Modern Languages Association of America condemns Israel's harassment of scholars

Israel’s Maariv said on Monday that the New York-based Modern Languages Association of America (MLA) has endorsed a resolution by a majority of its members to condemn Israel’s discriminatory practices against the Palestinians in higher education institutions in the occupied West Bank. Israel regularly denies intellectuals and academics entry to Palestine to attend events in Palestinian universities.

The MLA pointed out that the resolution was proposed in order “to contest Israel’s denial of entry to the West Bank by US academics who have been invited to teach, confer or conduct research at Palestinian universities.” The association said that it supports similar decisions by academic institutions to boycott Israeli universities and it urged the State Department to pursue Tel Aviv to put an end to its discriminatory policy.

Note: The headline was amended at 11:18 GMT on the Jan 14, 2014 to reflect the correct nature of the Modern Languages Association resolution