Emily Apter
Overview
Emily Apter is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) and has defended anti-Israel activists.As of January 2020, Apter was the Silver Professor of French and Comparative Literature at New York University (NYU).
Supporting BDS
As of January 2020, Apter was a signatory toa petition stating that “NYU must divest itself of any holdings it may have" in Israeli companies.The petition claimed that “Israel has turned the impoverished and densely-populated Gaza strip into the world’s largest open-air prison and launched repeated military assaults against it.”
In 2015, Apter signed an open letter calling for the academic boycott of Israel.
In January 2017, the MLA Delegate Assembly approved a resolution (2017-1) acknowledging “the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel contradicts the MLA’s purpose” and conflicted with another resolution (2002-1), that condemned boycotts against scholars. Therefore, the Assembly “resolved that the MLA refrain from endorsing the boycott.”
Defending Anti-Israel Activists
On February 25, 2009, Apter signed a petition, published by the U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI), expressing support for anti-Israel activists on campus.In February 2009, a group of activists from the group Take Back NYU (TBNYU) barricaded themselves in the cafeteria at NYU’s Kimmel Center and refused to leave until the administration agreed to meet their demands.
Included in the group’s list of demands was that the university “donate all excess supplies to rebuild the University of Gaza.”
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://as.nyu.edu/content/nyu-as/as/faculty/emily-s-apter.html
- Status:
- Professor
- University:
- New-York
- Organizations:
- BDS
- Related Profiles:
- Last Modified:
- 05/04/2026
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