Bill Text: SC H4635 | 2013-2014 | 120th General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Academic Studies Association
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Republican 78-46)
Status: (Passed) 2014-02-18 - Introduced and adopted [H4635 Detail]
Download: South_Carolina-2013-H4635-Introduced.html
A HOUSE RESOLUTION
CONDEMNING THE ACADEMIC STUDIES ASSOCIATION'S ACADEMIC BOYCOTT AGAINST ISRAEL AND CALLING UPON THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, THE COMMISSION ON HIGHER EDUCATION, EACH OF THE PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION, AND ALL OF SOUTH CAROLINA'S INDEPENDENT COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES TO REJECT ANTI-SEMITISM AND NOT PARTICIPATE IN THE ACADEMIC BOYCOTT.
Whereas, anti-Semitism is an intolerable and ugly form of bigotry, prejudice, and hostility directed toward individuals of the Jewish faith and the Jewish State of Israel, often based on ethnic, cultural, or religious identity; and
Whereas, the American Studies Association (ASA) is an academic organization composed of approximately 5,000 members, all of whom are members of academia specializing in the interdisciplinary study of American culture and history; and
Whereas, the ASA held a vote in which 1,252 of its members participated, and 66% voted in favor of an academic boycott against Israel, while 30% objected and approximately 4% abstained from the vote; and
Whereas, the motion was passed by only 16% of the membership of the ASA; and
Whereas, the ASA's academic boycott against Israel calls for a boycott of all of the universities within the State of Israel, a Jewish Democratic nation that promotes academic freedom and free speech and educates students from around the globe; and
Whereas, the academic boycott against all universities and colleges in Israel results in the restriction of academic freedom worldwide and reflects an anti-Semitic position; and
Whereas, the academic boycott is purportedly an effort to denounce alleged Israeli human rights violations, yet it effectively disengages the scholars within Israeli academic institutions from global academic collaborations; and
Whereas, due to the academic boycott, several American collegiate members of the ASA have withdrawn their institutional memberships, including members at Brandeis University and The Pennsylvania State University-Harrisburg; and
Whereas, numerous university presidents from the nation's centers of academic study, including the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, Yale University, Johns Hopkins University, Cornell University, Haverford College, Princeton University, Lehigh University, Temple University, Boston University, University of Chicago, University of Michigan, New York University, Middlebury College, and many others, have publicly condemned and rejected the academic boycott because it negatively impacts the progress for peace in the Middle East and unfairly targets Israel; and
Whereas, the practical effect of the American Studies Association Israeli boycott is a resurgence of anti-Semitism. Now, therefore,
Be it resolved by the House of Representatives:
That the South Carolina House of Representatives condemn in the strongest possible terms the ASA's academic boycott against Israel as an intolerable, anti-Semitic, base form of bigotry and hatred and recognize that such conduct, particularly within centers of academic study, is unacceptable and cannot be tolerated.
Be it further resolved that the South Carolina House of Representatives request that the Department of Education and Commission on Higher Education, in cooperation with each of the public institutions of higher education and all of South Carolina's independent colleges and universities, acknowledge the serious problem of anti-Semitic conduct, the creation of a hostile learning environment worldwide and that any such institutions not participate in the academic boycott.
