Resistance to Repression and Back Again: The Movement for Palestinian Liberation in US Academia

Abstract

In 2023–2024, US academia witnessed the largest ever protests condemning Israeli state violence against Palestinians and the most vociferous repression of these protests and other criticisms of that violence. This article situates this moment within the longer history of support for Palestinian liberation in US colleges and universities, as well as the decades-long rise of organizations to combat this support and critical analysis of the Israeli state. We do so to make two arguments. First, there has been a continuous interrelationship between resistance and repression, with one feeding the other, and always in relationship to events in the Middle East and the US. Second, and using analysis of our experience with academic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) as an example, we argue that understanding this history is necessary for building a more broad-based, international, and intersectional movement for liberation.

Keywords:

• Academic freedom
• BDS
• censorship
• Palestine
• protest
• social movements
• Zionism

Acknowledgments

To everyone, past and present, fighting for academic freedom, free speech, and Palestinian liberation.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 BDS is an international movement led by a coalition of Palestinian civil society organizations, now called the BDS National Committee or BNC, that began in 2005.

2 https://www.ochaopt.org/.

3 https://www.camera.org/; https://www.horowitzfreedomcenter.org/.

4 https://nationalsjp.org/.

5 https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/.

6 https://bdsmovement.net/pacbi; https://bdsmovement.net/.

7 The David Project no longer exists independently, as it merged with Hillel International in 2017. The Israel on Campus Coalition has grown significantly (https://israelcc.org/). Campus Watch is one of projects of the Middle East Forum, a conservative US think-tank founded by Daniel Pipes in 1990 (https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch).

8 Open Hillel is now Judaism on Our Own Terms (JOOT): https://jooot.org/.

9 https://palestinelegal.org/.

10 https://mesana.org/advocacy/committee-on-academic-freedom.

11 Since then, numerous academic associations have adopted BDS resolutions, including the Middle East Studies Association of North America, the British Society for Middle East Studies, the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, the National Women’s Studies Association, and the Latin American Council of Social Sciences.

12 https://www.anthroboycott.org/home.

13 See also https://www.ochaopt.org/.

14 Maya Wind lecture, Pitzer College, February 6, 2024.

15 https://nationalsjp.org/bds-victories; https://uscpr.org/activist-resource/boycott-divestment-and-sanctions/bdswins/.

16 https://mesana.org/about/resolutions.

17 https://afsc.org/divest.