On Passover, Jews around the world celebrate a story — the liberation from Egypt — that embodies at once the sense of peoplehood and the notion that a people merits a homeland of its own. The story of liberation...
Anti-Zionism and the Humanities: A response to Saree Makdisi
Much debate by proponents of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement in academic and public spheres is not genuine debate but rather the promotion of accusations and slogans directed against the state of Israel....
Judith Butler Plans a Stealth MLA Presidency
The Modern Language Association (MLA), the largest academic discipline-based faculty organization in the US has been debating resolutions to boycott Israel or its universities since 2007. I have been involved in fighting this movement both...
The Middle East Studies Association Imagines Its Future
The large room at the Marriott Wardman Park was filled to overflowing on Sunday afternoon for a special session billed as “Thinking Palestine Intersectionally.”
Students are shouting down pro-Israel speakers — and silencing free speech
Cary Nelson is a English professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an affiliated professor at the University of Haifa. David Greenberg is a history professor at Rutgers University. They are members of...
Perry Anderson’s House of Zion: A Symposium
Editorial introduction to the Symposium: Perry Anderson’s long essay, ‘The House of Zion’, was published in the November-December 2015 issue of New Left Review, the ‘flagship journal of the Western Left’. Fathom invited Shany Mor,Cary...
The Intersectionality Muddle
In November 2015, the National Women’s Studies Association endorsed a broad boycott resolution calling not only for a boycott of Israeli universities but also for the “boycott, divestment and sanctions of economic, military and cultural...
The BDS Disinformation Campaign in the Modern Language Association
In this comprehensive essay, Cary Nelson, former president of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and co-editor of The Case Against Academic Boycotts of Israel, responds to a report by members of the Modern...
