In response to:

To the Editors:

A statement recently published in The New York Review of Books calls for “an Economic Boycott and Political Nonrecognition of the Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Territories” [Letters, October 13].

We welcome the statement’s shattering of the taboo against boycotting Israeli entities that are complicit in—at least selective—violations of Palestinian human rights.

Defying common sense, however, the statement calls for boycotting settlements while letting Israel, the state that has illegally built and maintained those settlements for decades, off the hook.

Moreover, shouldn’t Israeli banks that are not based in settlements but finance their construction be targeted as well? This is what the United Methodist Church and the massive Dutch pension fund PGGM have done.

By omitting Israel’s other serious violations of international law, the statement fails the moral consistency test. Aren’t Palestinian refugees, the majority of Palestinians, entitled to their UN-stipulated rights? Shouldn’t Palestinian citizens of Israel enjoy equal rights by repealing Israel’s dozens of laws that racially discriminate against them?

Palestinian civil society has called for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against all entities, Israeli or international, that are complicit in denying Palestinians everywhere their rights. As the apartheid South Africa boycott shows, this is the most effective, nonviolent way to achieve freedom, justice, and equality for all.

Angela Y. Davis, Distinguished Professor Emerita, History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies, University of California Santa Cruz, California; Chandler Davis, Professor of Mathematics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada; Richard Falk, Professor of International Law Emeritus, Princeton, Santa Barbara; Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies, Columbia University, New York City; Alice Rothchild, MD, Retired Assistant Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Harvard University, Seattle; Joan W. Scott, Professor Emerita, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton; Alice Walker, Writer, New York City;Roger Waters, Musician, New York City;

and 117 others

Full list of signatories:

Ahmed Abbes, Directeur de Recherche au CNRS, Paris, France

Ramy Abu Abdu, Al-Aqsa University, Gaza, Palestine

Nadia Abu El-Haj, Co-director, Center for Palestine Studies, Columbia University, New York, USA

Assad Abu Sharkh, Al-Azhar University, Gaza, Palestine

Lila Abu-Lughod, Columbia University, New York, USA

Ali Abunimah, Author and journalist, Chicago, USA

Mamdouh Aker, MD, Commissioner, Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights,

Ramallah, Palestine

Huwaida Arraf, Civil rights attorney, Detroit, USA

Sion Assidon, Human rights activist, BDS Morocco, Casablanca, Morocco

Fouad Ayyad, Al-Aqsa University, Gaza, Palestine

Omar Barghouti, Human rights defender, BDS movement, Acre, Palestine/Israel

Riham Barghouti, Co-founder, Adalah-NY, New York, USA

Nasser Barghouti, Board Member, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee-San Diego, San

Diego, USA

Ronnie Barkan, Human rights activist, Boycott from Within, Tel Aviv, Israel-Palestine

Hatem Bazian, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

Sherna Berger Gluck, Emerita faculty, California State University, Long Beach, Long Beach, USA

Samia Botmeh, Birzeit University, Ramallah, Palestine

Robert Boyce, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK

Jean Bricmont, Professeur de physique à Université de Louvain, Louvain La Neuve, Belgium

Victoria Brittain, Author and playwright, London, UK

Diana Buttu, Lawyer, Nazareth, Palestine/Israel

Partha Chatterjee, Professor of Anthropology, Columbia University, New York, USA

Elliott Colla, Dept. of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA

Lawrence Davidson, Professor Emeritus of History, West Chester University, West Chester, PA, USA

Chandler Davis, Professor of Mathematics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

Angela Y. Davis, Distinguished Professor Emerita, History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies,

University of California, Santa Cruz, California, USA

Colin Dayan, Professor of English & Professor of Law, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, USA

Herman De Ley, Emeritus Professor, Ghent University, Nevele, Belgium

Mary Ann De Vlieg, Independent evaluator and consultant, Venice, Italy

Raymond Deane, Composer and author, Dublin, Ireland

James Dickins, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom

Laurence Dreyfus FBA, Professor Emeritus of Music, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

Nasser Eid, Al-Aqsa University, Gaza, Palestine

Haidar Eid, Professor of Literature, Al-Aqsa University, Gaza, Palestine

Farid Esack, Chair, Dept. of Religion Studies, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa

Richard Falk, Professor of International Law, Emeritus, Princeton, Santa Barbara, USA

Margaret Ferguson, Distinguished Professor of English, University of California, Davis, Davis, US

Bill Fletcher, Jr., Writer, talk show host, Maryland, USA

Naomi Foyle, University of Chichester, Brighton, UK

Cynthia Franklin, University of Hawai'i, Manoa, Manoa, USA

Irene Gendzier, Prof Emeritus, Boston University, Boston, USA

Jess Ghannam, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco,

CA, USA

Terri Ginsberg, Assistant Professor & Director of Film, The American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt

Neta Golan, Co-founder and activist, International Solidarity Movement, Nablus, Palestine

Kevin A. Gould, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Dorothy Griffiths OBE FCGI FRSA, Imperial College London, London, UK

