The following are official statements released by the respective organizations, either supporting or opposing the BDS movement.

African Literature Association (July 2014)

The ALA supports the Academic Boycott of Israeli Academic Institutions.

Whereas the African Literature Association is committed to the pursuit of social justice, to the struggle against all forms of racism, including anti-semitism, discrimination, and xenophobia, and to solidarity with aggrieved peoples in Africa and in the world; Whereas Israel's occupation of Palestine and the expansion of illegal settlements and the Wall in violation of international law, as well as in supporting the systematic discrimination against Palestinians, has had documented devastating impact on the overall well-being, the exercise of political and human rights, the freedom of movement, and the educational opportunities of Palestinians; Whereas there is no effective or substantive academic freedom for Palestinian students and scholars under conditions of Israeli occupation, and Israeli institutions of higher learning are a party to Israeli state policies that violate human rights and negatively impact the working conditions of Palestinian scholars and students; Whereas the African Literature Association is dedicated to the right of students and scholars to pursue education and research without undue state interference, repression, and military violence, and in keeping with the spirit of its previous statements supports the right of students and scholars to intellectual freedom and to political dissent as citizens and scholars; it is resolved that the African Literature Association (ALA) endorses and will honor the call of Palestinian civil society for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions. It is also resolved that the ALA supports the protected rights of students and scholars everywhere to engage in research and public speaking about Israel-Palestine and in support of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement.

American Studies Association (December 2013)

December 4, 2013

Whereas the American Studies Association is committed to the pursuit of social justice, to the struggle against all forms of racism, including anti-semitism, discrimination, and xenophobia, and to solidarity with aggrieved peoples in the United States and in the world;

Whereas the United States plays a significant role in enabling the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the expansion of illegal settlements and the Wall in violation of international law, as well as in supporting the systematic discrimination against Palestinians, which has had documented devastating impact on the overall well-being, the exercise of political and human rights, the freedom of movement, and the educational opportunities of Palestinians;

Whereas there is no effective or substantive academic freedom for Palestinian students and scholars under conditions of Israeli occupation, and Israeli institutions of higher learning are a party to Israeli state policies that violate human rights and negatively impact the working conditions of Palestinian scholars and students;

Whereas the American Studies Association is cognizant of Israeli scholars and students who are critical of Israeli state policies and who support the international boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement under conditions of isolation and threat of sanction;

Whereas the American Studies Association is dedicated to the right of students and scholars to pursue education and research without undue state interference, repression, and military violence, and in keeping with the spirit of its previous statements supports the right of students and scholars to intellectual freedom and to political dissent as citizens and scholars;

It is resolved that the American Studies Association (ASA) endorses and will honor the call of Palestinian civil society for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions. It is also resolved that the ASA supports the protected rights of students and scholars everywhere to engage in research and public speaking about Israel-Palestine and in support of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement.

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December 16, 2013

The members of the American Studies Association have endorsed the Association’s participation in a boycott of Israeli academic institutions. In an election that attracted 1252 voters, the largest number of participants in the organization’s history, 66.05% of voters endorsed the resolution, while 30.5% of voters voted no and 3.43% abstained. The election was a response to the ASA National Council’s announcement on December 4 that it supported the academic boycott and, in an unprecedented action to ensure a democratic process, asked its membership for their approval.

American Anthropological Association (May 2016)

In a close vote, the American Anthropological Association (AAA) membership voted against a resolution to boycott Israeli academic institutions. Voting took place by electronic ballot between April 15 and May 31. Fifty-one percent of AAA’s eligible members voted, the largest turnout in AAA history, with 2,423 members opposing the resolution, and 2,384 voting to support it.

“The membership has spoken and we hear them,” said AAA President Alisse Waterston. “We appreciate this was a difficult vote on an important and contentious issue. I’m especially proud that our members participated in knowledgeable, thoughtful, respectful debate throughout the process, and that AAA offers a model for informed engagement on difficult subjects. Now is the time for us to come together as an association steadfastly committed to advancing scholarly knowledge, to finding solutions to human and social problems, to giving voice to the underserved and to serving as a guardian of human rights.”

AAA members are generally in agreement that serious threats to academic freedom and human rights have been noted in Israel-Palestine as a result of Israeli government policies and practices, and that AAA should respond to these threats. The AAA Executive Board has approved a set of actions that are aligned with the Association's core values and mission as a professional society and in accordance with the findings, guiding principles, and list of possible actions detailed in the Task Force on Israel Palestine (TFIP) report. The Board-approved actions include:

Issuing a statement of censure of the Israeli government

Issuing a letter to relevant authorities in the US government identifying the ways in which US resources and policies contribute to policies in Israel/Palestine that violate academic freedom and disenfranchise Palestinians.

