Israel’s Hayom newspaper reported, on Monday, that 134 out of 435 members of Congress have signed a letter criticizing the American Studies Association’s decision last month to boycott Israel’s academic institutions.
The effort was spearheaded by Illinois Republican Peter Roskam, Florida Democrat Ted Deutch, Georgia Republican Doug Collins, and Illinois Democrat Brad Schneider, the Middle East Monitor (MEMO) reports.
The letter, addressed to ASA President Curtis Marez, stated: ‘We write in strong opposition to the ASA’s recent decision to boycott Israeli universities and academic institutions… While ASA has every right to express its views on policies pursued by any nation or government, we believe that the decision to blacklist Israeli academic institutions for Israeli government policies with which ASA disagrees demonstrates a blatant disregard for academic freedom… to single out Israel, while leaving relationships with universities in autocratic and repressive countries intact, suggests thinly veiled bigotry and bias against the Jewish state.’
Last month, former Israeli ambassador Michael Oren published an article in which he called upon US Congress to legislate a bill against any initiative to boycott Israel.
