05.08.26
Editorial Note
The Association for Social Anthropologists of the UK (ASA) held its annual gathering on May 29–31, 2026, at the University of Edinburgh.
The ASA was founded in 1946 to “promote the study and teaching of anthropology and to uphold the interests and status of the discipline, primarily in the UK, but also extending to the Commonwealth, where it works collaboratively with fellow anthropology associations. The ASA’s major role is to assist its members in planning and conducting research, and to represent social anthropology and anthropologists in the academy, and in relation to policy and funding.”
During its conference, an exhibition titled “Killing the Messenger” of all the “Palestinian journalists murdered by Israel” was shown. As stated in the invitation, this exhibit “stands as a site of remembrance for those who have been murdered and a site to resist the genocidal narratives that frame these victims as something other.”
Accompanying the exhibition, a film was screened, titled “Gaza Fixer: A chronicle of survival,” by George Azar and Mariam Shahin. The film talks about “Raed Athamneh is a six-time war survivor, patriarch and trusted news fixer to foreign reporters covering Gaza. As he gives aid workers and journalists tours, he is the one who actually talks to the people, and translates the story of their fate to the foreigners eagerly recoding, writing, filming, the tragedy that Gaza has become.” After the screening, a discussion took place with director Mariam Shahin that covers the last 20 years of journalism in Gaza.
In December 2025, the ASA voted to support the Palestinian call to boycott “complicit” Israeli academic and cultural institutions. According to the official announcement, following a member ballot, the Association voted to join the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI). Forty-seven percent of members voted in favor of a boycott (171 votes in favor, 37 against, and 11 abstentions). The organization now “advocates for a boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions for their deep and persistent complicity in Israel’s denial of Palestinian rights stipulated in international law.”
The ASA announcement added, “To be clear, this is a boycott of complicit institutions, and the ASA remain committed to freedom of expression as stipulated in the United Nations Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and, as such, rejects on principle boycotts of individuals based on their opinion or identity.”
It was also decided that “As part of our role as a professional and educational association, we are offering materials to contribute to broader understanding about what has occurred, and continues to occur, in Palestine from the perspectives of international law, history, anthropology, critical theory, journalism and forensic architecture.”
The Association issues a Resource Pack on its website to justify the boycott, intended to be a “living document’ to be “continually updated.” The Pack includes a long list of items such as “United Nations (UN), International Court of Justice (ICJ) and other Reports: Gaza Genocide, A Collective Crime by the Special Rapporteur about human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967” (A/80/492). 20 October 2025.
The section on Accountability reads: “The architecture of genocidal starvation. This report published by Forensic Architecture at Goldsmiths University of London shows the strategy and tactics of the Israeli government and the IDF since October 2023, mapping out the details of what it describes as a systematic genocidal intent.” Among other items.
The Videos section featured “‘In Search of Palestine,’ a short video by Edward Said who shows the house where his grandparents once lived, now occupied by Israeli settlers. Said asks, how did this happen and how does it relate to what is happening in Palestine today?”
“Our Genocide: The Guardian series of interviews published by The Guardian, that explores the views of ordinary residents of Tel Aviv—often considered Israel’s liberal capital—on the war on Gaza.”
“The IDF: This video explores the origins of the IDF and challenges its claim to be the ‘most moral army in the world’. It focuses on early actions to expel Arabs from the Palestinian territory.”
“Inside Israeli apartheid: The video explains why the concept of ‘apartheid’ is relevant to understanding the Israeli government’s policies toward, and treatment of, Palestinians.”
Another section is “The Role of Universities and Academia,” which showcases the work of Dr. Maya Wind (whom Israel Academia Monitor discussed previously). The Resource Pack states, “Through ethnographic research on university campuses in Israeli and analysis of government documents, Wind outlines the role universities have played in settler-colonialism and in the persecution of Palestinians within all occupied territories.” Usher, Alex and Wind, Maya. 2025. “Why Boycott? Maya Wind on the Case Against Israeli Universities,” 6 March.
The last section, Higher Education Strategy Associations: “Palestinian-led Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel Established in 2004 by a group of Palestinian academics and intellectuals in the West Bank as part of the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign, PACBI aims to isolate Israel in order to force change in its actions towards Palestinians including the oppressing the academic freedom of Palestinians (as evidenced by Maya Wind’s 2024 ethnography).”
