Cary Nelson

WEAPONZING ANTISEMITISM AT THE MLA

The latest attempt to weaponize antisemitism at the Modern Language Association, North America’s most influential disciplinary organization, is in motion for potential fulfillment in January. Once again, the organization’s Radical Caucus hopes to weaponize antisemitism to further discredit the humanities and perhaps administer a death blow to literature and foreign language programs in North America.

The Radical Caucus aims to accomplish this goal by getting MLA’s members’ elected representatives to vote for a carefully crafted sleeper resolution during the business meeting at the organization’s annual convention. That business meeting, the Delegate Assembly, has been the scene of pitched battles over Israel since the 2006-2007 academic year.

Back when the Radical Caucus was devoted to recovering forgotten progressive writers, I was a member. I participated actively in those literary recovery projects and counted the Radical Caucus leaders amongst my friends. But as soon as the group adopted anti-Zionism as its true life’s work it was obvious my presence could not be tolerated. I was cast out of the group.

Every year that  it was permitted to do so, the RC came up with new reasoning to use to get the MLA committed to denouncing the Jewish state and joining the BDS movement to boycott Israeli universities. Many resolutions were voted down, but as the years went by humanities disciplines became increasingly anti-Zionist overall. The odds the RC would succeed increased.

In 2017, however, already ten years into the controversy, the dual arguments that the MLA should not alienate its many pro-Zionist members and did not, in........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)