The Modern Language Association Voted to Rejects Academic Boycott of Israel

On Saturday at the annual convention of the Modern Language Association in Philadelphia, the Delegate Assembly, the elected body of the organization of which I am a member, debated and ultimately rejected a BDS motion to boycott Israeli universities, 113-79.  In addition, after lengthy and heated discussions on Saturday afternoon, the Assembly adopted a resolution, by a vote of 101-93, declaring the boycott inconsistent with the purpose of the MLA and stipulating that the MLA refrain from endorsing the boycott. (Martin Shichtman of Eastern Michigan University and I had submitted this resolution, so I am writing as a participant in these events). With some 25,000 members, the MLA is the largest professional association of humanities scholars in North America. These votes represent a significant defeat of the boycott movement and continues a series of losses that BDS has faced after being turned back by the American Historical Association and the American Anthropological Association. Three strikes and you’re out.

The outcome at the MLA represents an important victory for the anti-BDS group within the association, MLA Members for Scholars Rights. It was formed in the aftermath of the 2014 MLA convention in Chicago, which featured a prominently placed pro-boycott advocacy session. Opponents of the boycott scrambled to organize a counter-session, outside the regular convention programming. Since then intense debate has taken place within the MLA, and MLAMFSR has worked hard to counter the BDS proponents. All this built up to the showdown in Philadelphia, with the two dueling resolutions, for and against BDS. The Delegate Assembly clearly turned down the call to boycott and, more narrowly, positively endorsed the resolution to refrain from boycotting.

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