The Academic Boycott of Israel: Reflections from a Liberated Future

Abstract What does the academic boycott of Israel and the larger BDS movement look like from the perspective of a liberated Levant and dismantled Israeli state, where a new land and system of governance is formed? What sort of lessons can we learn by speaking to someone in the future about the process of liberation and the role of the BDS movement? In this article, I answer these questions by recounting my conversations with one interlocutor that I met while doing research around 10 years after the liberation of Palestine and the Levant. I begin with a brief history of the BDS movement and then show how present ideas are mobilized successfully in the future and current debates are resolved to achieve liberation.