American Studies Group Debates Boycott of Israel

The American Studies Association gathers this week in Washington for its annual meeting -- and one topic of discussion will be a proposal that the scholarly group back the boycott of Israeli universities. The boycott movement has had considerable support in Europe but most American academic groups have opposed boycotts of higher education institutions as antithetical to academic freedom. To date, only one American scholarly group -- the Association for Asian American Studies -- has backed the boycott movement. Some American studies scholars are speaking out against the proposal -- and many have signed a petition urging the association not to endorse the boycott.