Lucy Evelyn Peterson

Overview

Lucy Evelyn Peterson reportedly reneged on her commitment to provide a recommendation letter for a student, because he was applying to study in Israel. She did so in her capacity as a faculty member at the University of Michigan (UMich), in October 2018. Peterson stated the reason for her decision as being her support of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

As of October 9, 2018, Peterson’s Google+ page said she studied political studies at Bard College at Simon's Rock, from 2010 to 2014.

As of the same date, Peterson’s profile page at UMich said she was a PhD political science student as well as a faculty member at UMich’s College of Literature, Science & Arts.

Supporting BDS

In October 2018, in her role as a graduate student instructor for an introduction to political theory course, Peterson rejected a student’s request for a recommendation letter because he was applying to study in Israel. She had reportedly agreed to write the recommendation letter before learning he had chosen to study in Israel.

In an email sent to the student, Peterson wrote: “I regrettably will not be able to write on your behalf. Along with numerous other academics in the US and elsewhere, I have pledged myself to a boycott of Israeli institutions as a way of showing solidarity with Palestine.”

BDS

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by Omar Barghouti in 2005 to challenge “international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.” BDS is an allegedly “Palestinian-led movement,” although leading BDS activists have admitted [00:01:01] this is not true. 

One of the demands of BDS includes [point 3] what is generally known as the “right of return,” a demand discredited as a way to eliminate Israel. Barghouti said the “right of return” is a means to “end Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.”  

Barghouti has said that BDS “aims to turn Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.”

In his activism, Barghouti has also said [00:05:55] regarding Israel: “Definitely, most definitely, we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No…rational Palestinian, not a sellout Palestinian, will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”

The movement has been linked to numerous terrorist organizations and received a public endorsement from Hamas in 2017.

BDS initiatives include calling on institutions and individuals to divest from Israeli-affiliated companies, promoting academic and cultural boycotts of Israel, and organizing anti-Israel rallies, protests and campaigns.

The movement’s most notable achievement has been the infiltration of university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments and student groups, backed by their own anti-Israel members and affiliates, have proposed resolutions on some form of boycott of, or divestment from, Israel and Israeli-affiliated entities.

Boycott resolutions, although non-binding, have been passed by student governments on numerous North American campuses.

BDS activity is often aggressive and disruptive. It has been noted that universities that pass BDS resolutions see a marked increase in anti-Semitic incidents on campus. On one campus, when the student government debated a BDS resolution, reports emerged of violent threats against those opposing it.

Social Media and Weblinks

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/100003487798125

Google+: https://plus.google.com/103361463303835043604