Israel boycott push in U.S. not yet a threat, say monitors
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[Excerpt:]
"Gerald Steinberg, the executive director of NGO Monitor and chair of Bar Ilan University’s political studies department, also believes the U.S. boycott movement is marginal at best. "They haven’t made much noise yet," he said. "There is little visible BDS activity on most U.S. campuses; it’s not at all comparable to Europe." Steinberg explained the idea of academic boycotts against Israel arose after the U.N.’s Durban World Conference on Racism, which took place in 2001. The movement, which was most influential in Great Britain where the University and College Union has continually tried to impose a boycott on Israeli academics, expected to gain strength in the wake of the 2009 Durban Review Conference, he said. But the opposite was the case, according to the U.S.-born academic. "My American colleagues and I were particularly surprised that even after the [2008-09 Gaza] war there was no increase of any kind in anti-Israel activity or BDS support on American campuses." Yet despite its relative insignificance, the U.S. movement should not be entirely ignored, Steinberg cautioned. "It should be taken seriously because there’s always the chance that this political virus will hop the pond. But at this point that has not been done successfully.""