In a general membership vote that has been condemned as “abhorrent,” the Association for Asian-American Studies has unanimously approved a resolution to boycott Israeli universities, becoming the first American scholarly association to do so.  Inside Higher Ed describes the AAAS vote, which was startling in its unanimity:

About 10 percent of the association’s membership was present for last week’s secret ballot vote, which was open to all members and took place on the final day of the AAAS annual conference in Seattle. The resolution raises a number of concerns about the impact of Israeli policies on Palestinian students and scholars – including restrictions on travel and the forced closure or destruction of schools as a result of Israeli military actions – and describes Israeli academic institutions as “deeply complicit in Israel’s violations of international law and human rights and in its denial of the right to education and academic freedom to Palestinians, in addition to their basic rights as guaranteed by international law.”

Scholars for Peace in the Middle East quickly censured the AAAS’ boycott resolution as “antithetical to principles of academic and scientific freedom.”  SPME President Richard Cravatts, an LDB Board member, further castigated the AAS resolution as “morally incoherent.”  The SPME statement appears in full below: (more…)