Max Weiss

Overview

Max Weiss is a founder of the Princeton University (Princeton) faculty divestment initiative on Palestine, a variation of the broader Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Weiss is an associate professor of History and Near Eastern Studies at Princeton.

Faculty Divestment Petition

On November 5, 2014, Weiss co-authored a petition entitled "An Invitation to the Tenured Faculty at Princeton" in Princeton’s student newspaper, The Daily Princetonian. The advertisement invited tenured faculty to support divestment from companies “that contribute to or profit from the Israeli occupation of the West Bank until the State of Israel complies with UN Resolution 242, ends its military occupation of the West Bank and lifts its siege of Gaza.”

The faculty petition was rejected by the Resources Committee of the Council of the Princeton University Community, because it did not meet guidelines for consideration. It was reported that organizers of the faculty petition “plan to press on.”

Jewish Anti-Israel Poster Boy

In July 2014, Weiss was photographed at an anti-Israel rally holding a sign with the words “Another Jew Ashamed of Israel’s Insatiable War Machine.”

The rally was protesting against Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE), implemented to destroy Hamas attack tunnels and stop rocket attacks from Gaza targeting Israeli civilians.

The image of Weiss holding the sign has since gone viral on the internet and has been used in blogs and articles as a symbol of an anti-Israel Jewish token.

Princeton Divests Campaign

In April of 2015, Weiss was part of Princeton Divests — a coalition of Princeton students and faculty "committed to divesting from companies committing human rights violations in occupied Palestine" — that initiated a BDS referendum at Princeton. The referendum, voted on by Princeton students, was narrowly defeated.

On April 8, 2015 — several weeks before the referendum — Weiss spoke on a forum organized by Princeton Divests, titled "The Time to Divest: Palestine, South Africa, and the Moral Duty of the University."

According to Weiss, the “faculty petition urging divestment set the stage for the student referendum.”

Promoting Academic Boycott of Israel

On August 6, 2014, Weiss 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."

Demonizing Princeton’s Center for Jewish Life

On October 12, 2014, Weiss wrote a column in the Daily Princetonian accusing the Center for Jewish Life (CJL) at Princeton — an affiliate of Hillel International — of “stifling free speech on campus.”

Weiss wrote the article in response to his preemptive exclusion from a panel conversation on the Gaza War. The panel, which never took place, was to be co-sponsored by CJL. Weiss was excluded was because Hillel International’s guidelines for campus-based Israel activities prohibit the organization from partnering with or hosting individuals that support BDS.

Defending Hate Speech

In late 2014, Weiss defended Professor Steven Salaita 

In 2014, The University of Illinois withdrew an offer of employment to Salaita after becoming aware of his anti-Semitic tweets. One tweet, posted shortly after Hamas kidnapped three teenage Israeli high school students, read: "You may be too refined to say it, but I’m not: I wish all the f**king West Bank settlers would go missing.” In 2017, Salaita posted to Facebook: “People ask if I would go back in time and change anything. I would not…I will die unapologetic.” In February 2019, Salaita stated that he had become a school bus driver in the Washington, D.C., area.

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.princeton.edu/people/max-weiss