December 11, 2013 12:25 AM
By Rami G. Khouri
The Daily Star

STORY SUMMARY

When the National Council of the American Studies Association last week passed a motion recommending to its members to endorse and honor the Palestinian drive to boycott Israeli academic institutions, the expected furor broke out.

The American Studies Association is not one of the largest or most powerful groups in American academia, but its endorsement of the Palestinian academic and cultural boycott of Israeli institutions is significant for several reasons.

Lubin also noted the convergence of several other trends, including academics feeling the need to speak out about the role of universities; the impact of Students for Justice in Palestine groups across many campuses, where it has become easier to debate Israel-Palestine issues in public; the influence within ASA of Native American and indigenous studies and its theorizing of settler-colonialism; the impact of Occupy Wall Street movement activism and its related analysis of debt and the neoliberal university; the opening up of the debate on Israel-Palestine by American studies academic centers around the world; and, the growing realization that “academic freedom” cannot be isolated from other freedoms that most Palestinians are denied because of the Israeli occupation and colonial-settlement activities.

Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Opinion/Columnist/2013/Dec-11/240617-american-academics-stand-up-for-justice.ashx#ixzz2nFG1NLVc
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)