Boycotting Israeli academia
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1358229115571814 |
| Published date | 01 September 2015 |
| Date | 01 September 2015 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Boycotting Israeli
academia: Is its
implementation
anti-Semitic?
Mirko D Garasic
1
and Shay Keinan
2
Abstract
In recent years, a campaign run by the BDS movement to boycott and silence Israeli
academics has gained some support worldwide. Academics choosing to take part in the
boycott areoften accused to be moved by a newform of anti-Semitism – an allegation they
fervently deny. A recent case in Australia saw Jake Lynch, a professor at the University of
Sydney, taken to court and accused of breaching Australia’s Racial Discrimination Act for
rejecting an application from an Israeli academic for a visiting professor position. In this
paper, we want to analyse such situations from a philosophical and legal perspective. We
will argue that apart from being anti-scientific and counterproductive, such boycotts are
also unlawful and – indeed – anti-Semitic. Boycott supporters often replace a person’s
nationality with a person’s ‘‘institutional affiliation’’ to avoid being accused of racism and
discrimination. We argue that this terminological disguise does not succeed in hiding the
fact that often such boycotts illegitimately discriminate against individual Jews.
Keywords
Academic freedom, anti-Semitism, Australia, BDS, boycott, discrimination, Israel
1
The Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, Tel Aviv University, Israel
2
Australian National University, College of Law, Australia
Corresponding author:
Mirko D Garasic, The Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
Email: mirkog@post.tau.ac.il
International Journalof
Discrimination and theLaw
2015, Vol. 15(3) 189–199
ªThe Author(s) 2015
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DOI: 10.1177/1358229115571814
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