Boycott advocate NOT being punished

This can be read as a follow-up to what Ron Skolnik wrote recently on this general subject of boycott. At the behest of In These Times (ITT) magazine, I contacted authorities at Ben-Gurion University to examine the rumor that boycott advocate, Neve Gordon, was being punished for his views.

ITT published a shortened version of my findings in its November issue; I was not pleased with the way this piece was edited because it did not emphasize that Dr. Gordon’s teaching post at BGU is not under threat. The complete version is now online at InTheseTimes.org. This is the shortened version as I would have edited it:

In an August 20 op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, Neve Gordon, an Israeli professor of politics at Ben-Gurion University (BGU) in Beersheba (and a contributor to In These Times), announced his support for the Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions (BDS) movement. Calling it “the only way that Israel can be saved from itself,” Gordon argues that it will force an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories beyond the pre-June 1967 borders of Israel.

Gordon’s bold and very public call for an international boycott against Israel has triggered a pushback from some Israelis and others.

On Aug. 27, Virginia Aksan, president of the Middle East Studies Association of North America, wrote to Rivka Carmi, president of Ben-Gurion University, protesting the university’s alleged effort to dismiss Gordon from his dual roles as a senior lecturer of politics and as chair of BGU’s department of government and politics.

On September 2, The Jewish Forward reported that the American Associates of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev—a U.S.-based organization that raises funds for BGU—had called for “disciplinary action” against Gordon because his op-ed was hurting their fundraising efforts.

Faye Bittker, BGU’s director of public relations, said in an e-mail to In These Times: “The university ... NEVER EVER threatened him with dismissal ... However, the University feels that a call for a boycott is ... the equivalent of screaming fire in a crowded theater, as an academic boycott undercuts every single value that the University stands for, and were such a boycott to succeed, it would cause great damage to both the University and to the State of Israel. Moreover, the University feels strongly that if Neve really believes in such a boycott, he cannot fulfill his responsibilities as the chairman of the department ... and as such should resign.”

The Forward reports that Isaac Nevo, a senior lecturer in philosophy at BGU, organized a letter signed by 48 faculty that demanded Gordon not be sanctioned for his views. And Hebrew University law professor Alon Harel initiated a petition signed by 180 Israeli academics, similarly opposed to punishing Gordon. Interestingly, both Nevo and Harel actually oppose BDS.

Nevo did suggest that Gordon “may consider” resigning from his administrative position. But Gordon told The Forward that he sees his stepping down now as an impossibility because it would be regarded as punishment for his views.

Nevertheless, he admitted to “a contradiction” in performing his duties as chair, since he views visits by foreign academics to Israel as “extremely problematic” unless their visit helps highlight what he sees as the injustices of the Israeli occupation. (Gordon did not respond to queries from this writer.)