ASA resolution was “enacted for academic purposes” as it “was aimed both at encouraging academic freedom for Palestinians and strengthening relations between American institutions and Palestinians.” And yet, the Brandeis Center has persisted in its harassment. The Center filed a motion this November 2017, naming further members of the ASA who, we note, are predominantly queer, indigenous/Palestinian, and women of color, despite the fact that those working towards the resolution also included white (and specifically white Jewish) ASA members, and although an overwhelming majority of the ASA membership voted in favor of the resolution.

The motion”s charges distort a democratic political process. The ASA voted by a 2-1 margin of the membership in favor of boycott after a year of open, public debate within the Association. The Lawsuit attempts to describe this vote as a secret conspiracy of deception, one in which elected ASA leaders “infiltrated” the organization and engaged in “an illegal, hostile takeover” of the ASA. Such charges ignore the several years of public and open grassroots organizing by established caucuses within the ASA; the panels, town hall and open meetings set up to educate the membership and debate the resolution; and finally an unprecedented and overwhelmingly positive vote by the entire membership when passing a resolution requires only the support of the National Council. Indeed, the “secret” process that the plaintiffs are “unearthing” through harassing methods and lawfare is available in the open and detailed account given in the recently published book Boycott! (https://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520294899). Detailed public accounts of the ASA campaign have also been published in the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/17/education/scholars-group-endorses-an-academic-boycott-of-israel.html), the Chronicle of Higher Education (https://www.chronicle.com/article/Scholars-Debate-Significance/143645), and the Association”s own flagship journal, American Quarterly (https://muse.jhu.edu/article/605053).

In the wake of the resolution, the ASA membership has increased, and the BDS movement itself is steadily gaining popular and academic support. Since the ASA vote, the National Women”s Studies Association, the National Association of Chicano/a Studies, and the Critical Ethnic Studies Association have all voted to boycott Israeli universities.

With its lawsuit, the Brandeis Center continues its sustained and increasingly desperate campaign to criminalize any criticism of Israel, or any Palestine solidarity work. Their unscrupulous actions that support practices of settler colonialism, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing in Palestine, and white supremacy, McCarthyism, Islamophobia, and racism in the US find their counterpart in the actions of Donald Trump and the “alt right.”

Please take a stand to resist such forces! Please sign below to express solidarity with those being targeted, censured, and held singly responsible for a democratic process and vote. And, in doing so, show your support as well for the ASA and for the right to engage in BDS organizing free of harassment, lawfare, and racist and colonial campaigns of intimidation!

(Please check for spelling and punctuation, as what you type is how it will appear.)

*Organizational Endorsers
US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel
Labor for Palestine
Jews for Palestinian Right of Return
Jewish Voice for Peace
Committee for Open Discussion of Zionism
US Campaign for Palestinian Rights
Association des Universitaires pour le Respect du Droit International en Palestine (AURDIP) France
Faculty for Palestine (Toronto, Canada)

