Quick ISA BDS Update

ISA is pretty busy so I cannot blog much for now.  The key news from the Governing Council yesterday, besides the idea that Paul Diehl should always run these meetings (great job!), is that the BDS item was not added to the agenda.

It lost 27-18.  It will probably come back and there is no guarantee that the votes will not change.  I think a particular problem with this proposal was how deceptive it was: saying that they just wanted to talk about it but including a deadline for a decision.  That and saying that the APSA was considering it when it was not.

An effort to get a non-discrimination clause added to ISA failed and was sent to committee as the BDS folks didn't want language about not discriminating against institutions and they found enough support from those who thought the non-discrimination language needed to be better.  Apparently, ISA does not have any non-discrimination clauses except as applied to where to hold the conventions. 

So, the battle at the committee and then next year will be focused in part on whether to add citizenship to the protected classes (race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, national origin [ethnicity is not included but will be, I am sure]) and whether institutions will be included.  Oh, and the BDS fans will bring it back.

I do love the shifting arguments: Israel is apartheid and we sanctioned apartheid -> oops, ISA didn't sanction South African educational institutions but they should have.  And on and on.

As I said, Israel cannot be democratic and Jewish as things are going; and if people want to boycott Israel, they can.  But ISA as an academic entity seeking to facilitate discussion and research should not be in the business of excluding academics and their institutions [possible exception would be academics and institutions that commit specific crimes--Doctor Mengele and his medical would be excluded...]. 

But I will not be involved next year as I will not be on the Governing Council.  Good luck to next year's crew.