Your Dollars at Work: IAN Helps Counter Academics' Bid Against Israel

This past weekend, the Israel Action Network, an initiative of the Federations in partnership with the JCPA, played an instrumental role in marshaling forces against the latest effort to use an academic group to bolster the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction campaign against Israel. The Modern Language Association declined to consider a resolution expressing solidarity with other academic group boycotts of Israel. The MLA also narrowly advanced a resolution condemning Israel for allegedly preventing Palestinian academics from entering the West Bank, which will now be considered by the MLA Executive Council. It is not yet final, and we have more work to do. 

IAN -- with the JUF/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago -- coordinated a major effort to recruit non-Jewish academics to speak out against BDS at the MLA convention in Chicago, and to amplify their voices in the Jewish and mainstream media. The effort paid off, slowing the momentum of BDS in the academic world. The IAN campaign also generated 16 news stories and five op-eds in major media outlets including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Chronicle of Higher Education, The Forward, Haaretz, Jerusalem Post and JTA. Here are links to three of those pieces, all of which highlight IAN-led messages against the boycott movement.

• N.Y. Times: Another Academic Group Considers Israel Censure

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/12/us/another-academic-group-considers-israel-censure.html

• Forward: MLA: No Boycott, But Censure of Israel for Alleged Curbs on U.S. Scholars

http://forward.com/articles/190863/mla-no-boycott-but-censure-of-israel-for-alleged/

• JTA: Resolution critical of Israel passes preliminary Modern Language Association vote

http://www.jta.org/2014/01/11/arts-entertainment/resolution-critical-of-israel-passes-preliminary-modern-language-association-vote