BDS “Controversy” at Syracuse
This morning I stumbled upon this Haaretz article by Syracuse University professor Miriam Elman. My email response is below.
I tweeted at you this morning after a friend shared your article in Haaretz titled “The Pressure on American Academics to Conform to BDS.” I am a film student at Syracuse and I personally think BDS as a nonviolent, peaceful means of resisting the occupation of Palestinian territories by the Israeli government (which receives an incredible amount of funding from the United States government) is a morally righteous force. I would be glad to debate the merits of BDS as a movement as an observer, as I do not consider myself an activist, but the issue at hand does not directly involve BDS activists anyway.
Conor Friedersdorf bemoaned the scourge of political correctness as the motivating factor behind “disinviting” Dotan’s film from Syracuse University’s festival revolving around religion. However, nobody from Syracuse University invited the film at all. It’s awfully hard to un-invite someone who hasn’t actually been invited in the first place.
In Friedersdorf’s article, Professor M. Gail Hamner cited as her reasoning for reneging on the non-invitation that other faculty members had warned her that BDS groups might disapprove of showing the film and inviting the director. Instead of reaching out to BDS activists to see what their reaction might be to The Settlers—a film that many consider to be critical of Israel—she decided it would not be worth the trouble of engaging in a discourse with them. The BDS supporters I know are all very willing to explain their positions and debate those that disagree with them. Projecting this reticence to have ideas critiqued onto the BDS movement instead of the professors themselves seems to me to be another way to blame students and paint a movement as hateful instead of asking why academics would like to stifle debate instead of opening a dialogue.
I also don’t see how “political correctness” has created a fearful academic environment when less than one year ago the university-affiliated Syracuse International Film Festival screened work by Israeli filmmaker Haim Bouzaglo, and this year is planning on screening On the Map, a film by a Israeli filmmaker Dani Menkin that would, in my opinion, warrant a response from BDS supporters. Oddly enough, there has been little public pushback to these events on campus or in the Syracuse University community. I’ve yet to see any evidence that BDS supporters have a problem with the screenings, and certainly no public discussion of the issue. It seems that the real issue here is that one person, without the authority to do so, tentatively invited a filmmaker to screen a film at a different institution than their own and then another person, without doing any research, decided it was not worth the hassle to invite the filmmaker.
It would be nice to have a conversation about why peacefully resisting the Israeli government’s humiliating treatment and slaughter of Palestinians are or are not (in your opinion) acceptable. This issue, however, does not center on the BDS movement. It is a result of academics failing to critically engage with what the BDS movement actually opposes and stands for and instead ignoring what are important issues surrounding free speech and protest on campus.
I will be posting this message publicly on my personal website. I’d be happy to discuss these issues further over email or in person if you would prefer that.
Respectfully,
—
Collin Hotchkiss
