The American Studies Association (ASA), a group group of Americanist professors, has endorsed the academic boycott of Israeli institutions. It has sighted, as its primary reason, the lack of academic freedom of Palestinian students and intelectuals, which is an established fact.
The blow back has already begun, here in the USA. The ASA is now being attacked by a variety of individuals, who somehow think defendin the occupation is defending the State of Israel. This is a position I find both toxic and ridiculous.
The Occupation has done more damage to the Israeli people, that a thousand Katuscha rockets. It affects every aspect of their live, and yet is almost complete unseen to them. And I say this having lived in worked there both in 2004 and 2006.
Waltz with Bashir, the extraordinary film by Israeli director Ari Folman is not about the occupation but instead focuses on the directors experience in Lebanon in 1982. It is his quest to both explain a series of disturbing dreams, and find out why he can't remember anything from his military experience. The conclusion is centered around one of the most horrifying moments in the relationship between the Israelis and the Palestinians ( no spoilers here!)
I have rarely seen such a perfect film that is able to both seize the viewer and explore a subject with such ethical power. It is by turns funny and terrifying. One film shows the damage that war does to our young, without any of the idiotic romanticism that can pollute such remembrances.
Here's the trailer:
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