Jean Howard

Overview

Jean Howard is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and is the George Delacorte Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University (Columbia), teaching in the Department of English and Comparative Literature.

Supporting BDS

Howard signed a letter to the New York State Assembly, published on February 13, 2014, calling for its members to oppose a piece of anti-BDS legislation.

Signatories of the letter affirmed: “we all firmly believe that academics have a right to express their political views through a wide range of protected speech, including boycotts.”

Howard also signed a Faculty Petition at Columbia, in which signatories expressed that they “take issue with our financial involvements in institutions associated with the State of Israel's military occupation of Palestinian lands, continued violations of Palestinian human rights, systematic destruction of life and property, inhumane segregation and systemic forms of discrimination.”

The petition went on to state that “We now stand with Columbia University Apartheid Divest, Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine as well as with Jewish Voice for Peace” and demanded “that the University divest from corporations” doing business with Israel.”

Howard also signed a petition to the New York Times, published by Change.Org and Electronic Intifada (EI) on April 30, 2012, condemning anti-BDS activism. Signatories defended BDS activists, characterizing the movement as an expression of “Free speech and thought.”

The petition signed by Howard was reportedly started by Snehal Shingavi, an assistant professor of English at the University of Texas (UT), who co-founded Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) with Hatem Bazian in 2001.

The petition decried a strongly worded advertisement by The David Horowitz Freedom Center, published in the New York Times on April 24, 2012.

The petition said the signatories were “alarmed at your carrying an advertisement that misinforms and names individuals who do not have the money that Horowtiz [sic] has to defend themselves through his chosen medium.”

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://english.columbia.edu/people/profile/390