Diana Allan

Overview

Diana Allan is an advocate of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and an assistant professor of Anthropology at McGill University (McGill).

Supporting BDS

Following the defeat of a BDS resolution at McGill, the university’s Principal Suzanne Fortier sent out an email to students and faculty reaffirming the defeat and condemning BDS.

In response, Allan and other faculty members signed a letter — published on March 7, 2016 — slamming the university’s decision and Fortier’s email and endorsing BDS.

Signatories of the letter stated that “we resolve to steadfastly continue to support BDS and the work of our students at McGill who will carry on and continue to build this struggle.”

On November 20, 2015, Allan signed the American Anthropological Association’s (AAA) resolution to boycott Israel.

On August 29, 2014, Allan signed the “Open Letter on Gaza and BDS from the Middle East Caucus of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies.”

The letter described “indiscriminate and disproportionate violence that has been waged… by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) against the civilian population of Gaza” that it characterized as “the largest ‘open air prison’ in the world.”

The letter went on to endorse the BDS movement and to conclude that “the violence has taken an unprecedented and savage turn, having reached genocidal proportions.”

On August 6, 2014, Allan signed the “Middle East Scholars and Librarians Call for Boycott of Israeli Academia.”

In signing this petition, Hayduk and others committed “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.”

Allan also signed his name to a list of endorsers of the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI).

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.mcgill.ca/anthropology/people/fulltime/dianaallan