Karen Brodkin

Overview

Karen Brodkin is an activist within the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and co-authored a BDS resolution at the American Anthropological Association (AAA), calling on the AAA to boycott Israeli academic institutions.

In 2016, Brodkin wrote an essay defending the AAA BDS resolution, in which she accused boycott opponents of “protecting a political position of Israel over Palestine from challenge.”

In 1998, Brodkin published a book titled “How Jews Became White Folks and What That Says About Race in America.”

During a 2010 interview about her book, Brodkin demonized Israel, denied a Jewish connection the land of Israel and described Israel as “inherently racist.”

Brodkin is a professor emerita of Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and has endorsed a resolution calling on the University of California Student Association to support “divestment from corporations violating Palestinian Human Rights.”

Pushing BDS

In 2015, Brodkin co-authored a resolution encouraging the AAA to boycott Israeli academic institutions. She is also a member of an “advisory group” that guides the organization “Anthropologists for the Boycott of Israeli Academic institutions.”

In 2016, Brodkin wrote an essay defending the AAA BDS resolution. The essay accused boycott opponents of stifling discussion “about human and academic rights in Israel/Palestine grounded in a set of shared principles of justice” and using diversion to protect a “political position of Israel over Palestine from challenge.”

In June 2016, the AAA announced that the resolution to boycott Israeli universities was defeated but that there are “other actions planned.”

The AAA vote on the anti-Israel resolution took place from April 15 to May 31, 2016, with approximately half of the AAA membership voting on the resolution. Of the half that voted concerning the resolution, 50.4% voted against it, meaning that only one quarter of AAA’s membership — at most — voted in favor of the resolution.

In February of 2015, Brodkin endorsed a resolution calling on the University of California Student Association to support “divestment from corporations violating Palestinian Human Rights,” which passed a week later.

Demonizing Israel

During a 2010 interview about her book — “How Jews Became White Folks and What That Says About Race in America” — Brodkin denied a Jewish connection the land of Israel and described Israel as “inherently racist.” Brodkin has also reportedly accused Israel of “systematic destruction of Palestinian society.”

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/karen.brodkin.1

University Website: http://www.anthro.ucla.edu/faculty/karen-brodkin

Status:: Professor
University:: California-Los-Angeles

Organizations:: BDS
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Last Modified:: 05/04/2026

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