Nubar Hovsepian
Overview
Nubar Hovsepian is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. He is the chair and associate professor of Political Science at Chapman University (Chapman).Supporting BDS
Hovsepian is a member of the California Scholars for Academic Freedom (cs4af).Hovsepian signed a letter, authored by cs4af, to San Francisco State University (SFSU) President Leslie Wong and the California State University (CSU) Board of Trustees, defending anti-Israel activism on campus, which it characterized as an expression of “academic freedom” and “the free exchange of ideas.”
The letter went on to defend meetings organized between SFSU students and members of terrorist organizations such as Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
Hovsepian signed the “Campaign to Boycott the Oral History Conference at Hebrew University of Jerusalem,” published on the BDS movement website, on December 5, 2013.
The petition encouraged historians and academics to boycott an upcoming conference at Hebrew University (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 2012, cs4af published another open letter, which Hovsepian 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 on campus.
Hovsepian 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.
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://www.chapman.edu/our-faculty/nubar-hovsepian
- Status:
- Professor
- University:
- Chapman
- Organizations:
- BDS
- Related Profiles:
- Last Modified:
- 05/04/2026
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