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BDS vs. Israel –
The True "Islamophobia"
But who does the most harm to Muslims? At Western colleges and universities, where charges of "Islamophobia" might wreck careers, a movement flourishes to punish the state of Israel. It is designated the "boycott, sanctions, divestment" (BDS) effort. A recent BDS uproar at Bowdoin College, a liberal arts college in Maine, described by Jeffrey Herf in The Times of Israel, ended when students rejected its strictures by a large majority: 71 percent against, 14 percent for, 15 percent abstaining. The BDS campaign was coordinated by a group visible on numerous campuses, "Students for Justice in Palestine" (SJP). Two leaders of the successful anti-BDS response at Bowdoin, Matt Friedland and Jared Feldman, inventoried the effects of BDS as follows: No academic collaboration with scholars acting as representatives of Israeli universities No ability for someone to study abroad at an Israeli University No visiting appointments for Bowdoin faculty at an Israeli University No publication in any journal or press affiliated with an Israeli institution No exchange of curators or scholarship related to antiquities in our museum No visits to Bowdoin by anyone acting as a representative of an Israeli institution. The anti-BDS organizers emphasized that such measures against Israel would distort discussion of Israeli-Arab issues, limiting the academic freedom of Bowdoin faculty and students. But other matters, seldom addressed, also deserve notice in the debate over BDS.
In addition, Israeli Arab students—Muslim, Christian, and Druze—attend the country's state-supported universities in large numbers. They prepare for professional careers and engage in intellectual affairs at a higher level than in most Arab countries. Institutions like the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University, among others, are ranked with the best in the world. There are no barriers to qualified Israeli Arab men and women studying sciences, mathematics, or medicine there. The cost of higher education is low in Israel, for Jews and Arabs alike.
As happens so often in controversies over Israel and the Arabs, BDS battles are waged by academics and other parties outside the country, distant from its realities and, finally, ignorant of the extent of Jewish-Arab cooperation in Israeli public life. Such armchair criticism helps Islamist radicals and especially Iranian advocates to paint Israel as a "racist" state. The very evocation of "boycotts, divestment, and sanctions" attempts to place Israel on par with South Africa under apartheid. BDS supporters count on politically correct standards to condition Western faculty and students for robotic acceptance of their allegations. Stephen Schwartz, a fellow at the Middle East Forum, is executive director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism in Washington, DC. |
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