We, the leadership of the Coalition of Women in German, stand in solidarity with Palestine and Palestinian academics by adopting a resolution in support ofBoycott, Divest, Sanction (BDS) and committing as an organization to the academic boycott of Israeli institutions.
In doing so, we join with our colleagues in the Diversity, Decolonization, and the German Curriculum scholarly collective; the National Women’s Studies Organization; the National Association of Chicana/Chicano Studies; the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association; the African Literature Association; the Association for Asian American Studies; and the American Studies Association, among many others.
The abundance of organizations who have committed to an academic boycott of Israeli institutions (many of whom already did so 5-10 years ago) demonstrates the urgency of taking a stand through institutional policy. WiG is committed to “feminist approaches to German literature and culture or in the intersection of gender with other categories of analysis such as sexuality, class, race, and ethnicity….[as well as] to eradicating discrimination in the classroom and in the teaching profession at all levels.” Our mission and our values compel us to take this step to support our Palestinian colleagues facing discrimination and genocide.
We have witnessed much misinformation about academic boycott, and we wish to emphasize that this would be a boycott of a state and its complicit institutions, not of a people, nor of individuals. Details about the academic boycott are explained here.
Adopting a resolution of academic boycott demonstrates a commitment by WiG leadership to truly intersectional feminisms and to engaging in complex and difficult conversations within our organization, in the context of German Studies, in our adjacent fields of research, and in our own institutions.
It is very likely that WiG members will have diverse responses to such a resolution. In the past, equally controversial responses emerged when WiG members attempted to discuss anti-Muslim racism. At the time, those discussions were met with a resounding silence by WiG leadership. This resolution, then, is an opportunity to initiate a more robust discussion about intersectional feminisms and our implication in settler colonialism, both in the context of the lands on which we live and the discipline(s) in which we teach and research.
We continue to encourage thoughtful, intellectual engagement and productive dialogue among our membership that supports the respectful exchange of ideas, and we understand that some members will feel that they are unable to heed our call for academic boycott within the context of their own positions and/or at their individual institutions. Yet, as an intersectional feminist organization that supports the goals of social justice, we strongly believe that it is our duty to end any collaboration with institutions and organizations that support Israel’s systemic displacement, dispossession, disenfranchisement of and genocidal violence against Palestinians.
Our Commitments
As an organization, WiG will refrain from participating in any form of academic and cultural cooperation, collaboration, or joint projects with Israeli institutions.
We will not participate in collaborative events with organizations or scholars who are receiving funding for that event from an Israeli institution. When we invite official guests, they may not accept funding from an Israeli institution to supplement their participation in the event.
Note: This does NOT mean that individual Israeli scholars could not be guests at our events. Rather, they would simply not be permitted to use funding from an Israeli institution to attend.
We will seek out and create opportunities, such as speaker invitations, workshops etc. to directly support Palestinian colleagues and to celebrate Palestinian life and resistance.
We will encourage other organizations in our field (GSA, AATG, MLA, etc.) to adopt similar boycott resolutions. In addition, we will support individual WiG members who are advocating for such resolutions at their own institutions.
The entire leadership resolution and additional resources can be found here.