The following
is my latest column in The Jewish Link of Bergen County, in which I take a
deeper look at the academic boycott targeting Israel:
The
Prejudice-Promulgating Professors
By: N.
Aaron Troodler, Esq.
Academics
traditionally wear the mantle of freedom of expression with great pride. They
embrace the open exchange of ideas and embolden others to engage in independent
thinking and knowledge-enhancing exercises. These scholars are generally
well-respected and their disciplined pursuit of academic excellence in their
respective subject areas is extremely noteworthy.
Like
most things, however, there is an exception to the rule. Unfortunately, when it
comes to professors encouraging freedom of expression in the world of academia,
that exception is the State of Israel.
In
a bizarre deviation from the norm in academic circles, there are a growing
number of professors who seem to believe that a double standard is somehow
acceptable when it comes to Israel. On one hand, they promote inclusiveness and
individuality. On the other hand, they have inexplicably chosen to support an
academic boycott of Israel.
This
movement, which is known as Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (“B.D.S.”), has gotten
some traction over the past several years. It gained further momentum when the
members of the American Studies Association, a U.S.-based organization that is
comprised of university professors, recently voted to endorse the boycott
effort.
The
rationale among supporters of B.D.S is that this movement is a means by which
they can protest what they claim to be Israel’s inhumane and inequitable policies
towards, and treatment of, the Palestinian Arabs.
The
audacity and hypocrisy of these professors is incredible. They hold themselves
out to be bastions of free expression, yet they have chosen to stifle a country
that happens to be the sole democratic nation in the Middle East region, and
which has made tremendous inroads in the academic world and great strides in
developing innovative ideas and emergent technology. They have taken the
extreme measure of condemning the State of Israel over its handling of the
Palestinian Arabs, yet they turn a blind eye to the countless acts of terror
perpetrated against innocent Israelis by its Arab neighbors.
The
backers of the B.D.S movement allege human rights violations against Israel and
single out the Jewish State, however, they apparently ignore the egregious and
blatant human rights violations that are pervasive in other nations around the
world.
In
its 2013 World Report, Human Rights Watch, an organization that monitors and
reviews human rights practices throughout the world, outlined a plethora of human
rights violations that occurred in 2012.
For
example, basic rights of freedom of
expression and association are routinely restricted by the government in numerous
countries, including Ethiopia, Rwanda, Afghanistan, China, North Korea,
Singapore, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Turkey, and Egypt.
In
the Democratic Republic of Congo and
Honduras, human rights activists and journalists are threatened, arrested, and
killed. In Mali, political upheaval resulted in the displacement of 400,000
residents. In Uganda, the government’s
security force routinely engage in acts of torture. In Colombia, human rights
defenders are under constant attack. In Cuba, the government suppresses all
political dissent. In Venezuela, opponents of the government are intimidated
and prosecuted. In Tajikistan, the government restricts religious expression
and education, and domestic violence against women and children is commonplace.
In Uzbekistan, torture is widely utilized in the criminal justice system,
freedom of expression is limited, and the government sponsors forced child
labor. In Iran, executions for various offenses are prevalent. In Iraq,
detainees are arbitrarily tortured and peaceful protesters face intimidation
and violence. In Syria, tens of thousands of people have been killed as
anti-government protests morphed into an all-out armed conflict.
The twisted tales of heinous human rights violations
that are taking place around the globe are sickening. Yet, remarkably, the
professors involved in the B.D.S. movement do not seem too concerned, as they
have not taken any steps to initiate boycotts against the countless countries
that sanction these crimes against humanity.
As self-professed defenders of human rights, the academics’
silence in the face of such overt human rights violations is deafening. In
fact, it makes me wonder if their Israeli boycott actually has anything to do
with human rights at all.
The
B.D.S. movement is nothing more than an anti-Israel and anti-Semitic exercise.
The professors who enthusiastically support the boycott have shamelessly shed
their academic integrity in favor of intolerance and traded in their scholarly books
for bigotry.
This
misguided group of professors is unapologetically promulgating prejudice.
Instead of singling out Israel for fallacious human rights infringements, the
B.D.S. group should turn its attention to the myriad cases of serious human
rights violations that occur on a daily basis around the globe.
Stop
picking on Israel solely because it is a Jewish State and focus on places and
situations that are actually worthy of protestation. My dear professors, your
narrow-mindedness is unbecoming, unprofessional, and unpardonable.
N. Aaron Troodler is an attorney and a principal of Paul Revere Public Relations, a public relations and political consulting firm. Visit him on the Web at
TroodlersTake.blogspot.com, www.PaulReverePR.com, or www.JewishWorldPR.com. You
can also follow him on Twitter: @troodler
