Full membership voted on the resolution at the MLA. Image by Thinkstock

Amid debate featuring anti-Israel slurs, the full Modern Language Association membership voted on a resolution singling out Israel for denying academics entry to the West Bank.

At least 10 percent of the full MLA membership of 30,000 was required to participate in Sunday’s vote to make it official.

The results have not been released to the public.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

A number of resolution proponents criticized “Zionist attack dogs” and “the Zionist lobby,” which “railroads its way through Congress, universities and civil society,” according to some of the debate published on Pastebin.com. The language was leaked on an internal MLA website.

“I am pleased to see the tactfulness of the Palestinian resolution, as I’m tired of Zionists constantly carping at those who support Palestinian rights … such as this Jewish American,” wrote Richard Pressman, a communications professor at St. Mary’s University in Texas.

The full membership was voting on a resolution passed in January by the MLA’s delegate assembly. The 60-53 vote approved a measure calling on the U.S. State Department to “contest Israel’s denials of entry to the West Bank by U. S. academics who have been invited to teach, confer, or do research at Palestinian universities.”

Resolution opponents noted that countries with abysmal records on human rights and academic freedom were not singled out for condemnation like Israel.

“This resolution rightly targets only Israel given the humongous influence that Jewish scholars have in the decision making process of Academia in general,” wrote Alessio Lerro, an adjunct assistant professor of comparative literature at Temple University.

Lerro in a Facebook post on Holocaust Remembrance Day questioned the number of Jews who died in the Shoah, sparking accusations of Holocaust denial.

“6 million? mh…. we all know (or should know) that the counting of Jews is a bit controversial,” Lerro said in the post, which has since been deleted. “This said, without the death toll of The USSR, we would all speak German now.”

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$90 $180

$360

Other amount