Van Gosse
Overview
Van Gosse is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and has defended anti-Israel activist Professor Rabab Abdulhadi.Gosse has also posted a wide variety of Israel-hatred on Twitter.
Gosse is associate professor and department chair of History at Franklin & Marshall College (Franklin & Marshall).
Supporting BDS
Gosse is a signatory to a list of individuals endorsing the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI).Gosse signed an open letter to United States President Barack Obama and the American Congress, dated July 31, 2014, condemning “the disproportionate harm that the Israeli military, which the United States has armed and supported for decades, is inflicting on the population of Gaza.”
The letter exclusively blamed Israel for the Gazan civilian crisis and called upon the administration “to suspend US military aid to Israel, until there is assurance that this aid will no longer be used for the commission of war crimes.”
The letter was in response to Operation Protective Edge (OPE), which Israel commenced in July of 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.
Gosse also signed a controversial petition submitted to the American Historical Association (AHA) in 2016, which alleged that “Israel’s restrictions on the movement of faculty, staff and visitors in the West Bank impede instruction at Palestinian institutions of higher learning” and that “Israel restricts the right to lecture or teach at Palestinian universities.”
The petition went on to demand that “the AHA commits itself to monitoring Israeli actions.”
According to an article, published on December 27, 2014, Gosse was one of the organizers within the AHA, who initiated “a roundtable discussion by historians ‘critical of Israeli policy’.”
In an article chronicling the proposals, Gosse was quoted stating that “The goal is to send a message to Israeli academics that they should mobilize to stop these violations.”
In another article concerning the proposed petitions,it was reported that Gosse “said AHA has ‘the right and responsibility’ to take political stances on issues under its purview.”
Defending Rabab Abdulhadi
Gosse co-authored a letter to San Francisco State University (SFSU) President Leslie Wong in defense of anti-Israel activist, and SFSU Professor, Rabab Abdulhadi.According to the letter, its authors wrote “to express our concern over the treatment of Professor Rabab Abdul Hadi, an internationally recognized scholar, who has been attacked yet again by the right-wing Zionist organization.”
The authors went on to state that “We view open criticism of Israeli policy to be critical to the educational process and deplore all attempts to close it down.”
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
Website:https://www.vangosse.com/Twitter:https://twitter.com/vangosse
University Website:https://www.fandm.edu/van-gosse
- Status:
- Professor
- University:
- Franklin-Marshall
- Organizations:
- BDS
- Related Profiles:
- Last Modified:
- 05/04/2026
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