When Arab students commit acts of terrorism they are jailed: “A large number of Al-Quds University and Birzeit University students are or have been in prison. We were told that 45 Birzeit University students are currently in jail; three more were added in the month prior to our visit.”
Arab student riots curtail the academic year: “The semester we visited Al-Quds University, it was enjoying a normal 16-week semester, although typically the semester lasts only 12 weeks due to student strikes and Israeli tear gassing.”
And so, the unequivocal conclusion from the above report resulted in the following statement by the anthropologists who had pushed for the boycott in the first place: “As heirs to a long tradition of scholarship on colonialism, anthropologists affirm, through this resolution, that the core problem is Israel’s maintenance of a settler colonial regime based on Jewish supremacy and Palestinian dispossession. By supporting the boycott, anthropologists are taking a stand for justice through action in solidarity with Palestinians.”
Several organizations, including AJC, have already denounced the Denver resolution. “The AAA’s mission is ‘advancing knowledge and solving human problems,’” said Dan Elbaum, AJC Assistant Executive Director. “In Denver AAA members lost sight of their mission, determining the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be solved by boycotting the colleges and universities of the Middle East’s only democracy. Only Israel’s schools of higher education, where Jews and Arabs study together, merit AAA condemnation.”
Apparently, 136 Anthropologists agreed with Mr. Elbaum.