Clearly, the materials in the Pack follow the propaganda line of the Palestinian anti-Israel campaigns. It is totally decontextualized to present the Palestinians as totally lacking in agency: none of their decisions, including the rejection of the 1947 UN Partition proposal, the effort by Iran and its proxies, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, to destroy the Oslo Accords, have been mentioned. Hamas’s violent attack on Israeli communities in which civilians were murdered was omitted as well. Instead, the Pack includes materials that purport to demonstrate Israel’s “genocidal” assault on the Gaza population using the report by Forensic Architecture. Nowhere does the Pack explain that Prof. Eyal Weizman, the head of Forensic Architecture, is a well-known Israeli anti-Israel activist whose lifelong expertise is fabricating materials to show “systematic genocidal intent.”
As an academic organization, the ASA should be condemned for all its falsifications and distortions.
REFERENCES
https://theasa.org/about/news/boycott-israel.phtml
The Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK (ASA) joins the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel
Photo by luzitanija – stock.adobe.com
Following a ballot of members the Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK (ASA) has voted to join the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI). With a strong rate of return of 47.8%, members voted overwhelmingly in favour of a boycott (171 votes in favour, 37 against and 11 abstentions). Alongside PACBI, the ASA therefore advocates for a boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions for their deep and persistent complicity in Israel’s denial of Palestinian rights stipulated in international law. Details of the campaign, and its precise objectives and terms of reference, can be found on the BDS Freedom Justice Equality PACBI page.
To be clear, this is a boycott of complicit institutions, and the ASA remain committed to freedom of expression as stipulated in the United Nations Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and, as such, rejects on principle boycotts of individuals based on their opinion or identity. As part of our role as a professional and educational association, we are offering materials to contribute to broader understanding about what has occurred, and continues to occur, in Palestine from the perspectives of international law, history, anthropology, critical theory, journalism and forensic architecture. The Resource pack which accompanies this announcement of a boycott is intended as a ‘living document’ that will be continually updated and changed as new information becomes available or as circumstances change.
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As part of our role as a professional and educational association, we are offering materials to contribute to broader understanding about what has occurred, and continues to occur, in Palestine from the perspectives of international law, history, anthropology, critical theory, journalism and forensic architecture. This is by no means an exhaustive resource list, but rather a selected range of writings and media representations for understanding the historical and political background and context to the current conflict and atrocities we have witnessed in Palestine.
We also see this as a ‘living document’ that will be continually updated and changed as new information becomes available or as circumstances change.
Table of Contents
1: International Law Reports and Legislation
United Nations (UN), International Court of Justice (ICJ) and other Reports
Gaza Genocide, A Collective Crime by the Special Rapporteur about human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 (A/80/492). 20 October 2025. Advance unedited version. https://www.un.org/unispal/document/special-rapporteur-report-gaza-genocide-a-collective-crime-20oct25/
UNRWA Situation Report #195 on the Humanitarian Crisis in the Gaza Strip and Occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem
United Nations: The Question of Palestine. Commission of Inquiry: Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces have committed and are continuing to commit genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip – Conference room paper (A/HRC/60/CRP.3). 16 September 2025.
Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel (A/HRC/59/26). 16 June–11 July 2025
In this report, submitted following Human Rights Council resolution S-30/1, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel examines violations of international human rights law, international humanitarian law and possible international crimes relating to attacks against educational facilities and religious and cultural sites.
Human Rights Council Sixtieth session.Legal analysis of the conduct of Israel in Gaza pursuant to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. 16 September 2025
International Court of Justice, Palestine/Israel: Israel must immediately stop its criminal forcible displacement in Gaza. 30 June 2025.
2: Accountability:
The architecture of genocidal starvation
This report published by Forensic Architecture at Goldsmiths University of London shows the strategy and tactics of the Israeli government and the IDF since October 2023, mapping out the details of what it describes as a systematic genocidal intent.
Demanding Accountability, Seeking Justice
Hind Rajab (named after a 5-year-old girl murdered by an IDF tank) is a Legal organisation based in Belgium that is filing cases against individuals serving in the IDF who it believes have committed genocide. The individual cases offer insight into what types of law have been broken by Israel and its IDF soldiers, often evidenced through their own social media accounts.
3: Audio-Visual Sources: Videos
‘In Search of Palestine’
In this short video Edward Said shows the house where his grandparents once lived, now occupied by Israeli settlers. Said asks, how did this happen and how does it relate to what is happening in Palestine today?
Our Genocide The Guardian
A series of interviews published by The Guardian, that explores the views of ordinary residents of Tel Aviv—often considered Israel’s liberal capital—on the war on Gaza.
