WASHINGTON, D.C. – A group referring to itself as Faculty for Academic Freedom is circulating an “International Petition to Oppose Boycotts of Israel’s Academic Institutions, Scholars and Students.”

The petition is in response to a boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign that began more than a decade ago – specifically, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI).

PACBI is part of a larger BDS movement that includes, among many other attacks on Israel’s livelihood, a consumer boycott of Israeli made products and a push for the withdrawal of stocks and funds from Israeli corporations and any company doing business with Israel.

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From BDSMovement.net regarding the academic boycott:

…the Campaign issued a statement of principles, or what became known as the PACBI Call, addressed to colleagues in the international community urging them to comprehensively and consistently boycott all Israeli academic and cultural institutions until Israel withdraws from all the lands occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem; removes all its colonies in those lands; agrees to United Nations resolutions relevant to the restitution of Palestinian refugees rights; and dismantles its system of apartheid. 

The campaign calls for the cancellation of events, activities, agreements, or projects that promote “the normalization of Israel in the global academy, whitewash Israel’s violations of international law and Palestinians rights, or violate the boycott.”

For example, just this month, the BDS Movement called on the Union of European Football Associations to exclude Israel’s bid for Jerusalem to host their 2020 games.

BDS Movement says it made the request because of “Israel’s recent war crimes against the people of Gaza and the on-going occupation and persistent human rights violations against Palestinians, including in the field of sports.”

Here at home, several university faculty and students have launched their own campaigns and more than 1,200 professors and other university staff, including domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, have endorsed the US Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel.

Some of our university professors embracing this boycott have even been found to have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and its front groups in the U.S.

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Faculty for Academic Freedom, the group opposing the boycott, says their opposition is rooted four core principals – academic freedom, truth, peace, and access.

With regard to the issue of truth, the group contends that “the factual record does not support the accusations and narratives of the BDS movement. Many are based on overstatements, cherry picked evidence, outright falsehood, or on disputed or highly biased data.”

Faculty for Academic Freedom’s petition, as of today, has received more than 600 signatures.