Education Policy, Business and Technology

Professor who advocates Israel boycott is latest to face demands for records about her career

Inside Higher Ed: The Middle East Studies Association on Monday jumped into the debate over professors’ right to privacy vis-à-vis freedom of information laws, asking the State University of New York at Plattsburgh to affirm the academic freedom of professor it says has been targeted for backing the academic boycott of Israel.

The association “has no official position on the [Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions] movement or its demands; we believe that everyone should be free to advocate for or against BDS as they see fit, and more broadly to express their views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as on any other issue of public concern without fear of harassment, intimidation or sanction,” MESA’s president and executive director wrote in a letter to Plattsburgh’s administration. “We also believe that [the university] has a clear responsibility to defend [Simona] Sharoni and all of its other employees from threat and intimidation, in keeping with the constitutionally protected right of free speech and with the principles of academic freedom.”

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