Judith Tucker

Overview

Judith Tucker [Judith E. Tucker] is a professor of History at Georgetown University (Georgetown) and a leader within the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Tucker is the president-elect of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA), which is considered the most important association of Middle East Studies.

During MESA’s annual 2014 conference, Tucker co-authored a resolution that defended "the right of scholarly associations to boycott Israel and to set their own organization [MESA] on a course to consider a boycott of its own." (2:40)

The resolution was passed in a referendum vote in February of 2015, and hailed as a victory for BDS. MESA is reportedly in the process of amending its bylaws to allow it to endorse BDS.

In 2002, Tucker was a signatory to an open letter suggesting that Israel would use the war in Iraq to engage in "ethnic cleansing" against Palestinians.

Promoting BDS

In January of 2016, Tucker reportedly sponsored an anti-Israel resolution that was presented at the annual American Historical Association (AHA) convention. The resolution, titled "Protecting the Right to Education in the Occupied Palestinian Territories," failed to pass and was criticized by AHA members for singling Israel out for special condemnation. At the convention, Tucker chaired a “Roundtable on Violations of Academic Freedom in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”

In 2014, Tucker signed a letter calling on "scholars and librarians within Middle East studies to boycott Israeli academic institutions."

The letter pledged "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."

Tucker also signed a 2014 open letter calling on Israeli academics who believed it "urgent” to “act to end the illegal occupation in Palestine” and Israeli “atrocities” to sign a petition. The petition was closed to overseas signers after only 83 Israeli professors signed on.

In 2013, Tucker signed a letter calling on academics to boycott a history conference at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

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/judith.tucker.35

University Website:http://explore.georgetown.edu/people/tuckerje/