The Modern Language Association's executive council is considering whether the organization should vote on a resolution expressing solidarity with scholars of Palestinian literature and culture.
The MLA's Delegate Assembly overwhelmingly passed the resolution at the group's annual meeting last week, following a debate in which it rejected an alternative measure that would have expressed support for both Israeli and Palestinian scholars and called for the organization to remain neutral in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The association's executive council will review the resolution at its February meeting, and can choose not to put it to a vote of the full membership if, for example, it believes the adoption of such a measure would violate the organization's charter or tax-exempt status or otherwise impede its work. Although it is rare for the council not to allow a full vote on such measures, some members of the MLA argued during last week's debate that it would be a mistake for the group to take such a political stand.
As passed by the association's Delegate Assembly last week, the resolution calls Palestinian literature and culture "legitimate subjects of study" and expresses support for "members who come under attack for pursuing such work." It also asserts that "education at levels in the occupied territories is being stifled by the occupation."
As initially proposed by the MLA's Radical Caucus, the resolution had described those who teach about the occupation and Middle East culture as regularly coming under fire "from Zionist groups and others, on evidently political grounds." The references to "Zionist groups" and "political grounds" were deleted as the measure was debated.
Cary Nelson, president of the American Association of University Professors and a co-sponsor of the failed substitute resolution, said today he regarded the resolution that finally passed as "basically harmless." He said he had proposed the alternative out of a sense that "the best way to reach out to constituencies is to be even-handed." But, he added, "I understand that, with bombs falling on Gaza, that was probably a hopeless cause."
The MLA grappled with similar concerns last year, when the Delegate Assembly took up a resolution defending scholars' freedom to criticize Israel. The assembly ended up passing a substitute resolution, proposed by Mr. Nelson, that supported the right of faculty members and invited campus speakers "to address the issue of the Middle East in the manner they choose." —Peter Schmidt