Pro-Hamas students rallying at Harvard University. Photo: Reuters/Brian Snyder

The Academic Engagement Network (AEN), a higher education nonprofit, on Monday issued a searing letter denouncing the Modern Language Association’s (MLA) passing of an “emergency motion” that endorsed pro-Palestinian speech on college campuses, arguing that the omission of pro-Israel speech is indicative of anti-Israeli bias.

“The motion that the [MLA] has now endorsed fails to preserve campuses as welcoming learning environments where academic freedom and free expression are guaranteed for all,” AEN’s letter said. “The motion also establishes a virulently anti-Israel orthodoxy, despite the fact that disagreements and debate about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have a long history in English and foreign language departments.”

Founded in 1883, the MLA is a professional association of linguistics and literature scholars comprising, according to self-reported figures, 25,000 members across the world. Voting for the motion referenced in AEN’s letter took place at the organization’s annual convention earlier this month. 140 present members (out of 279) of the Delegate Assembly, who are elected to their positions, could have voted in favor of another motion affirming the right of free speech for all, AEN noted, one that regarded both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict equally, but chose the latter instead and voted against the former by a “wide margin,” according to reporting by Inside Higher Ed.

In addition to favoring pro-Palestinian speech, the motion specifically endorsed the notion that anti-Zionism is not antisemitic, contrary to the beliefs of the majority of the Jewish community, as well as condemnations of US support for Israel and Israel’s military response to Hamas’ atrocities — which included some 1,200 murders, mostly of civilians, rapes of Israeli women, and the taking of 240 hostages, many of which were children or elderly. The alternative motion called for defending from “threats, harassment, and violence all faculty members, students and staff regardless of their position on the conflict in the Middle East,” even though much “pro-Palestinian” speech has been pro-Hamas, defending and rationalizing Hamas’ crimes.

“But politics and policy were not only at stake in the choice,” AEN’s letter continued. “The identities of Jewish and Palestinian students, faculty, and staff, along with their allies, were on the table for judgement. In endorsing a divisive and exclusionary motion, the DA found one identity worthy of the MLA’s action and the other lacking. Such a denigration of the beliefs and experiences of a core MLA constituency is intolerable.”

MLA has in the past avoided endorsing extreme anti-Zionist measures, such as in 2017, when it rejected a motion to adopt the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement (BDS), which would have required its members to, among other things, commit to denying letters of recommendation to students who seek to study in Israel and and terminating any and all projects with Israeli institutions of higher education. However, that was six years ago, before two wars between Israel and Hamas tilted opinion in higher education strongly against Israel and triggered a wave of antisemitism on college campuses not seen in the West since the 1930s.

MLA’s endorsement of a resolution affirming only the rights of Palestinians and pro-Palestinians could be a harbinger of its politicization and embrace of anti-Israel advocacy guided by political rather than scholarly goals, AEN executive director Miriam Elman told The Algemeiner in a statement on Tuesday. MLA’s “emergency motion” function, she explained, is new, allowing the Delegate Assembly to exclude the general membership from participating in important votes. Now, once it votes to endorse a motion, that measure is fast-tracked to MLA’s Executive Council, where it is all but guaranteed to be formally adopted by the organization.

The arrangement gives outsized power to the Delegate Assembly’s “radical caucus,” whose influence is growing and stands to shape the future of MLA in the coming years.

“The MLA can be proud of having of having members from over 100 countries,” AEN executive director Miriam Elman told The Algemeiner in a statement on Tuesday. “All are respected, except for Israelis. Basically, the MLA Delegate Assembly has just told them that they are no longer welcome.”

US college campuses have experienced an alarming spike in antisemitic incidents — including demonstrations calling for Israel’s destruction and the intimidation and harassment of Jewish students — since Oct. 7. In a two month span, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) recorded 470 antisemitic incidents on college campuses alone. During that same period, antisemitic incidents across the US skyrocketed by 323 percent compared to the prior year.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.