Approving ways to provide active resource support for Palestinian and Israeli academics as well as visiting scholars in the region.

By means of these actions, AAA will contribute to raising critical awareness of the dynamics of peace and conflict in the region, draw attention to the disproportionate suffering of the Palestinian people as a result of the Occupation and what can be done about it, and expand the space for dialogue on these sensitive and important human rights and academic freedom issues. AAA believes that these actions can contribute to the enrichment of the health and welfare of all citizens in the region, increased circulation of anthropological scholarship, eased restrictions on scholars’ travel, increased freedom of expression for Palestinian and Israeli anthropologists, and increased dialogue about how archaeology is used in political arguments.

Waterston added, “We understand the Association’s capacities and limitations to effect positive social change. We also see the conditions on the ground in Israel-Palestine and understand the multiplicity of factors that have created them. Our actions do not come from a position of easy moral superiority but from love for all of humanity.”

Association for Asian-American Studies (April 2013)

Resolution to Support the Boycott of Israeli Academic Institutions

Whereas the Association for Asian American Studies is an organization dedicated to the preservation and support of academic freedom and of the right to education for students and scholars in the U.S. and globally;

and Whereas Arab (West Asian) and Muslim American communities, students, and scholars have been subjected to profiling, surveillance, and civil rights violations that have circumscribed their freedom of political expression, particularly in relation to the issue of human rights in Palestine-Israel;

and Whereas the Association for Asian American Studies seeks to foster scholarship that engages conditions of migration, displacement, colonialism, and racism, and the lives of people in zones of war and occupation;

and Whereas the Association for Asian American Studies seeks to advance a critique of U.S. empire, opposing US military occupation in the Arab world and U.S. support for occupation and racist practices by the Israeli state;

and Whereas the United Nations has reported that the current Israeli occupation of Palestine has impacted students “whose development is deformed by pervasive deprivations affecting health, education and overall security”;

and Whereas Palestinian universities and schools have been periodically forced to close as a result of actions related to the Israeli occupation, or have been destroyed by Israeli military strikes, and Palestinian students and scholars face restrictions on movement and travel that limit their ability to attend and work at universities, travel to conferences and to study abroad, and thereby obstruct their right to education;

and Whereas the Israeli state and Israeli universities directly and indirectly impose restrictions on education, scholarships, and participation in campus activities on Palestinian students in Israel;

and Whereas Israel imposes severe restrictions on foreign academics and students seeking to attend conferences and do research in Palestine as well as on scholars and students of Arab/Palestinian origin who wish to travel to IsraelPalestine;

and Whereas Israeli institutions of higher education have not condemned or taken measures to oppose the occupation and racial discrimination against Palestinians in Israel, but have, rather, been directly and indirectly complicit in the systematic maintenance of the occupation and of policies and practices that discriminate against Palestinian students and scholars throughout Palestine and in Israel;

and Whereas Israeli academic institutions are deeply complicit in Israel's violations of international law and human rights and in its denial of the right to education and academic freedom to Palestinians, in addition to their basic rights as guaranteed by international law;

and Whereas the Association for Asian American Studies supports research and open discussion about these issues without censorship, intimidation, or harassment, and seeks to promote academic exchange, collaboration and opportunities for students and scholars everywhere;

Be it resolved that the Association for Asian American Studies endorses and will honor the call of Palestinian civil society for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions. Be it also resolved that the Association for Asian American Studies supports the protected rights of students and scholars everywhere to engage in research and public speaking about Israel-Palestine and in support of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.

PASSED. No OBJECTIONS. No ABSTENTIONS. April 20th, 2013 by the General Membership of the Association for Asian American Studies.

Association for Humanist Sociology (October 2013)

The membership of the Association for Humanist Sociology, an organization dedicated to scholarship and action in the service of justice and peace, has voted to support the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. The call to boycott came out of Palestinian civil society and we are answering the call. This is part of a global and broadly-supported Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement aimed at ending the gross violation of Palestinian rights in Palestine/Israel.

Israel has continued and, in fact, intensified its colonization of Palestinian land in violation of international law. The human suffering in the Occupied Territories is great and getting more severe in many ways. All efforts to get Israel to reverse course have failed. BDS initiatives, including the Academic and Cultural Boycott, are what the international human rights community has left to dissuade Israel from this tragic course of action it has chosen.

It is our most sincere hope that the State of Israel listens to these cries for justice, which have emanated from around the world, including inside Israel itself. It must halt its repression and enter into negotiations as an equal partner with representatives of the Palestinian people that will lead to a mutually agreed upon peaceful settlement respecting the human rights and national aspirations of both peoples.

