Evelyn Fox Keller
Overview
Evelyn Fox Keller reportedly donated award money from an Israeli university to anti-Israel organizations and has defended campus anti-Israel activists.She is also a member of the Faculty For Israeli-Palestinian Peace (FFIPP) Advisory Board, an organization whose mission includes: “working in solidarity for a complete end of occupation.”
Fox Keller is a professor of History and Philosophy of Science Emerita at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Donating to an Anti-Israel Organizations
In 2018, Fox Keller received international attention after she decided to donate her prestigious Dan David Prize, a one million dollar grant, to “anti-occupation” organizations.The Dan David Prize is an international award, endowed by the Dan David Foundation and headquartered at Tel Aviv University.
Fox Keller reportedly said: “‘The moment she found out she had won the prize, she decided she could accept it only if she gave the money to organisations combating Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians.’”
In an interview discussing her decision, Fox Keller stated: “I am accepting the prize in support of people who resist the system... As a political statement, it is stronger if I take the prize and give it away.” Later in the interview, she said: “I said [then that] Israel makes me ashamed of being a Jew… Yes, I feel the same today.”
Defending Campus Anti-Israel Activists
Fox Keller signed a 2017 letter, condemning a decision by Fordham’s dean to block the establishment of a Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter on campus. The letter was authored by the anti-Israel Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) organization.Signatories demanded that Fordham “immediately rescind the rejection of SJP as a student group on campus, apologize to the students affected by this harmful decision, and reaffirm Fordham’s commitment to free speech and academic freedom.”
The petitioners also highlighted SJP’s BDS activity, characterizing SJP’s efforts to promote anti-Israel boycott as part of “a time-honored non-violent mode of political expression.” The petition accused Fordham’s administration of a “fundamental misunderstanding of what boycotts are, the purpose of a university, and the goals of SJP.”
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in cooperation with Palestine Legal (PL), and civil rights attorney Alan Levine sued Fordham on behalf of four students in April 2017. A New York court annulled Fordham’s decision in August 2019, mandating that the university recognize SJP as an official club.
Fordham appealed the ruling to the NY State Supreme Court Appellate Division in January 2020. On July 24, 2020, Fordham SJP students filed a brief asking the appellate court to deny Fordham’s appeal of the lower court’s decision.
As of October 2020, a variety of groups, not directly involved in the case, filed amicus briefs with the Appellate Division for the court's consideration including JVP.
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:http://sts-program.mit.edu/people/emeriti-faculty/evelyn-fox-keller/
- Status:
- Professor
- University:
- Massachusetts-Technology
- Organizations:
- BDS
- Related Profiles:
- Last Modified:
- 05/04/2026
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