"Boycotts directed at Israel are unhelpful, and we oppose them," State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said in a statement Friday.
But that's exactly what the American Studies Association's National Council recommended in December. More than 65 percent of members voted to participate in a boycott of Israeli academic institutions.
The New York Senate passed a bill Tuesday targeting the American Studies Association for its decision to boycott Israel. The bill, introduced by Senator Jeff Klein, prohibits colleges and universities from spending taxpayer funds on academic groups that boycott countries like Israel where the New York Board of Regents charters a school.
"Make no mistake: the ASA's boycott is targeted discrimination against Israel that betrays the values of academic freedom that we hold dear," Senator Klein said in a press release.
This remark begs the question. For whom do we hold the values of academic freedom dear?
After all, the American Studies Association's boycott is in protest of the illegal occupation of Palestine, the infringements of the right to education of Palestinian students, and the academic freedom of Palestinian scholars and students in the West Bank, Gaza and Israel, according to its website.
The State Department seemingly only differs in the decision to boycott.
"We don't think the [Israeli] settlements are legitimate," Harf said.
Despite this rhetoric, between 1972 and 2012, the U.S. solitarily vetoed 43 U.N. resolutions critical of Israel, 30 of which concerned the occupied Palestinian territories.
Israel is also the recipient of the largest portions of U.S. foreign and military aid. It goes without saying that U.S. taxpayers foot the bill.
Senator Klein purports to protect those taxpayers.
"This legislation sends a very simple message, which is that we should never ask taxpayers to support religious, ethnic, or racial discrimination," Senator Klein said in a statement.
Ironically, the American Studies Association's resolution to boycott is modeled on the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, which took inspiration from the boycott campaign against South African apartheid.
The State Department has its own agenda.
"We have different policy, diplomatic, and economic tools that we think are important in getting us to the policy goal we want in every country," Harf said. "I'm just not going to compare them [Israel to South Africa]."
Apparently, most Senators in New York are just not going to compare the academic freedom of the Israelis to that of the Palestinians.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
