American universities are ¡°trapped in a recurring cycle of attacks on Israel and defences of it¡±.

That is the view of Cary Nelson, jubilee professor of liberal arts and sciences at the?University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who spoke?to Times Higher Education from Jerusalem as he helped to lead a group of faculty on a peace tour.

Although he said that he supported the existence of Israel and, in 2014, co-edited with Gabriel Noah Brahm a book called The Case against Academic Boycotts of Israel, he got annoyed that ¡°if you are a ¡®supporter of Israel¡¯, people assume they know what your position is. I commonly get people who are completely astonished that I¡¯ve argued for unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank.¡±

Although he accepted that the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has supporters elsewhere, Professor Nelson suggested that it is ¡°noisiest and most visible¡± in universities, where it has led to almost unprecedented ¨C and worsening ¨C levels of acrimony.

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¡°I have not found another issue that destroys relationships,¡± he recalled, ¡°and produces a kind of intolerance I haven¡¯t seen since the Vietnam War. But even then I never encountered people who broke off relationships over political differences on Vietnam.?I had a room-mate in college who was in favour of the war, but we got along. My wife¡¯s father was in favour of the war, and we decided not to talk about it, but I loved him dearly.

¡°This is very, very different. My department head is someone I actually hired when I was chair of the research committee 15 years ago. I brought three books into him one day, two on modern poetry and The Case against Academic Boycotts of Israel, and he wouldn¡¯t touch the last one, let alone open it up.

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¡°There are about 60 faculty members in my department and only two of them left who talk to me on a regular basis. I never raise my voice. It¡¯s important to be civil and calm, but on this issue that doesn¡¯t necessarily get you anywhere.¡±

His own position ¨C a ¡°mix of wanting to better the lives of Palestinians, which is absolutely critical, and to support the existence of Israel¡± ¨C is now, Professor Nelson admitted, ¡°uncommon¡±, although ¡°not unheard of¡±, on campuses.

Yet he also believes that the debate would be far more productive if it were ¡°better informed¡±. It is this that has led him to produce what he describes as ¡°a kind of vade mecum on the issues that seemed most pressing for the conflict¡±, titled Dreams Deferred: A Concise Guide to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and the Movement to Boycott Israel.

This features short, sharp chapters exploring topics ranging from ¡°anti-imperialism¡±, bi-nationalism¡± and ¡°cultural boycotts¡± to ¡°the West Bank¡±, ¡°Yom Kippur War¡± and ¡°Zionism¡±.

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It remains to be seen whether the book can help lower the temperature of campus screaming matches about Israel-Palestine.

matthew.reisz@tesglobal.com

Cary Nelson¡¯s?Dreams Deferred: A Concise Guide to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and the Movement to Boycott Israel?has just been published by the Modern Language Association Members for Scholars¡¯ Rights and Indiana University Press.