American Anthropologist Association Boycotts Zionist Regime

WASHINGTON (Middle East Eye) – The American Anthropological Association (AAA) has voted to adopt a boycott of Zionist academic institutions over their role in the discrimination of Palestinians, in a major victory for the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

AAA President Ramona Pérez said the associations had made a “collective decision and it is now our duty to forge ahead, united in our commitment to advancing scholarly knowledge, finding solutions to human and social problems, and serving as a guardian of human rights”.
The vote, which took place by electronic ballot, resulted in a landslide in favor of a boycott, with 71 percent voting yes and 29 percent opposed. Voter participation was relatively low, with just 37 percent of eligible members in the association casting a ballot, about 3,000 members.
The BDS movement is a non-violent initiative that seeks to challenge the Zionist regime’s occupation and abuses of Palestinian human rights through economic, cultural, and academic boycotts, similar to the successful boycott campaigns against apartheid South Africa.
Jessica Winegar, a sociocultural anthropologist at Northwestern University, told Middle East Eye the resolution was “a meaningful demonstration of solidarity” with Palestinians against “Israel’s racist, discriminatory policies and brutal military rule”.
“As scholars with a long history of studying colonialism, anthropologists are all too familiar with the devastating harm of Israel’s oppression and theft of Palestinian land. This vote is an important step in showing that support for Palestinian rights goes hand in hand with the AAA’s values of human rights for all.”
The resolution is a major shift for the AAA, marking the first time the organization has supported a boycott of a country’s academic institutions.
The last attempt for a boycott in 2016 failed by just 39 votes - with many anthropologists seeing the move as inherently political for an academic institution. Even during the movement against the apartheid government of South Africa, which had seen massive mobilization in support of a boycott, AAA did not endorse such a boycott against the country’s academic institutions.
“As Palestinians we warmly welcome the historic vote of the AAA membership to support our call to boycott Israeli academic institutions complicit in Israel’s regime of military occupation, settler colonialism and apartheid,” the BDS movement said in a statement on Monday.