The membership of the Association for Humanist Sociology urges the U.S. government, which has continued to provide military and economic support to Israel, to discontinue such support immediately and to support instead:

(1) the right of return for Palestinian refugees;
(2) full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel; and
(3) the end of occupation and colonial rule.

Critical Ethnic Studies Association (July 2014)

Whereas the Critical Ethnic Studies Association is an organization that aims to develop an approach to scholarship, institution building, and activism that is animated by the spirit of the decolonial, antiracist, and other global liberationist movements that enabled the creation of Ethnic Studies and that continues to inform its political and intellectual projects, and to produce critical engagement about white supremacy, settler colonialism, capitalism, heteropatriarchy, militarism, occupation, indigeneity, neocolonialism, migration, and anti-blackness in order to expand the conceptual parameters and transformative capacities of ethnic studies;

And Whereas Arab and Muslim, Asian, Black, Indigenous, Latin, and LGBTQ communities, students, activists, and scholars have been subjected to profiling, surveillance, and state violence that have circumscribed their freedom of political expression, particularly in relation to the issue of human rights in Palestine and the state of Israel;

And Whereas the Critical Ethnic Studies Association seeks to foster scholarship on colonialism, racism, heteropatriarchy, and the colonial gender binary, and that engages conditions of migration, the displacement, ethnic cleansing or transfer, and eradication of peoples, and of the lives of people in zones of war and occupation;

And Whereas the Critical Ethnic Studies Association seeks to advance a critique of U.S. empire, opposing US military occupation in the Arab world and U.S. support for Israeli settler-colonialism, occupation and racism;

And Whereas the Critical Ethnic Studies Association seeks to advance the critique and abolition of settler colonialisms in solidarity with indigenous peoples globally;

And Whereas Palestinian universities and schools have been periodically forced to close as a result of actions related to the Israeli occupation, or have been destroyed by Israeli military strikes and expansion, and Palestinian students, activists, and scholars face restrictions on movement and travel that limit their ability to attend and work at universities, travel to conferences and to study abroad, and thereby obstruct their right to education;

And Whereas the State of Israel engages in ongoing practices of dispossession, population transfer, illegal settlement, and political incarceration, in the context of continuing settler-colonialism occupation and the blockade of Gaza;

And Whereas the state of Israel engages in systematic discrimination against both its Palestinian citizens and against migrant workers and refugees of color;

And Whereas the Israeli state and Israeli universities directly and indirectly impose restrictions on education, scholarships, and participation in campus activities on Palestinian students in Israel;

And Whereas Israel imposes severe restrictions on foreign academics and students seeking to attend conferences and do research in Palestine, as well as on scholars and students of Arab/Palestinian origin who wish to travel to Palestine and the state of Israel;

And Whereas Israeli institutions of higher education have not condemned or taken measures to oppose the occupation and racial discrimination against Palestinians in Israel, but have, rather, been directly and indirectly complicit in the systematic maintenance of the occupation and of policies and practices that discriminate against Palestinian students and scholars throughout Palestine and in Israel;

And Whereas Israeli academic institutions are deeply complicit in Israel's violations of international law and human rights and in its denial of the right to education and academic freedom to Palestinians, in addition to their basic rights as guaranteed by international law;

And Whereas the Critical Ethnic Studies Association highlights how systematized oppression provokes a multitude of practices that resist these systems, and recognizes the Palestinian movement for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions as such a practice of solidarity and resistance;

And Whereas the Critical Ethnic Studies Association supports research and open discussion about these issues without censorship, intimidation, or harassment, and seeks to promote academic exchange, collaboration and opportunities for students and scholars everywhere;

Be it resolved that the Critical Ethnic Studies Association endorses and will honor the call of Palestinian civil society for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions. Be it also resolved that the Critical Ethnic Studies Association supports the protected rights of students and scholars everywhere to engage in research and public speaking about Palestine and the state of Israel and in support of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.

National Association of Chicano and Chicana Studies (April 2015)

National Association for Chicana/Chicano Studies Resolution to Support the Boycott of Israeli Academic Institutions

This resolution was submitted by the Lesbian Bi Mujeres Trans Caucus and the Northern California FOCO.

