A growing campaign among American professors to isolate Israel reaches a milestone on Monday when a large group of scholars is expected to reveal whether its members endorsed an academic boycott of Israel to protest Israeli treatment of Palestinians.

The American Studies Association’s national council voted unanimously on Dec. 4 in favor of a boycott resolution, and put the matter to a vote of its almost 5,000 members, who had until Sunday night to cast their ballots online. The group’s stance has pitted scholars and organizations against one another in a heated debate about the ethics of academic boycotts, the motives behind the campaign and whether Israel is being singled out unfairly.

The movement to cut off relations with Israeli academic and cultural institutions dates back a decade, but organizers say it was not until April that an American academic group of any size, the Association for Asian American Studies, endorsed a boycott. The Modern Language Association’s annual meeting next month will include a discussion session on academic boycotts, and it will consider a motion critical of Israel for restricting professors’ freedom to visit Palestinian universities.

Boycott supporters concede that resolutions by professors’ groups are primarily symbolic, as long as no American college or university supports such an action. The proposed boycott calls on American schools and academic groups to ban collaboration with Israeli institutions, but individual Israeli scholars would still be able to attend conferences, lecture at American universities or do research with American colleagues, as long as they did not officially represent Israeli universities or the government.