Introduction
As the school year approaches pro-BDS faculty and far left foundations opposed to the IHRA definition of antisemitism have organized an ersatz ‘institute’ and multiple conferences to denounce this widely accepted standard. Coupled with academic boycotts adopted by anthropology and Middle East studies organizations, campus BDS and antisemitism appear firmly centered with faculty and their supporters outside of academia rather than students, upstream from local and national politics.
Analysis
August saw the seasonal upswing in campus BDS activity only with faculty taking the lead. One of the most important developments was the announcement of a newly formed “Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism,” that will sponsor two conferences this fall to attack the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. The ‘institute’ defines its missions as
The Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism aims to support the delinking of the study of Zionism from Jewish Studies, and to reclaim academia and public discourse for the study of Zionism as a political, ideological, and racial and gendered knowledge project, intersecting with Palestine and decolonial studies, critical terrorism studies, settler colonial studies, and related scholarship and activism.
