Israel Denial is the first book to offer detailed analyses of the work faculty members have published--individually and collectively--in support of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement; it contrasts their claims with options for promoting peace. The faculty discussed here have devoted a significant part of their professional lives to delegitimizing the Jewish state. While there are beliefs they hold in common--including the conviction that there is nothing good to say about Israel--they also develop distinctive arguments designed to recruit converts to their cause in novel ways. They do so both as writers and as teachers; Israel Denial is the first to give substantial attention to anti-Zionist pedagogy. No effort to understand the BDS movement's impact on the academy and public policy can be complete without the kind of understanding this book offers.

Contrasting agendas : boycott versus peacebuilding --The goals and tactics of the boycott movement -- Five components of a peace plan -- Four BDS faculty portraits -- Judith Butler : a philosopher promotes a one-state fantasy -- Steven Salaita : the fluid line between anti-zionism and anti-semitism -- Saree Makdisi : criminalizing Israeli law and culture -- Jasbir Puar : obsessive demonology as a research agenda -- Teaching for empathy or hostility -- Anti-zionist hostility : teaching to delegitimate the Jewish state -- Pedagogy as empathy : teaching Jewish-Israeli, Arab-Israeli, and Palestinian poetry together -- Challenges in professional associations and in Palestine -- A faculty group organizes a boycott campaign -- Academic freedom in Palestinian universities -- The case for coordinated unilateral withdrawal from parts of the West Bank : a proposal to rescue the two-state paradigm -- Afterword: where BDS is headed in the academy.