Darryl Li
Overview
Darryl Li has written articles accusing Israel of conducting an “experiment in colonial management in the Gaza Strip” and alleging that Israel fabricates security concerns in order to carry out “further colonization.”He has also compared Israel to Apartheid South Africa and stated that “Israel has achieved far more than the apartheid regime could have hoped to accomplish.”
Li is a professor of Anthropology at the University of Chicago (U of C).
Accusing Israel of “Experimenting” on Gaza
In November of 2004, Li co-authored an article criticizing Israel’s disengagement from Gaza.In the article, the authors alleged that disengagement was a ploy intended to “permit Israel to hold the keys to Palestinian economic development while it shirks its responsibilities as an occupying power.”
The authors went on to describe a conspiracy whereby Israel used security concerns as a smokescreen “aimed at ensuring long-term control of Gaza after disengagement.”
In the winter of 2006, Li published an article for the Journal of Palestinian Studies titled “The Gaza Strip as Laboratory.”
In the article, Li claimed that Israel uses the Gaza strip to experiment different tactics “of segregation, confinement, and surveillance” in order to find “an optimal balance between maximum control over the territory and minimum responsibility for its non-Jewish population.”
Li went on to posit that security measures employed by Israel are fabricated in order to justify “further colonization” and “expansion of a state for the Jewish people.”
Li reiterated these theories in an article published on December 4, 2012, in which he stated that “since 2005, Israel has developed an unusual, and perhaps unprecedented, experiment in colonial management in the Gaza Strip: it has sought to isolate Palestinians there from the outside world, render them utterly dependent on external benevolence, and absolve Israel of responsibility toward them, all at the same time.”
Throughout the article, Li compared Israel to South African Apartheid.
Demonizing Israel
In an article published on February 16, 2008, Li alleged that Israelis “treat the [Gaza] Strip as an animal pen whose denizens cannot be domesticated and so must be quarantined.”In the same article, Li went on to characterize Gaza as a “bantustan, internment camp, animal pen.”
In an article published on August 2, 2011, Li accused Israel of strategically employing various bodies of law, inconsistent with one another, in order to maintain control over Palestinians.
In the same article, Li went on to compare Israel to Apartheid South Africa, concluding that “In terms of legitimizing discrimination and conferring discretion to the state, Israel has achieved far more than the apartheid regime could have hoped to accomplish.”
On May 21, 2013, Li moderated a panel, titled “Calls to Conscience: Prison Resistance in Palestine, Guantánamo, the U.S. and Iran.” The purpose of the discussion was to draw parallels between “each of these regimes of incarceration” and to “reflect on their commonalities.”
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
- Status:
- Professor
- University:
- UofC
- Organizations:
- BDS
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- Leyla Abdella,
- Brant Rosen,
- Michael Deheeger,
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- Last Modified:
- 05/04/2026
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