Digital Library
Faculty Academic Boycotters Ground Zero for Campus Antisemitism
Topic:
Antisemitism & Antizionism
Principal Investigators:
Leila Beckwith, Tammi Rossman-Benjamin
Study Date:
2022
Source:
AMCHA
Key Findings:
This study closely examines campus antisemitism following the Israel-Hamas War in May 2021, and provides a crucial insight into the sizable influence and reach of anti-Zionist faculty.
The presence of five or more Old Academic Boycotters was 7.24 times more likely to have one or more departments that issued or endorsed an anti-Zionist statement from May 10 to June 30 than schools with less than five Old Academic Boycotters, and 5.58 times more likely to lead to a school’s student government passing an anti-Zionist resolution during this time.
The presence of five or more Old Academic Boycotters was 3.65 times more likely to lead to incidents involving the student-perpetrated targeting of Jewish students for harm than schools with less than five Old Academic Boycotters, and 4.48 times more likely to lead to incidents involving the student-perpetrated targeting of Jewish students for harm.
Schools with five or more Old Academic Boycotters were 3.31 times more likely to have student-perpetrated targeting of Jewish students for harm than schools with less than five, and were also very strongly associated with the number of New Academic Boycotters.
The results confirm that the presence and number of faculty endorsers of academic boycott of Israel are highly associated with the incidence of anti-Zionist expression in academia, and strongly suggest that some faculty who express anti-Zionist sentiments outside of the university are bringing their anti-Israel animus into their school’s educational spaces.
These findings provide compelling evidence that faculty academic boycotters are indeed exploiting their university positions and departmental affiliations in order to bring their extramural anti-Zionist advocacy and activism onto campus, in ways that increase both student anti-Zionist activity and acts that target Jewish and pro-Israel students for harm.
Methodology:
Data were gathered from 109 North American public and private colleges with significant populations of Jewish students (as denoted by Hillel International) by reviewing submitted incident reports, media accounts, social media postings and on-line recordings.
Antisemitic activity on each campus from May 10 to June 30, 2021 was examined to determine: 1) whether one or more academic departments issued or endorsed an anti-Israel statement with antisemitic content; 2) whether its student government issued such a statement; 3) number of incidents involving the student-perpetrated targeting of Jewish or pro-Israel students for harm; 4) number of incidents involving student promotion of BDS; and 5) number of incidents involving student anti-Israel rhetoric with antisemitic content.
Old Academic Boycotters are defined as faculty who had signed one or more public petitions or statements endorsing an academic boycott of Israeli universities and scholars prior to May 10, 2021. New Academic Boycotters are those who did so as of May 10 to June 30, 2021.
This study used a combination of logistical regression and negative binomial regression to isolate the impact of Old Academic Boycotters on measures of antisemitic activity from May 10 to June 30, 2021, distinct from three other factors that could have an impact on antisemitic activity, e.g. the presence of anti-Zionist student groups, the size of the school, and whether it was a public or private institution.
The dependent binary variables in the two logistical regression analyses were, respectively: 1) whether the school had one or more academic departments that issued or endorsed an anti-Zionist statement; and 2) whether the school’s student government passed an anti-Zionist resolution. The dependent continuous variables in the three negative binomial regression analyses were, respectively: 1) the number of incidents of student-perpetrated targeting of Jewish students for harm; 2) the number of incidents of student BDS promotion; 3) the number of incidents of student anti-Zionist expression.
In all of the regression analyses, the independent variables were the same: whether or not a school had five or more faculty who had expressed public support for an academic boycott of Israel prior to May 10, 2021; whether or not a school had one or more active anti-Zionist student groups; the total student population; whether the school was public or private.
A Pearson linear correlation was used to investigate the association between Old Academic Boycotters and New Academic Boycotters.