Manzar Foroohar

Overview

Manzar Foroohar was the focus of controversy in 2012 for her outspoken anti-Israel views. She has also defended anti-Israel activism on campus, expressed support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and demonized Israel, as well as Zionism.

As of 2019, Foroohar was a Professor Emerita of History at California State University, Polytechnic (Cal Poly). 

Controversial Appointment

Foroohar was appointed to chair a CSU [Caifornia State University] Academic Senate 2012/2013 committee aimed at combating anti-Semitism in the CSU system.

Foroohar’s appointment to chair the committee was met with controversy due to her anti-Israel views and her support for BDS.

Foroohar reportedly served “on the organizing committees of two prominent BDS groups, the U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel and the Israel Divestment Campaign.”

A January 2013 Campus Reform article cited claims from students of Foroohar’s anti-Israel bias, such as: “God forbid if you are Jewish or Israeli because she has it in for you. Do not take the class” and “[Foroohar] presented all of the course material in ways that seemed to attack Israel.“

Defending Anti-Israel Activism on Campus

Foroohar was reportedly a member of the California Scholars for Academic Freedom (cs4af) and signed an open letter to the Los Angeles City Council, published by cs4af on June 27, 2014.

The letter supported an allegation that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and Hasbara Fellowships work to “lobby student leaders and council members through free trips and other in-kind gifts as a means of buying loyalty and influencing student council votes.”

The signatories defended a pledge proposed for candidates in student body elections at UCLA, committing them not to participate in trips to Israel funded by the AIPAC, the ADL and Hasbara Fellowships.

The letter also condemned the Blumenfield Resolution, a piece of legislation which outlawed the pledge as an effort to “harass” and “intimidate” pro-Israel candidates for student government and urged the university to develop policies and institute practices at every UC campus to outlaw “intimidation or harassment of any student.”

Supporting BDS

On December 5, 2013, Foroohar signed the “Campaign to Boycott the Oral History Conference at Hebrew University of Jerusalem,” authored by the BDS movement.

The petition encouraged historians and academics to boycott an upcoming conference at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI), claiming that “while all Israeli universities are deeply complicit in the occupation, settler-colonialism, and apartheid, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem is particularly noteworthy.”

In August of 2012, cs4af published another open letter, which Foroohar signed, to California Assembly Members opposing a piece of anti-BDS legislation.

That cs4af letter argued that BDS, descriptions of Israel as “an apartheid state” and accusations against Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and “crimes against humanity” do not constitute anti-Semitism and should be protected speech on campus.

Foroohar also signed an open letter to California State University (CSU) Chancellor Charles Reed, opposing the reinstatement of a CSU-Israel study abroad program.  

Signatories of the letter claimed that “CSU participation with the government of Israel in the proposed study abroad program could be interpreted as an endorsement of the international crime of apartheid.”

Foroohar signed a petition authored by the Lebanese Campaign for the Boycott of Zionism and published on March 10, 2010.

The petition called upon the International Society for Iranian Studies (ISIS) to withdraw its invitation to host a professor from Ariel University and to commit to the academic boycott of Israel.

Demonizing Israel

On October 19, 2015, Foroohar delivered a lecture titled: “Imperialist Interests, The Postwar Era, Israel’s Birth and the Occupation of Palestine,” at Fresno State University (Fresno State).

The lecture followed a screening of the anti-Israel film titled: “People Without a Land,” which according to a review published on Electronic Intifada (EI), consists in large part of  “‘talking heads’ — interviews with major thinkers on the subject” such as anti-Israel activists Ilan Pappe, co-founder of EI Ali Abunimah, Omar Barghouti, Jeff Halper, Hanan Ashrawi and Saeb Erekat.

Demonizing Zionism

In 2017, Foroohar served as a contact person for a petition, authored by cs4af, titled: “The Extremist Zionist Media Campaign Gone Too Far.”

Signatories of the petition alleged the existence of “a Zionist cultural war of aggression against academic freedom in the United States, but also in Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.”

The petition concluded with a call to action: “organizing support for and solidarity with those who are victimized, both directly and indirectly, by these Zionist tactics detrimental to academic freedom.”

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://history-stage.calpoly.edu/faculty/manzar-foroohar