The letter has been signed by professors from several prominent universities, including Yale University, Columbia University, University of Maryland, Stanford University, and Northwestern University.
Nearly 3,000 scholars have signed an open letter which condemns academic boycotts of Israel and calls on university officials to protect the academy from the caprices of politics.
Circulated by several higher education nonprofits, the letter comes amid anti-Zionist students and faculty clamoring for universities to sever ties with Israel and adopt the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement (BDS), a demand that was at the center of an explosion of “encampment” protests which roiled campuses across the country at the end of spring semester.
Formally launched in 2005, the BDS campaign opposes Zionism — a movement supporting the Jewish people’s right to self-determination — and rejects Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish nation-state.