Chandan Reddy

Overview

Chandan Reddy is a leader within the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. Reddy was a National Council member of the American Studies Association (ASA) and also served on the ASA Executive Committee in 2013. In December of 2013, the ASA unanimously adopted a resolution singling out Israel for academic boycott.

On April 20, 2016, ASA members filed a derivative lawsuit against Reddy and other ASA officers who advanced the anti-Israel boycott. The plaintiffs have accused the defendants of hijacking the ASA for personal political purposes and perverting their duties as officials of the ASA.

Reddy has personally endorsed the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI). In 2014, Reddy signed a letter calling on "scholars and librarians within Middle East studies to boycott Israeli academic institutions." The letter further 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.”

Reddy also signed a 2014 open letter calling on Israeli academics who believed it “urgent” to “act to end the illegal occupation in Palestine” and Israeli “atrocities” to sign a petition. The petition was closed to overseas signers after only 83 Israeli professors signed on.

Reddy is an associate professor of English and Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Washington (UW). 

Propagating the Deceptions of BDS

In a February 28, 2014 radio interview, Reddy falsely asserted that “Palestinian Civil Society” initiated the call for BDS (36:10). By 2012, Norman Finkelstein had already called into question the composition of the the Palestinian Civil Society organizations. In August of 2016, BDS leader Ilan Pappe admitted that BDS was not initiated by a “call” from Palestinian civil society; rather, it was initiated by a small number of radical anti-Israel extremists — like Pappe.

Reddy also maintained falsely that the ASA boycott would not suppress the academic freedom of individual Israeli academic researchers (37:15). Since the ASA boycott, many Israeli academics have been personally shunned by their non-Israeli colleagues and at least one academic journal has refused to publish any article by an Israeli researcher.

Demanding The Employment of Hate Speech Purveyor Steven Salaita

In November of 2015, Reddy advocated for the University of Illinois (U of I) to reinstate 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.

Social Media and Weblinks

Faculty Page 1:https://gwss.washington.edu/people/chandan-reddy

Faculty Page 2: https://english.washington.edu/people/chandan-reddy