More on the ASA Boycott: not good news for NY Uni.

Back on January 18, Snoopy posted an article from me about the ASA boycott of Israel. The article included the news that the New York Senate had a bill before it to bar colleges that boycotted Israel (or anyone else) from receiving public funds. All good news so far.

Now, it seems, that bill appears to have passed the NY Senate by a vote of 51-4. There is a companion bill before the State Assembly. If this passes, it will become State law. As State Senator Klein, sponsor of the bill notes (in the online edition of The Jerusalem Post): "'This legislation sends a very simple message, which is that we should never ask taxpayers to support religious, ethnic, or racial discrimination. We need to marginalize the politics of intolerance whenever it rears its ugly head'". "He goes on to say that 'I will not allow the enemies of Israel or the Jewish people to gain an inch in New York. The First Amendment protects every organization’s right to speak, but it never requires taxpayers to foot the bill,' he added.

Under the new legislation, New York academic institutes could no longer reimburse students or scholars traveling to conventions of the three groups that have voted to boycott Israel: the ASA, the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association and the Association for Asian American Studies."

I'd say, subject to the Assembly passing the bill (this is New York State, after all), this could cause all sorts of problems to some parts of NYU.

Shame about that. But other people have academic freedom too.

By Brian Goldfarb.