David Price

Overview

David Price is a professor of Anthropology and Sociology at St. Martin’s University (SMU) in Lacey, Washington and an activist with the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Price is a member of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) and was part of a group that unsuccessfully lobbied in 2016 for an AAA boycott of Israeli academic institutions.

On April 29, 2016, Price co-authored a blog post with Roberto Gonzalez for Anthropologists for the Boycott of Israeli Academic Institutions (Anthro Boycott), which was the primary body advocating for the boycott. The blog post is detailed below.

Price is known for his critiques of the U.S. military and intelligence community, as well as their use of anthropological research. In 2016, he published a book titled "Cold War Anthropology: The CIA, the Pentagon, and the Growth of Dual Use Anthropology."

In 2011, he published a book titled "Weaponizing Anthropology." Price is a regular contributor to the Counterpunch online magazine.

Price received his Ph.D. from the University of Florida in 1993 and his master’s degree from the University of Chicago in 1985. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the Evergreen State College in 1983.

Demonizing Israel

On April 30, 2016, Price co-authored an Anthro Boycott blog post with Roberto Gonzalez in which they promoted the anti-Israel Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) organization and repeatedly accused Israel of "settler colonialism." They added that Israel has committed “atrocities” and that Israel was “the most challenging political issue facing American anthropologists since the Vietnam War.”

In the article, Price and Gonzalez promoted a panel featuring Gonzalez and other anti-Israel professors Nadia Abu El-Haj, J. Kehaulani Kauanui, David Lloyd and Lisa Rofel. They quoted Rofel as saying that Israel has "a regime of racial hierarchies that spawns racial violence."

Rofel is known for her defense of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) leader Sami Al-Arian and the demonization of pro-Israel American Jews.

In November 20, 2015, Price was one of 28 AAA members who submitted a resolution to the AAA to boycott Israeli academic institutions. Resolution supporters cast themselves as the anthropological wing of the BDS movement. The resolution portrays Israel as a "colonial" power which has carried out “ethnic cleansing.” The resolution frames actions to fight apartheid in South Africa as the precursor to boycotting Israel.

On December 23, 2014, Price referred to multiple Israeli operations against Hamas, including Operation Protective Edge (OPE), as "Israel’s periodic bombing of civilians in Gaza." 

Israel commenced Operation Protective Edge (OPE) in July 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.  

On February 3, 2011, Price wrote about the anti-government protests in Egypt against then-President Hosni Mubarak. Price wrote: "As Mubarak’s career is one where his choices were limited by his Western minders, so Obama is limited by corporate interests, and long-term geopolitical forces he dares not upset and the shrill limits of Middle East possibilities imposed by America’s ‘special relationship’ with Israel."

Categorizing Israel with Nazis, Soviets & Fictional Villains

On January 6, 2004, Price wrote a Counterpunch article titled "Anthropological Notes on Occupation" about the U.S. war in Iraq. In the article, Price said that comparisons of the U.S. to Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union and Israel were valid benchmarks to learn from. He also said that the Star Trek villains, the Cardassians, and villains in the Matrix were valid benchmarks too.

Price wrote: "The current occupation of Iraq leads many critics to evoke comparisons with other military occupations-these comparisons typically run the range of the occupations of the Nazis, Soviets, Israelis, Cardassians and so forth. While none of these comparisons are perfect fits, they can add an anthropological angle of abstraction that help us view the present dangers through a distant lens that can help us understand the nature of occupation."

Price later added: "Iraq is not Okinawa. Iraq is not Palestine, Vietnam, the Matrix, or 1939 Poland: but America is occupying Iraq in violation of international law and with a callousness that draws any number of justified comparisons."

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

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/203578426340717/

Twitter:https://twitter.com/WeaponizingAnth

University Website 1:https://www.stmartin.edu/directory/david-price-phd

University Website 2:http://homepages.stmartin.edu/fac_staff/dprice/all.html

Blog:http://un-rogue-elephant.tumblr.com/