The IDF
This video explores the origins of the IDF and challenges its claim to be the ‘most moral army in the world’. It focuses on early actions to expel Arabs from the Palestinian territory.
Secret Hebron: the school run
This video focuses on the everyday dynamics of occupation and segregation in the West Bank town of Hebron showing the dangers to which children going to school are exposed to as a result.
Inside Israeli apartheid
The video explains why the concept of ‘apartheid’ is relevant to understanding the Israeli government’s policies toward, and treatment of, Palestinians.
Gaza: Dying for Food
This is a BBC documentary focusing on starvation in Gaza, exploring how people were murdered while trying to access sites where food was being distributed.
How three terrorist groups formed the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) | The Big Picture
This Middle East Eye documentary outlines how the Israeli Defense Force has its origins and history in three terrorist groups that displaced Palestinians and British colonial forces in the 20th century despite being portrayed as the “most moral army in the world”.
4: Important texts/novels providing historical context to the Israeli-Palestine conflict
Khalidi, Rashid. (2020) The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonial Conquest & Resistance, 1917–2017. Henry Holt and Company: New York.
Makdisi, Saree. (2022) Tolerance is a Wasteland: Palestine and the Culture ofDenial. University of California Press: California.
Kanafi, Ghassan. (2022) On Zionist Literature. Translated into English in 2022. Ebb Books: Oxford.
Albulhawa, Susan. (2006) Mornings in Jenin. Bloomsbury: London.
A moving account of Palestinian displacements set over three generations and 60 years of settler colonialism.
Pappe, I. (2024) A Very Short History of the Israel Palestine Conflict. Oneworld Publications: London.
In this short and accessible handbook written Ilan Pappé shows how villages evacuated by Palestinian during the 1948 Nakba were flattened, covered over with grass and turned into golf courses to eliminate any remnant of the previous society
The Conversation(2023) has also published a review of ‘10 books to help you understand Israel and Palestine’, recommended by experts’, (21 November 2023)
5: Key Articles and Journal Special Issues:
Lamrani, Myriam (2025). ‘Arab Images: Musings on Disjointed Grief for Palestine.’ Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies, vol. 21 no. 1, pp. 122-131. Project MUSE, https://muse.jhu.edu/article/960529.
Allen, Lori and Heidi Mogstad (2025) Special Issue: Speaking Out Against Genocide and Repression, edited by Lori Allen and Heidi Mogstad Public Anthropologist. Volume 7 (2025): Issue 2
Khalidi, Rashid and Sherene Seikaly (eds) (2023).
Gaza: Nearly Two Decades of Israeli Incursions, Siege, and Blockade
(17 articles) in the Journal of Palestinian Studies, October 2023.
Ivasiuc, Ana. ‘Palestine as Method: A Public Anthropology against Empire.’ Public Anthropologist 7.2 (2025): 345-371 (included in Open Access).
6: Useful Theoretical Texts
Césaire, Aimé. (2023) ‘Discourse on colonialism.’ In Postcolonialism. pp310-339. London: Routledge.
Said, Edward. (1978) Orientalism. Pantheon Books: New York.
Wolf, Patrick (2006). Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native. Journal of genocide research 8(4), 387-409.
7: Prominent Palestinian Journalists and Voices
People in Palestine have continuously tried to make their voices heard, for example, here on the Voices of Gaza website of the Palestinian Anthropology Network Insanniyat. And also through their journalists:
8: The Role of Universities and Academia
Wind, Maya. (2024) Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom. Verso books: London.
Through ethnographic research on university campuses in Israeli and analysis of government documents, Wind outlines the role universities have played in settler-colonialism and in the persecution of Palestinians within all occupied territories.
Usher, Alex and Wind, Maya. 2025. ‘Why Boycott? Maya Wind on the Case Against Israeli Universities’, 6 March. Higher Education Strategy Associations.
URL: https://higheredstrategy.com/why-boycott-maya-wind-on-the-case-against-israeli-universities/
Youtube: https://youtu.be/Ash04O0wSEM
Podcast: https://worlded.transistor.fm/episodes/why-boycott-maya-wind-on-the-case-against-israeli-universities
PACBI – Palestinian-led Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel
Established in 2004 by a group of Palestinian academics and intellectuals in the West Bank as part of the boycott, diverstment and sanctions campaign, PACBI aims to isolate Israel in order to force change in its actions towards Palestinians including the oppressing the academic freedom of Palestinians (as evidenced by Maya Wind’s 2024 ethnography).
Guidelines can be viewed here: https://bdsmovement.net/pacbi/academic-boycott-guidelines
israel-academia-monitor.com 