NACCS has a historic commitment to social justice. Emerging out of the Chicana Movement, NACCS convenes a collective of scholars and activists whose work critically interrogates colonial and white supremacist structures. NACCS is devoted to anti-racist and anti-colonial social movements and scholarship. For manyChicanas, our political consciousness grew through the political act of boycotting unjust labor practices as represented in the grape boycott. In his“Wrath of Grapes Boycott Speech,” Cesar Chavez reminds us, “My friends, the wrath of grapes is a plague born of selfish men that is indiscriminately and undeniably poisoning us all. Our only protection is to boycott (the grapes), and our only weapon is the truth.” In the spirit of our 500+ years of resisting and boycotting unjust colonial practices and institutions and our longstanding commitment to building relationships of solidarity with people of color in general and Palestinians in particular, we put forward this resolution.

Prior to cutting ties with an Israeli University in 2010, anti-Apartheid leader Desmond Tutu addressed this boycottstrategy: “It can never bebusiness as usual. Israeli Universities are an intimate part of the Israeliregime, by active choice. While Palestinians are not able to accessuniversities and schools, Israeli universities produce the research, technology, arguments and leaders for maintaining the occupation.” [2] NACCS has a responsibility to take a position on one of the leading social justice issues of our time, and by doing so NACCS articulates its commitment to social justice and its opposition to projects of settler colonialism, racial exclusion, and heteropatriarchy. Through this resolution, NACCS would be following in the path already paved by the Association of Asian American Studies, American Studies Association, and Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, which have all endorsed the boycott of Israel academic institutions.

Whereas NACCS is committed to social justice and to the struggle against racism, colonialism and heteropatriarchy and to solidarity with the survivors of said violence;

Whereas NACCS, its scholars and researchers promote indigenous self-determined decolonial struggles across in the U.S., the Americas and globally;

Whereas NACCS recognizes the need to study and resist heteropatriarchal colonial violence that targets women, queer, and gender-non-conforming people and the occupation targets Palestinian women with sexual and reproductive violence and queer and gender-non-conforming Palestinians with harassment, physical, and psychological violence;

Whereas NACCS iscommitted to nurturing scholarship and activism that promotes migrant anddisplaced peoples’ rights, safety and well being and their right to return homeand Palestinians are one of the largest historic refugee populations in the world;

Whereas Israel has played a leading role in the US border military build up that has led tolarge-scale migrant deaths along the border, and the biggest Israeli privatemilitary manufacturer corporation was contracted to build the US-Mexico border,and the “homeland security systems” used in the West Bank and the Golan Heights are being set up in El Paso’s and Arizona’s borders with Mexico;

Whereas NACCS is committed to nurturing relationships between communities in struggle against interlocking systems of colonial violence and recognizes the role Israel plays in world wide repression of peoples’ movements particularly as it pertains to US federal and private institutional agreements with Israeli Defense Forces to learn fromIsraeli “technologies and techniques in the arena of homeland security andcounterterrorism” as a source of informing its own security apparatus [3].

Whereas the repression of Palestinian and Palestinian solidarity scholarship and activism legitimates a police build-up on college campuses and the suppression of student activism, and U.S. police forces are increasingly trained by Israeli military to use brutal tactics on communities of color;

Whereas NACCS promotes scholarship that vehemently challenges unequal state structures, and the legal structures of the Israeli state systematically discriminate against Palestinians and other Indigenous peoples;

Whereas NACCS recognizes and is inspired by the steadfastness of the Palestinian people living in diaspora, in occupied territories and in the Gaza refugee population strip which has been under Israeli military siege for the last nine years and who survived yet another Israeli offensive this last summer through operation Protective Edge which has targeted Palestinian land and life in direct violation of international law;

Therefore, be it is resolved that NACCS endorses and honors the call for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions made by Palestinians in their struggle for self-determination and freedom. Be it further that NACCS supports, protects and encourages Chicana scholars’ right to engage in research and public speaking about Israel-Palestine and their support of the boycott,divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign.

Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (December 2015)

Declaration of Support for the Boycott of Israeli Academic Institutions by the Council of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association

December 15, 2013

The council of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) declares its support for the boycott of Israeli academic institutions.

A broad coalition of Palestinian non-governmental organizations, acting in concert to represent the Palestinian people, formed the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. Their call was taken up in the United States by the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. A NAISA member-initiated petition brought this issue to NAISA Council. After extensive deliberation on the merits of the petition, the NAISA Council decided by unanimous vote to encourage members of NAISA and all who support its mission to honor the boycott.

NAISA is dedicated to free academic inquiry about, with, and by Indigenous communities. The NAISA Council protests the infringement of the academic freedom of Indigenous Palestinian academics and intellectuals in the Occupied Territories and Israel who are denied fundamental freedoms of movement, expression, and assembly, which we uphold.

As the elected council of an international community of Indigenous and allied non-Indigenous scholars, students, and public intellectuals who have studied and resisted the colonization and domination of Indigenous lands via settler state structures throughout the world, we strongly protest the illegal occupation of Palestinian lands and the legal structures of the Israeli state that systematically discriminate against Palestinians and other Indigenous peoples.

