Susan Ashbrook Harvey

On May 8, 2024, more than 1,700 scholars signed an anti-Israel letter addressed to university and college presidents across the United States. The letter was sent in the wake of Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza. Israel launched the war after the October 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks, during which 1,200 Israelis were murdered.

The letter expressed support for the pro-terror student-led protests and Gaza solidarity encampments across university campuses, and called for university and college presidents to “treat the student-led protests for what they are: a moral stance against their university’s potential complicity in war crimes, occupation, ethnic cleansing, and genocide.”

The letter also called for university and college presidents to “publicly commit to a serious, transparent, and sustained process of disclosure and divestment from all companies profiting from or contributing to war crimes and human rights abuses...” and alleged that "US-provided weapons, normalization, and political support" were enabling the continuation of Israel's war against the terrorists.

Proponents of the “anti-normalization” policy seek to police all interactions between Israelis and Palestinians and shut down all conversations and interactions perceived as being ideologically unaligned with their own agenda.

On Saturday, October 7, 2023, thousands of heavily armed Hamas terrorists breached Israel’s border with Gaza. They executed numerous war crimes on civilians, including mass murder, beheadings of children, rape of men and women, torture, kidnappings and mutilation.

Hamas broadcast videos of their butchery on social media, often to victims’ accounts for families to see. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.”

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by pro-terror activist Omar Barghouti in 2005 to turn “Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.” Barghouti has also called for Israel's destruction and the BDS movement demands would result in that same goal.

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 infiltrating university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments propose resolutions to boycott or divestment from Israel or Israeli-affiliated entities. 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 and pro-terror activism on campus.