Andor Skotnes

Israeli forces had entered into the West Bank, hoping to find and rescue the kidnapped teenagers.

The letter Skotnes signed went on to call upon Israeli academics “to join your voices in an open and resounding protest about these war crimes by the Israeli government – your government.” 

Supporting BDS

Skotnes is a signatory to a list of individuals endorsing the U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI). 

Skotnes signed a petition, titled: “An Appeal to Oral Historians to Boycott the December 2016 Hebrew University Oral History Conference,” published by USACBI. The petition alleged “... in fall 2015, many students and youth were killed, arrested, kidnapped, placed in administrative (indefinite) detention, and tortured by Israeli soldiers and settlers” and went on to state that “as scholars, we must express our principled opposition to occupation, apartheid, and colonization.” 

In October 2015, there was an upsurge in violence across Israel incited by Palestinian political and religious leaders. The wave of stabbings, known as the “Knife Intifada,” was characterized by young Palestinians throughout the country stabbing and attempting to stab Israeli civilians.

The USACBI petition said that “In the midst of all this, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem is hosting another international oral history conference in December 2016” and “We call on oral historians to refuse to submit proposals or to attend this conference.”

Skotnes signed an open letter to former United States President Barack Obama and the American Congress, demonizing Israel and calling for an end to foreign aid. 

The July 31, 2014 letter, addressed to former U.S. President Barack Obama and the American Congress, called “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.”
On December 5, 2013, Skotnes signed the “Campaign to Boycott the Oral History Conference at Hebrew University of Jerusalem,” authored by the “Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel.”

The petition encouraged historians and academics to boycott a then-upcoming conference at Hebrew University (HUJI), claiming that “while all Israeli universities are deeply complicit in the occupation, settler-colonialism, and apartheid, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem is particularly noteworthy.”

Defending Rabab Abdulhadi

Skotnes co-authored a letter to San Francisco State University (SFSU) President, Leslie Wong, in defense of anti-Israel activist and SFSU Professor, Rabab Abdulhadi. 

According to the letter, its authors wrote: “to express our concern over the treatment of Professor Rabab Abdul Hadi, an internationally recognized scholar, who has been attacked yet again by the right-wing Zionist organization, the Lawfare Project and similar organizations.”

The authors went on to state that “We view open criticism of Israeli policy to be critical to the educational process and deplore all attempts to close it down.”

Professor Rabab Abdulhadi has cultivated ties with Hamas-dominated universities, glorified terrorists, trivialized the kidnapping and murder of Israeli high-schoolers and endorsed hate speech.

Alongside the letter, Skotnes also published a “Message in support of Professor Rabab Abdul Hadi,” which Skotnes signed as a Co-Chair of H-Pad (Historians for Peace and Democracy).

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.sage.edu/academics/russell-sage-college/faculty-at-russell-sage-college/andor-skotnes-ph-d/