Amy Kaplan
Overview
Amy Kaplan has demonized Zionists and is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.She has defended disgraced anti-Israel Professor Steven Salaita and has advocated for Hamas-affiliated anti-Israel activist Imad Ahmad Barghouthi.
As of January 2020,Kaplan is the Edward W. Kane Professor of English at University of Pennsylvania (UPenn).
Demonizing Zionists
In an article published by Mondoweiss on November 1, 2016, Kaplan conflated Zionists with sexual predators, alleging that for both Liberal Zionists and penitent sexual abusers “heartfelt acknowledgement of wrongdoing redirects attention away from both the victim of violence and the culpability of the perpetrator to highlight his admirably ethical qualities as confessor.”Kaplan went on to equate “male privilege” with “the privilege of white Israelis of European background, the privilege to narrate a history of violence that bespeaks your own moral superiority.”
On November 30, 2016, Kaplan published an article alleging that pro-Israel organizations are responsible for covering up the rise in anti-Semitism in the United States.
In her article, Kaplan argued that support for Israel allows for “classic anti-Semitism” to be excused and spread in the U.S.
Kaplan wrote that “Americans must stop the new administration from justifying racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia on the grounds that it supports Israel.”
Pushing BDS in the Classroom
In February 2012, Kaplan spoke at a BDS conference held at UPenn.During the question and answer segment of the conference, Kaplan reportedly proposed tactics for lecturers to insert anti-Israel content and promote BDS in the classroom.
Kaplan stated, “you can make courses that have content... you take a thematic course, and you bring in themes from this issue, and literature is really a great way to teach students about what’s going on.”
Kaplan’s remarks triggered controversy because of her apparent advocacy for spreading anti-Israel sentiments in the classroom, even when Israel, Palestinians and BDS were not organically related to the material of extant courses.
Promoting BDS
On April 12, 2017, Kaplan co-authored an article defending BDS, describing the movement as “a non-violent campaign that seeks to pressure Israel to stop building settlements in occupied Palestinian territories.”
The authors went on to condemn anti-BDS activism and legislation, threatening that such efforts “would have a chilling and devastating impact on campus discussion and debate and stigmatize students who support justice for Palestinians.”
In January 2017, the MLA Delegate Assembly approved a resolution (2017-1) acknowledging “the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel contradicts the MLA’s purpose” and conflicted with another resolution (2002-1), that condemned boycotts against scholars. Therefore, the Assembly “resolved that the MLA refrain from endorsing the boycott.”
Kaplan signed an open letter to United States President Barack Obama and the American Congress, dated July 31, 2014, condemning “the disproportionate harm that the Israeli military, which the United States has armed and supported for decades, is inflicting on the population of Gaza.”
The letter exclusively blamed Israel for the Gazan civilian crisis and called upon the administration “to suspend US military aid to Israel, until there is assurance that this aid will no longer be used for the commission of war crimes.”
In July 2014, Kaplan signed a petition alleging that “Gaza was an open air prison” and that the Israeli air force had been “bombing both military and civilians targets almost indiscriminately.”
The petition went on to charge that “the deprivation of the rights of the Palestinian people has been an organic aspect of the Zionist project, which has been supported by the Western imperial powers since 1917,” and to endorse the BDS movement as a “potent tool to hold Israel accountable.”
The letter and petition were in response to Operation Protective Edge (OPE).
Israel commenced Operation Protective Edge (OPE) in July 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.
Kaplan signed a petition, published in March 2011, calling on the financial consultant company, TIAA-CREF, to “divest from Israeli occupation.” The petition provided a list of Israeli companies from which signatories demanded TIAA-CREF divest its funds.
On February 11, 2011, Kaplan moderated an event organized by the group, Palestinian Queers for BDS (PQBDS).
Kaplan signed an open letter to former United States President Barack Obama, published on January 12, 2009.
The letter, published by the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI), accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing,” compared Israel to Apartheid South Africa and concluded that “Israel too maintains an apartheid regime.”
After charging Israel with inflicting “one of the most massive, ethnocidal atrocities of modern times,” the signatories called upon Obama to join in the BDS movement.
Defending Steven Salaita
Kaplan signed a petition published on August 21, 2014, by the BDS movement titled:“A Call to People of Conscience Not to Speak at the University Of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Until Chancellor Wise Honor [sic.] the Contract to Hire Professor Steven Salaita.”In 2014, The University of Illinois withdrew an offer of employment to Salaita after becoming aware of his anti-Semitic tweets. One tweet, posted shortly after Hamas kidnapped three teenage Israeli high school students, read: "You may be too refined to say it, but I’m not: I wish all the f**king West Bank settlers would go missing.” In 2017, Salaita posted to Facebook: “People ask if I would go back in time and change anything. I would not…I will die unapologetic.” In February 2019, Salaita stated that he had become a school bus driver in the Washington, D.C., area.
Supporting Imad Ahmad Barghouthi
Kaplan signed an open letter addressed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in support of Imad Ahmad Barghouthi. The letter was co-published by the anti-Israel Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) organization and USACBI.The signatories called upon Prime Minister Netanyahu “to order the immediate release of Dr. Imad Ahmad Barghouthi from Israeli military custody.”
Palestinian Astrophysicist Professor Imad Barghouthi of Al Quds University was sentenced in 2016 to seven months in prison for incitement to violence.
Barghouthi is a vocal supporter of Hamas's military wing — the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades — and has called for killing and being killed in the name of Islam.
An October 22, 2014 video showed Barghouthi at an Al-Quds university Hamas rally, draped in a Hamas banner, [00:00:33] urging students to design precision guided missiles, and sniper rifles as [00:01:11] “weapons ofthe resistance” to [00:02:35] kill “zionist soldiers” in their bedrooms.
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
University Website:https://www.english.upenn.edu/people/amy-kaplan
- Status:
- Professor
- University:
- Pennsylvania
- Organizations:
- BDS
- Related Profiles:
- Last Modified:
- 05/04/2026
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