On January 13, 2014, The Daily Orange ran the headline “SU rejects ASA boycott against Israeli Universities,” referring to the recent vote by the American Studies Association to boycott Israeli academic institutions for their complicity in Israel’s repression of Palestinians. Concerns of academic freedom were the primary reason for the university’s opposition. Interim-Chancellor Eric Spina is quoted as saying “all viewpoints are central to this discussion and debate.”

Ironically, Miriam Elman, an associate professor of political science, is also quoted opposing the boycott. It is ironic because Elman wrote a blog in The Times of Israel congratulating Syracuse University on severing its ties with a Palestinian school, Al-Quds University. Elman shows her elation by starting her article with the sentence: “Never have I been more proud of my university!”

The irony is two-fold because the reason Syracuse severed its ties with the Palestinian university was the failure of Al-Quds’ administration to quash a protest being held on its campus. That is, when Al-Quds upheld freedom of expression despite its opposition to the extreme viewpoints being represented, Syracuse cut its ties.

Elman and the university are right to be concerned with racist hate-fueled events, as this demonstration at Al-Quds seems to have embodied. However, instead of severing ties and punishing an entire university for the views of one group, the university has the opportunity to confront racism and hatred head-on by collaborating with Al-Quds to combat extremism through “discussion and debate,” thereby using academic freedom to isolate extremists.

The same concern from Syracuse was not expressed when groups of Jewish Israelis swarm peaceful protesters at Tel Aviv University shouting, “Death to Arabs” during Israel’s 2012 shelling of Gaza; nor was there disgust when Israeli students burn Palestinian flags in protest to Palestinians’ remembrance of the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by Jewish extremists at the founding of the State of Israel.
At a time in Palestinian history that could bring an end to a viable Palestinian state as Israel expands settlement construction, keeps Gaza in a state of paralysis, thuggishly occupies the West Bank, seeks to expand its borders, and crushes Bedouin villages, the double standard is a slap in the face to international justice. Although there may be disagreements about the ASA boycott decision, it is hypocritical to cry foul over concerns of academic freedom when Syracuse University is boycotting Al-Quds University.

Timothy Rodriguez
Graduate, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs