Steven Caton

Overview

Steven Caton [Steven C. Caton] is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and published a personal statement in support of the academic boycott of Israel.

Caton is the Khalid Bin Abdullah Bin Abdulrahman Al Saud Professor of Contemporary Arab Studies at Harvard University (Harvard), as well as the interim director of graduate studies at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

Supporting BDS

In a December 2014 statement outlining his support for the academic boycott of Israel, Caton wrote that the events of the 2014 Gaza War, also known as Operation Protective Edge (OPE), solidified his support for BDS.

Israel implemented OPE to destroy Hamas attack tunnels and stop rocket attacks from Gaza targeting Israeli civilians — that increased dramatically in the weeks prior to OPE.

Caton clarified that he sees no better way to address Israeli “injustices” than BDS. Addressing critics who argue that BDS does more harm than good, Caton countered that “it is hard to imagine how the present state of affairs can possibly be worse.”

In 2015, Caton signed a petition encouraging the American Anthropological Association (AAA) to pass a resolution that would boycott Israeli academic institutions.

In a December 2015 article about the AAA resolution, Caton “argued that it stands to make a strong statement against Israeli academic institutions and what he characterized as the country’s mistreatment of Palestinians.”

Caton also said that he considers the resolution “another tactic to limit Israel’s aggression.”

In June of 2016, the AAA announced that the resolution 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.

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 1: https://cmes.fas.harvard.edu/people/steven-caton

University Website 2:https://anthropology.fas.harvard.edu/people/steve-caton

Status:: Professor
University:: Harvard

Organizations:: BDS
Related Profiles:: J. Lorand Matory,; Duncan Kennedy,; Randa Wahbe,; Mohammad Hamad,; Stephen Walt,; Ajantha Subramanian,; Collin Poirot,; Diana Buttu,
Last Modified:: 05/04/2026

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