Andrew Paul Gutierrez, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

Marwan Hamdan, Al-Azhar University, Gaza, Palestine

Michael Harris, Professor of Mathematics, Columbia University, New York, USA

Salah Hassan, Michigan State University, Lansing, US

Kamel Hawwash, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

Nasser Hejazi, Al-Quds Open University, Gaza, Palestine

Nadia Hijab, Author and human rights advocate, London, UK

Patricia Penn Hilden, Professor Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, US

Ray Jureidini, Professor, Doha, Qatar

Andrew Kadi, Steering Committee Member, US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, Washington,

DC, USA

Remi Kanazi, Poet, New York, USA

Ronnie Kasrils, Former Minister of Intelligence, Johannesburg, South Africa

J. Kehaulani Kauanui, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, USA

Robin D. G. Kelley, Gary B. Nash Professor of American History, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Assaf Kfoury, Boston University, Boston, USA

Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies, Columbia University, New York, USA

Suhail Khoury, Director, Edward Said National Conservatory of Music, Jerusalem, Palestine

David Klein, Professor of Mathematics, California State University, Northridge, Northridge, US

David Landy, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

Michael Letwin, Co-Convener, Labor for Palestine; Former President, Association of Legal Aid

Attorneys/UAW 2325, NYC, USA

Les Levidow, Open University, London, UK

Malcolm Levitt FRS, School of Chemistry, University of Southampton, Southampton, England

David Lloyd, Distinguished Professor of English, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, US

Yosefa Loshitzky, SOAS, University of London, London, UK

Anna Majavu, PhD Candidate, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

Rayaz A. Malik, Professor of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, Doha, Qatar

Mike Marais, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa

Miriam Margolyes, O.B.E., Actress, London, UK

Rania Masri, Associate Director, Asfari Institute, American University Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon

Mazen Masri, Senior Lecturer in Law, City, University of London, London, UK

Omar M. Masri, Managing Director, EDGO, Amman, Jordan

William Messing, Professor of Mathematics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA

Alan Meyers, Professor of Pediatrics, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, USA

Michel Mietton, Professeur émérite, Université Lyon 3 - Jean Moulin, Lyon, France

Fred Moten, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA

Bill V. Mullen, Professor of American Studies, Purdue University, West Lafayette, US

Dorit Naaman, Alliance Atlantis Professor of Film and Media, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada

Karma Nabulsi, Oxford University, Oxford, UK

Rima Najjar, Professor (retired), Al-Quds University, Abu Dis, Palestine

Mica Nava, Emeritus Professor of Cultural Studies, University of East London, London, UK

Josiane Olf-Nathan, Ingénieur d’Etudes (retired), Université de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France

Dina Omar, PhD Candidate, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

Ayyoub Othman, Al-Azhar University, Gaza, Palestine

David Palumbo-Liu, Louise Hewlett Nixon Professor, Stanford, Stanford, USA

David Pegg, Professor of Biology, University of York, York, UK

John Pilger, Journalist and filmmaker, London, UK

Sami Ramadani, London Metropolitan University, London, UK

Barbara Ransby, Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago,

Chicago, USA

Marwan Rashed, Université Paris-Sorbonne, Paris, France

Roshdi Rashed, Directeur de recherche émérite au CNRS, Professeur honoraire à l'Université de Tokyo,

Paris, France

Timothy Reiss, Professor Emeritus, New York University, Berkeley, US

John Reynolds, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Ireland

Nick Riemer, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

Bruce Robbins, Old Dominion Professor in the Humanities, Columbia University, New York, US

Steven Rose, Emeritus Professor of Neuroscience, The Open University, London, UK

Jonathan Rosenhead, Emeritus Professor, London School of Economics, London, UK

Bob Ross, Point Park University, Pittsburgh, USA

Alice Rothchild, MD, Retired Assistant Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology,

Faculty of Medicine, Harvard University, Seattle, USA

Josh Ruebner, Policy Director, US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, Washington, DC, USA

Samah Sabawi, Author and playwright, Melbourne, Australia

Steven Salaita, Edward W. Said Chair, American University Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon

C. Heike Schotten, University of Massachusetts, Boston, Boston, US

Malini Schueller, University of Florida, Gainesville, USA

Sarah Schulman, Distinguished Professor, City University of New York, New York, USA

Joan W. Scott, Professor Emerita, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, USA

Richard Seaford, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK

Sid Shniad, Member, National Steering Committee, Independent Jewish Voices Canada, Vancouver,

Canada

David Simpson, Distinguished Professor of English, University of California, Davis, Davis, USA

Kobi Snitz, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel

Ahdaf Soueif, Writer, Cairo, Egypt

Peter H. S. Sporn, MD, Professor of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, USA

Lina Suleiman, Royal Institute of Technology KTH, Stockholm, Sweden

Salim Vally, Director, Center for Education Rights and Transformation, University of Johannesburg,

Johannesburg, South Africa

Rebecca Vilkomerson, Executive Director, Jewish Voice for Peace, New York, USA

Alice Walker, Writer, Berkeley, CA, USA

Roger Waters, Musician, New York, USA

Craig Willse, George Mason University, Washington, DC, US

Hatem Zaag, Directeur de recherche au CNRS, Université Paris 13, Paris, France

Haifa Zangana, Author and UN-ESCWA Adviser, London, UK