A BDS South Africa banner at the FNB Stadium in Soweto_site of the memorial service for Nelson Mandela_2013 December

Comment

Comment by Tony Nuspl on December 17, 2013 at 11:02am

Perhaps in homage to Nelson Mandela, in the wake of his death, an American association of scholars has endorsed BDS (boycott, divestment, sanction), to put pressure on Israel the way that pressure was put on South Africa to end apartheid.  

The full membership of the American Studies Association (ASA) has voted by a two-to-one margin to endorse an academic boycott of Israel, it was announced today.

The referendum was called after the National Council, the ASA’s governing body, endorsed the boycott itself on 4 December.

The vote is likely to be seen as an historic milestone in the Palestinian campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS), particularly in the United States, where university administrations have forcefully opposed student and faculty initiatives of this kind.

The ASA describes itself as the “nation’s oldest and largest association devoted to the interdisciplinary study of American culture and history.”

It has 5,000 individual members along with 2,200 library and other institutional subscribers.

ASA membership votes to boycott Israel by landslide
Submitted by Ali Abunimah on Mon, 12/16/2013
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/asa-membership-vot...