*Signatories
Cynthia Franklin Department of English, University of Hawai’i ASA Member
David Palumbo-Liu Stanford University ASA Member
Bill V. Mullen American Studies, Purdue University ASA Member
Heike Schotten University of Massachusetts Boston ASA Member
Terri Ginsberg Film Program, The American University in Cairo
Rima Najjar Al-Quds University (retired)
Adam Miyashiro Literature, Stockton University
David Klein Department of Mathematics, California State University Northridge
Herman De Ley (BACBI) Philosophy & Moral Science, Ghent Univ., Belgium
Craig Willse Cultural Studies, George Mason University ASA Member
Bertell Ollman Dept. of Politics, NYU
David Lloyd English, University of California at Riverside ASA Member
Tithi Bhattacharya Department of History, Purdue University
Jean O”Brien University of Minnesota ASA Member
R. Karl New York university, History
Bret Benjamin University at Albany, SUNY
Adam Waterman Department of English, American University of Beirut ASA Member
Shelley Streeby UCSD ASA Member
Liron Mor Comparative Literature, UC Irvine
Jane Glaubman English, Cornell ASA Member
Rajini Srikanth English, University of Massachusetts Boston ASA Member
Eric Covey American Studies, Miami University ASA Member
Victoria Delaney Binghamton University ABD
Candace Fujikane English Department, University of Hawaiʻi ASA Member
Hester Eisenstein Sociology, Queens College and the Graduate Center, CUNY
Kay Gabriel Princeton University
Nada Elia
David McNally Political Science, York University
Pranav Jani Department of English, The Ohio State University
S. Shankar English, U of Hawaii`i at Manoa
Margot Weiss American Studies & Anthropology, Wesleyan University
Matthew Garrett English & American Studies, Wesleyan University
Kerwin Kaye Sociology Department, Wesleyan University ASA Member
Rabab Abdulhadi Arab & Muslim Ethnicities & Diasporas Studies, San Francisco State University ASA Member
Sabina Wildman UC Santa Cruz
Shelley Streeby UCSD ASA Member
Timothy J Reiss Department of Comparative Literature, New York University (Emeritus)
Patricia Penn Hilden University of California, Berkeley ASA Member
Aaron Jaffe The Juilliard School
Jeff Jacobs Political Science, Columbia University
Julie Rak Dept English/Film Studies, University of Alberta
Alex Lubin ASA Member
Ofer Neiman
Elizabeth Goetz CUNY Graduate Center
Laura Lyons University of Hawai’i ASA Member
Maggie Vascassenno
Jordy Rosenberg University of Massachusetts ASA Member
Andrew Ross Professor of American Studies, NYU ASA Member
Jonathan Rosenhead Operational Research, London School of Economics
Kadji Amin Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Emory University ASA Member
Christipher Patterson Humanities and Creative Writing, Hong Kong Baptist ASA Member
Jeffrey Melnick American Studies, University of Massachusetts Boston ASA Member
Richard Falk Albert G. Milbank Prof. Emeritus of International Law at Princeton U and Visiting Distinguished Prof. in Global and International Studies at UC, Santa Barbara
Caren Kaplan American Studies, UC Davis ASA Member
Natalia Deeb-Sossa Department of Chicana/o Studies, University of California at Davis
Noah Guynn French & Italian, University of California, Davis
Baki Tezcan History; University of California, Davis
Parama Roy Department of English, UC Davis
Britt Rusert UMass Amherst ASA Member
Scott Kurashige University of Washington Bothell ASA Member
Roy Perez Willamette University ASA Member
Mary-Jo Nadeau PhD Sociology (York University,)
Kasturi Ray Women and Gender Studies, San Francisco State University
Ahmed Abbes Directeur de recherche au CNRS, Paris France
Victor Mendoza Women’s Studies and English, University of Michigan ASA Member
Barry Trachtenberg Wake Forest University
Michel Habib Finance, University of Zurich
Alexandra Chasin Lit St, The New School; Brandeis BA “84 ASA Member
Sarah City University of New York
Andrew Meyer Department of Politics, UC Santa Cruz
Dr. Edwin E. Daniel Professor Emeritus, Univerity of Alberta
E. Natalie Rothman Dept. of History, University of Toronto
Gina Crandell Northeastern University
Merrill Cole English, Western Illinois University
Alan Wald H. Chandler Davis Collegiate Professor Emeritus, University of Michigan ASA Member
James C Faris Director Emeritus, University of Connecticut Program in Middle Eastern Languages and Area Studies
MARIA COTERA UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN ASA Member
Evelyn Alsultany University of Michigan ASA Member
Glenn Hendler English and American Studies, Fordham University ASA Member
Martin Ponce English, Ohio State University
R. A. Shoaps Anthropology, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Prof Charles E. Butterworth Emeritus Professor, Department of Government & Politics, University of Maryland
Susette Min Department of Asian American Studies, UC Davis ASA Member
Amy Kaplan English, University of Pennsylvania ASA Member, ASA Elected Position
Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes Department of American Culture, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor ASA Member
James Newman former Assistant Professor, University Of Illinois Medical School
Arturo Giraldez Modern Language and Lit. Dept. University of the Pacific
Jeff Fort Department of French, UC Davis
Cyrus Bina, Distinguished Research Professor of Economics University of Minnesota (Morris Campus)
Thomas Hayes Ohio University
Lisa Daily New York University ASA Member
Kayla Keener Cultural Studies, George Mason University ASA Member
Jonathan Graubart Political Science, San Diego State
Khoi Nguyen George Mason University ASA Member
Brooke Lober UC Berkeley Gender and Women’s Studies ASA Member
Abigail Boggs Sociology, Wesleyan University ASA Member
Basak Durgun George Mason University ASA Member
Sophia Azeb New York University ASA Member
Dennis Kortheuer History emeritus Cal State U Long Beach
Ryan Bowerman Cultural Studies, George Mason University
David B. Chandler Mathematics, Widener University
Sofya Aptekar Sociology, UMass Boston
Elsa Auerbach Professor Emerita, Univ of Massachusetts Boston
Howard Winant Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara ASA Member
Caroline West Cultural Studies, George Mason University
Malini Schueller English Department, univ of florida ASA Member
Aren Aizura Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies, University of Minnesota ASA Member
Andres Fabian Henao Castro Political Science, University of Massachusetts Boston
Ofelia Cuevas UC Davis ASA Member
Elora Chowdhury Associate Professor, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies UMass Boston
Marilyn Frankenstein Retired, UMass/Boston, College of Pubic and Community Service
Michael Keefer Professor Emeritus, School of English and Theatre Studies, University of Guelph
Martha London University of Massachusetts Boston
Dawn Peterson History, Emory ASA Member
John King
Michael Letwin
Stephen Roddy Asian Studies, USF
Hassan Fouda
Ivan Huber Emeritus, Biology, Fairleigh Dickinson Univ., Madison, NJ
Javier Barquin Ruiz Universidad de Malaga
Aneil Rallin Associate Professor of Rhetoric, Soka University of America ASA Member
Les Levidow Development Policy and Practice, Open University, UK
Martin A. Billeter University of Zurich, Switzerland
Jennifer Doyle English, UC Riverside ASA Member
John Chalcraft Government Department, LSE
Lorenzo Feltrin PhD student, University of Warwick
Mayssoun Sukarieh
Emeritus Prof. Andrew Paul Gutierrez Ecosystem Science, University of California at Berkeley
Yi-Chun Tricia Lin Women’s Studies, Southern Connecticut State University
Amr Shalakany Department of Law, The American University in Cairo
George Katsiaficas
Vida Samiian Linguistics, California State University, Fresno
Sami Hermez Liberal Arts, Northwestern University in Qatar
Mara T. Horowitz History Department, Purchase College SUNY
Salah Hassan English, Michigan State University ASA Member
Paola Bacchetta U C Berkeley
Maurice Stierl, PhD
Nicola Pratt Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick
Lauren Muller City College of San Francisco ASA Member
Jodi Byrd English/Gender & Women’s Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ASA Member
Myka Tucker-Abramson English, University of Warwick
Tim Mahoney MA Philosophy, CUNY Graduate Center
Deema Shehabi RAWI member
Kelvin Bland RIBA APJP
Philip Metres English
Elmaz Abinader VONA/Voices
Ebony Coletu English, Pennsylvania State University ASA Member
Javier Arbona American Studies, UC Davis ASA Member
Cornelia Flora Sociology, Kansas State University ASA Member
William Davison
Joel Reinstein
Jamal Nimer University of Chicago
Rachel Brown Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Washington University in St. Louis
Marilyn Hacker Professor (Emerita) CUNY Graduate Center
Penny Rosenwasser Interdisciplinary Studies, City College of San Francisco
Jodi Melamed Marquette University, ASA National Council ASA Member, ASA Elected Position
Elliott Leib
Ivar Ekeland Former President, University of Paris-Dauphine
Johanna Bockman Global Affairs, George Mason University
Rosalyn Amenta Women’s Studies, Southern CT State University
Shauna Rigaud PHD Student, George Mason University
Régis Pomí¨s University of Toronto
Issam alyamani ASA Elected Position
Wilfrid Denis University of Saskatchewan (St. Thomas More College)
Kathy Wazana MFA, York University
Harry Smaller Faculty of Education, York University, Toronto
Prabha Khosla Gender Justice Advocate
Richard Seaford University of Exeter
Colin Dayan Vanderbilt University ASA Member
Rakhshanda Saleem UMass Boston
Lawrence Davidson West Chester U.
Amy Osika Historical Studies New School
Timothy Gibson George Mason University
James Dickins School of Languages, Cultures and Societies, University of Leeds (United Kingdom)
Chandler Davis Mathematics, University of Toronto