Ann Stoler

Stoler has also celebrated bids to endorse BDS in professional academic organizations, and has encouraged the study of Israel as a colonial state. 

In a September 2010 essay, Stoler declared her support for BDS and depicted Israel as a colonial state committed to the “decimation” of Palestinian lives. 

In 2014, Stoler signed a letter calling on “scholars and librarians within Middle East studies to boycott Israeli academic institutions.”

Stoler is the Willy Brandt Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and History at The New School for Social Research (New School).

Pushing BDS

In 2017, Stoler contributed an essay to a book titled “Assuming Boycott: Resistance, Agency and Cultural Production.” In her essay, Stoler celebrated bids to endorse BDS in professional academic organizations, and critiqued “fellow scholars who pride themselves in taking stands on the most pressing of social issues, except for Palestine.” 

In December of 2014, Stoler sat on an AAA panel titled “Anthropologists and Controversial Engagements: The Boycott of Israeli Academic Institutions.”

Stoler spoke alongside BDS proponents Lisa Rofel, Ghassan Hage, Magid Shihade, Lara Deeb, Jessica Winegar and Nadia Abu El-Haj.

During the panel, Stoler gave a speech discussing her support for BDS while demonizing Israel.

Stoler claimed that “Israel has stood as the bulwark of a Euro-American colonial civilizing mission against Islam, woven into the fabric of European imperial pursuits, and US ‘foreign policy.’” Stoler also accused Israel of practicing “apartheid” and revealed that she had participated in anti-Israel riots in the Palestinian village of Bil’in.

Stoler also criticized anthropologists for not questioning “Israel’s commitment to decimation” and “dispossession.” Stoler concluded by calling on anthropologists who feel uninformed about Israel to adopt BDS.

In June of 2016, the AAA announced that a resolution to boycott Israeli universities was defeated but that there are “other actions planned.”

The AAA vote on the anti-Israel resolution took place from April 15 to May 31, 2016, with approximately half of the AAA membership voting on the resolution. Of the half that voted concerning the resolution, 50.4% voted against it, meaning that only one quarter of AAA’s membership — at most — voted in favor of the resolution. 

In March of 2015, Stoler gave a keynote speech at the 2015 Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies Department Graduate Conference at Columbia University. Stoler’s speech, titled “Other Folds: Palestine, Israel & Colonial Studies,” examined anthropologists’ hesitation to study Israel through a colonial lens.

In a September 2010 essay, Stoler declared her support for BDS and depicted Israel as a colonial state committed to the “decimation” of Palestinian lives. 

In August of 2014, Stoler signed a letter calling on “scholars and librarians within Middle East studies to boycott Israeli academic institutions.”

Signatories of the letter pledged “not to collaborate on projects and events involving Israeli academic institutions, not to teach at or to attend conferences and other events at such institutions, and not to publish in academic journals based in Israel.”

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.newschool.edu/lang/faculty/Ann-Stoler/