A growing number of U.S. professors are showing support and joining a boycott against Israel's academic institutions in protest of their treatment of Palestinians, the New York Times reported.
On Monday, members of the American Studies Association announced their voting ratio of two to one from an online ballot that supports the boycott.
Though the American Studies Association only has 5,000 members, their vote is a major victory for Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions (B.D.S.), a Palestinian movement group.
In addition to the American Studies Association, the Association for Asian American Studies also backs the boycott, which announced their support in April.
Now that the pro-Palestianian group is gaining some traction in the U.S., scholars like Manuel Trajtenberg, who earned his doctorate at Harvard University and took several sabbaticals at American universities, are expressing disappointment.
"It's almost like a family betrayal," said Trajtenberg, a prominent Israeli scholar and an economics professor at Tel Aviv University. "It's very grave and very saddening that this happens, particularly so in the U.S."
Ron Dermer, Israel's ambassador to the U.S., also condemned the academic boycott.
"Rather than standing up for academic freedom and human rights by boycotting countries where professors are imprisoned for their views, the A.S.A. chooses as its first ever boycott to boycott Israel, the sole democracy in the Middle East, in which academics are free to say what they want, write what they want and research what they want," Dermer, Israel's said on Monday.
The group has seen success in western European countries. Last week, Vitens -- a Dutch company -- said they would not to buisness with Mekorot, Israel's water company, because of their policies in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Additionally, the Teachers' Union of Ireland supported an academic boycott of Israel in April.
