Why American academics must join boycott of Israel [View All]

Rania Masri and Marcy Newman


On Friday 16 January, Israeli occupation forces bombed the headquarters of the University Teachers Association-Palestine (UTA), in Gaza, during their indiscriminate, willful destruction of the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City.

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) noted that "the UTA, together with other Gaza-based civil society organizations, called on 15 January for a wide campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel in response to its well-documented, premeditated war crimes in Gaza. The Israeli bombing of UTA's headquarters occurred on the exact following day, 16 January."

On 28 December, Israel had already bombed the Islamic University of Gaza (IUG), with American-made F-16s destroying six buildings including research laboratories and a women's dormitory. IUG, like all Palestinian universities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, has no political affiliation. Like the rest of the society, the faculty and students are a composite of various political factions ranging from Communist to Islamist to unaffiliated. IUG is a flagship university, one with connections to the United States; Americans have taught at the university as Fulbrighters, and professors from the university have been Fulbrighters in the US.

The attack on Gaza is the latest in a long line of Israeli massacres and ethnic cleansing perpetrated with impunity since 1948. Often overlooked but as devastating to a society is Israel's systematic attack on Palestinians' right to education.

These realities must inform debates about the academic boycott campaign.

The IUG and UTA were only two of hundreds of civilian institutions Israel has bombed in the Gaza Strip since 27 December, primarily with American-made weapons. The first bombs were dropped at the precise time when children's school shifts change and students were among the first victims.

Israel has attacked several UN schools killing dozens of people seeking refuge from the onslaught.

As of this writing, 1,400 Palestinians, hundreds among them children, have been killed, and almost 6,000, the vast majority of them civilians, have been injured in a relentless attack. On the ground, officials of the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross have warned of humanitarian catastrophe and observed actions by Israel that may constitute war crimes, including deliberately shelling civilian homes and denying medical care to injured civilians.

But Israel's war against Palestinian civilians began long before the first bombs exploded. For almost two years, Israel has imposed a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip. This has caused a severe shortage of food, medicine, surgical supplies, fuel, electricity and other basic necessities supplies of which Israel, as the Occupying Power, is obliged to assure under international law.

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