NAISA is committed to the robust intellectual and ethical engagement of difficult and often highly charged issues of land, identity, and belonging. Our members will have varying opinions on the issue of the boycott, and we encourage generous dialogue that affirms respectful disagreement as a vital scholarly principle. We reject shaming or personal attacks as counter to humane understanding and the greater goals of justice, peace, and decolonization.

As scholars dedicated to the rights of Indigenous peoples, we affirm that our efforts are directed specifically at the Israeli state, not at Israeli individuals. The NAISA Council encourages NAISA members to boycott Israeli academic institutions because they are imbricated with the Israeli state and we wish to place pressure on that state to change its policies. We champion and defend intellectual and academic freedom, and we recognize that conversation and collaboration with individuals and organizations in Israel/Palestine can make an important contribution to the cause of justice. In recognition of the profound social and political obstacles facing Palestinians in such dialogues, however, we urge our members and supporters to engage in such actions outside the aegis of Israeli educational institutions, honoring this boycott until such time as the rights of the Palestinian people are respected and discriminatory policies are ended.

National Womens Studies Association (June 2015)

Feminists for Justice in/for Palestine

Support An Indivisible Sense of Justice! Support BDS. A Resolution submitted to: National Women’s Studies Association 2015.

As feminist scholars, activists, teachers, and public intellectuals we recognize the interconnectedness of systemic forms of oppression. In the spirit of this intersectional perspective, we cannot overlook the injustice and violence, including sexual and gender-based violence, perpetrated against Palestinians and other Arabs in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, within Israel and in the Golan Heights, as well as the colonial displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during the 1948 Nakba. The discriminatory treatment, exclusion, military siege and apartheid imposed by Israel on its own Palestinian citizens as well as those residing in the occupied territories constitute flagrant breaches of international law, UN resolutions, and fundamental human rights. In the present moment, our counterparts in Palestine face daily violations of their human rights, including their academic rights to free speech, assembly, association, and movement. At the same time, Israeli institutions of higher learning have not challenged, but instead legitimized, Israel’s oppressive policies and violations. These violations, which severely impact the daily lives and working conditions of Palestinian scholars, students, and the society at large, are also enabled by U.S. tax dollars and the tacit support of western powers, thus making any taxpayer in the West complicit in perpetuating these injustices. As members of NWSA who are committed to justice, dignity, equality and peace, we affirm our opposition to the historical and current injustices in Palestine that we view as part and parcel of the multiple oppressions we study and teach about. We also affirm the commitment of NWSA to principles of human rights, justice and freedom for all, including academic freedom. At our 2014 national conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico, nearly 800 participants signed a petition calling upon the organization to declare its support for the international movement for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel. About 2500 members of the audience at the plenary on Palestine stood in unison in support of freedom and justice for/in Palestine. Therefore, in keeping with these principles and the strong consensus of the majority of our 2014 conference participants, let be it resolved that the National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) endorses the 2005 call by Palestinian civil society for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) of economic, military and cultural entities and projects sponsored by the state of Israel. In doing so, we join the growing grassroots international consensus and add our voices to other professional U.S. academic associations that adopted similar resolutions in recent years. These associations include the African Literature Association, American Studies Association, Association for Asian American Studies, Association for Humanist Sociology, Critical Ethnic Studies Association, National Association of Chicana and Chicano Studies, Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, Peace and Justice Studies Association, University of Hawaii at Manoa-Ethnic Studies Department, United Auto Workers Local 2865, The University of California Student Workers Union, and over 1000 members of the American Anthropological Association.

Peace and Justice Studies Association (November 2014)

The Peace and Justice Studies Association (PJSA), a bi-national professional association, including peace and justice scholars, activists, and educators in the United States and Canada, joins the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign(link is external).

After three months of deliberation, 87% of the vote endorsed the proposal to respond to the Palestinians' call for international solidarity and to join the BDS movement. In voting in favor of BDS, PJSA joins other professional associations that passed similar resolutions in the past year. These associations include: the American Studies Association, the Association of Asian American Studies, the Association of Critical Ethnic Studies, the Royal Institute of British Architects, and more than 500 anthropologists.

Source: African Literature Association
American Studies Association
American Anthropological Association
Association for Asian-American Studies
Association for Humanist Psychology
Critical Ethnic Studies Association
National Association of Chicana and Chicano Studies
Native American and Indigenous Studies Association
National Women's Studies Association
Peace and Justice Studies Association

Anti-Semitism: Associations Statements on BDS