I was asked this question on a panel at the recent Israeli American Council National Conference. And I answered:
In principle, the act of boycotting is not protected by the Constitution because it is considered an economic act rather than a matter of freedom of expression. However, as a general matter, anyone is free to advocate a boycott because advocating a boycott is protected speech. In any case, regardless of constitutional considerations, no one would force a professor to submit a paper to an academic conference held at Tel Aviv University. In that sense, professors, for example, are free to boycott Israeli universities as much as they like.
However, problems arise when professors are acting on behalf of their institutions.
The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement advocates boycotting Israeli universities, which is against the policies of all major universities. When individual professors act on behalf of the university, they do not have the right to violate university policy. The BDS movement also proposes boycotting anyone associated with Israeli universities and those who support what it sees as Israel’s violations of international law and human rights. By their light they mean, for example, those who support Israel’s military actions in Gaza and Lebanon, which they (irrationally) call “genocide” (and who also did so before October 7th). ). Israel’s actions. This in turn means boycotting almost all Israelis and most American Jews. This is a violation of state law in many states, may violate the First Amendment at state universities, violates university academic freedom policies, and may violate federal and state anti-discrimination laws. will be higher.
And I think that’s where we need to get tough. If a professor says he or she is personally committed to adopting BDS or an academic boycott of Israel, that person should not serve as a department chair or serve on a hiring committee. , should insist on a rule prohibiting them from serving as disciplinary committee members. The Commission acts on established principles and may not play any role in decision-making where there is an opportunity to discriminate. The reason for this claim is not because of their personal ideology, but because they have announced that they have engaged in actions in their professional lives that are inconsistent with their responsibilities on behalf of the University.
However, simply stating “I think the BDS movement is a good idea” does not fall under this rule, but universities have the right to expect all faculty members to sign a pledge not to discriminate on the basis of nationality. There absolutely is. Foreign ties or political views must be disclosed before the individual is allowed to exercise university power.
Finally, I don’t think professors have the right to refuse to write a letter of recommendation to a student just because they don’t like the student’s political views. I think there are ways to do this without forcing professors to write specifically to organizations they don’t like. Tell the student, “I can’t write a letter to ___ on your behalf, but of course I’ll give you a general letter of recommendation, so you can send it to anyone you want.”
