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May 5, 2020 | The Jerusalem Post

‘Antisemitic’ academic pushed for boycott of Israeli professors in 2018

Mbembe and another academic took the lead to boycott Prof. Shifra Sagy, a psychology professor at Ben-Gurion University, who was disinvited from the South African Stellenbosch University’s conference in 2018.
May 5, 2020 | The Jerusalem Post

‘Antisemitic’ academic pushed for boycott of Israeli professors in 2018

Mbembe and another academic took the lead to boycott Prof. Shifra Sagy, a psychology professor at Ben-Gurion University, who was disinvited from the South African Stellenbosch University’s conference in 2018.

The South African-based academic Achille Mbembe advocated an aggressive boycott of Israeli professors in 2018, casting fresh doubt on his statements that he supports free speech and is not part of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign targeting Israel.

Mbembe and another academic took the lead to boycott Prof. Shifra Sagy, a psychology professor at Ben-Gurion University, who was disinvited from the South African Stellenbosch University’s conference in 2018. The New York-based journalist Ben Cohen on Monday first reported in the Algemeiner on the new BDS action carried out by Mbembe.

In November 2018, Mbembe issued an anti-Israel statement with Sarah Nutall on the planned conference titled  “Recognition, Reparation, Reconciliation” Conference.”

Sarah Nuttall is Professor of Literary and Cultural Studies and Director of WiSER (Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research) in Johannesburg, South Africa, where Mbembe teaches.

Nutall and Mbembe wrote that, “We, like a large number of South African and international scholars, firmly oppose Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and support the boycott as a non-violent strategy for ending the occupation.

“We have sympathy for those Israeli academics whose own work as well as political positions are critical of the Israeli occupation and who as such, are in dispute with their respective institutions or, in some cases, ostracized.”

They added, “We let the organisers know this morning that we would have no option but to withdraw from the conference if a satisfactory agreement was not found between the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and the Organising Committee. A short while ago, we were informed by the organisers that the Israeli speakers who were on the programme have rescinded their participation at the conference and for this reason, we are open to participating in the conference.”

Previous Jerusalem Post reports disclosed Mbembe’s BDS activities from 2015 against Ben-Gurion professors, including his written call for “global isolation” of the Jewish state.

The Post sent a press query to Mbembe.

Mbembe is part of an alleged widening antisemitism scandal involving his reported minimizing of the Holocaust, glorification of terrorism and support for BDS. A senior German diplomat Andreas Görgen may be included in this year’s Simon Wiesenthal Center’s top ten list for worst outbreaks of antisemitism and anti-Israelism due to his promotion of Mbembe on the micro-blogging website twitter.

Görgen stood side-by-side with Mbembe in a series of tweets in April. After the Post exposed Görgen’s pro-Mbembe tweets, he stopped tweeting in support of the pro-BDS academic.

Germany’s Bundestag classified BDS as an antisemitic movement last year. Post media and twitter queries to Görgen and the foreign ministry were not returned.

Cohen wrote “At no point in recent weeks has Mbembe addressed his actions over the Stellenbosch conference, confining himself to general statements in support of academic freedom. In his interview with German radio, Mbembe went on to argue that the row over his festival invite suggested that Germany was struggling ‘to uphold three key principles of any liberal state: the freedom of conscience, the freedom of expression and academic freedom.”’

Mbembe was invited to speak at a German cultural and music festival this Sommer but faced intense criticism for his alleged antisemitism. The festival was cancelled.

Benjamin Weinthal reports on human rights in the Middle East and is a fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow him on Twitter @BenWeinthal

Issues:

Issues:

Israel Lawfare Palestinian Politics

Topics:

Topics:

Israel Twitter Middle East Palestinians Jewish people Germany The Jerusalem Post New York The Holocaust Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions South Africa Antisemitism World Wide Web Simon Wiesenthal Center Bundestag German language Johannesburg David Ben-Gurion Ben Cohen