Last July, when it became public that a founder of the African American Intellectual History Society had accepted the $300,000 Dan David Prize, which is headquartered at Tel Aviv University, a group of leading scholars in the field of Black studies wrote and circulated an open letter in protest to the boards of AAIHS and the new affiliated journal, Black Global Thought. We understand that in a field as diverse as ours, scholars have a wide variety of opinions about any number of topics. But it is simply duplicitous for the public-facing AAIHS and its journal to align itself with the radical politics and history of the Black studies tradition while privately the most influential person associated with both accepts this prize during the Israeli government’s ongoing genocidal siege of Gaza and its belligerent and bellicose attacks on the West Bank. We invite you to read and circulate our letter. 

An Open Letter to the Leadership of AAIHS

As scholars of Black studies working in a long tradition of internationalist and global solidarity, we reach out to you, the officers and leaders of the African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS), to take a stand. The Israeli government has essentially obliterated Gaza, killing and maiming tens of thousands of civilians, scattering over a million refugees, and critically damaging or destroying every university, hospital, library, and any other repository of Palestinian life and history. The West Bank is also increasingly under siege.

Unbelievably, and in the midst of such horror, members of the AAIHS have accepted the Dan David Prize, housed at Tel Aviv University. We view its $300,000 award as thoroughly tainted by wars of aggression and underwritten by American and Israeli state imperialism. While we acknowledge that many foundations and institutions that fund our paychecks and fellowships are implicated in odious activity and funding streams, we simply cannot allow base false equivalences to justify complicity, acceptance, and boosterism of organizations directly engaged in illegal occupation, according to the International Court of Justice. ​​Tel Aviv University, located a mere 40 miles from Gaza, was built on the remains of a Palestinian village razed by Israeli commando forces in 1948. It houses the Institute for National Security Studies and receives generous funding from Israel’s Ministry of Defense to train combat officers. Faculty and student researchers have collaborated with Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer and supplier of drones that target Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. By accepting the Dan David Prize, hosted by Tel Aviv University, the AAIHS leadership has essentially crossed a global picket line of Palestinian solidarity and violated calls to refuse the prize by Palestinian activists.

Your organization is framed around the ideas of the Black radical tradition and purports to extol the insights, frameworks, and logics of Black internationalism while also seeking out and situationally aligning itself with Black leftists. Your blog, Black Perspectives, offers the political vision of Black radicals, including the principle of international solidarity. As board members and past presidents of the AAIHS, you know the dangers of cultural projects that are designed to shroud brutal racial violence and deadly racial capitalism through the elevation of selected representatives of liberal multiculturalism and official antiracism. As writers, teachers, scholars, and activists in this tradition, we must guard against the capture of Black intellectuals by those who would rationalize or implement colonial agendas executed through regimes of racial terror.

Recently, your leadership announced the founding of a new journal, Global Black Thought, declaring that it was developed from the urgency of the current political moment. In a recent interview, the journal’s managing editor said, “Whether it is the battle against resurgent right-wing movements, climate change, or the shifting balance of power worldwide between traditional and emerging world powers, Black people across the globe are going to have a critical role to play in those debates. Understanding how those contemporary debates are informed by the long and rich history of Black intellectual discourse is important for everyone.” Indeed, a special issue on “Black Feminist Truth Telling” is slated as part of the inaugurating events of the new journal. This is an alarming example of invoking a tradition rooted in anti-imperialism, international solidarity, and protest to project an image of radical politics and thought while simultaneously remaining silent or even accommodating the brutal siege of Gaza and all of occupied Palestine. Students, faculty, and staff at the universities in which AAIHS leaders and members work and whose only offenses are peaceful antiwar protest or criticism of Israel have been disciplined, and many still face the threat of this harassment. How can you launch a new journal ostensibly dedicated to global Black thought while remaining silent on the issue of Palestine? At best it is ill informed, at worst mendacious. Is AAIHS only interested in building a brand that invokes Black radicalism and Black feminism to appeal to Black scholars while maintaining no particular commitment to the underlying ideas of freedom, justice, and self-determination that animate those traditions?

The leaders and membership of AAIHS should be at the forefront of condemning the Israeli government’s actions. We have seen the callous repression of that movement by conservative lawmakers and liberal university administrators. To be sure, the forces that seek to ban or circumscribe Black studies and Black history on college campuses are the same forces that mobilized to suppress Palestine solidarity encampments and protests this past spring. Indeed, the most conservative critics link the rise of Palestinian solidarity to critical race theory, ethnic studies, and diversity, equity, and inclusion programming. They believe that the study of Black oppression has made young people particularly sensitive to the treatment and experience of Palestinians, so they have taken to demonizing Black studies as “grievance studies.” Recent polling has shown that more than two-thirds of Black Americans support an immediate and permanent cease-fire to end Israel’s onslaught in Gaza. This is an issue that you cannot hide from. Your silence will not protect you. It emboldens those who are working to remake the university by removing dissenting voices, thought, and politics. Your silence exposes glaring contradictions that deserve explanation. Is your Black internationalism and ethical commitment only historical? What of the rich history of Black intellectual and political affinity with Palestine? Some contradictions deserve explanation even if members have decided that they have no particular interest in the cause of Palestinian freedom and self-determination. The AAIHS’s reputation and positionality — in representations of Black liberation, internationalism, and feminism — are at stake because of your silence.

Therefore, we urge the AAIHS to (1) issue a statement against the Israeli state project of Palestinian annihilation and in favor of peace and freedom for Palestinians in the Middle East, and (2) issue a statement of transparency, assuring readers and potential contributors that the AAIHS’s annual conference, new journal, and general activities are not being funded by the Dan David Prize. If the AAIHS cannot take these basic steps to preserve the integrity of the Black radical tradition in which they profess to operate, we urge a withdrawal from the AAIHS and its upcoming conference at Brown University.

Sincerely,
Andrea Y. Adomako
Leslie Alexander
Moya Bailey
Davarian L. Baldwin
Lucien Baskin
Frances M. Beal
Martha Biondi
Lisa Brock
Simone Browne
Charisse Burden-Stelly
Chris Cameron
Charlene A. Carruthers
Cathy J. Cohen
Ashon Crawley
Angela Y. Davis
Gina Dent
Erica R. Edwards
Navid Farnia
Roderick A. Ferguson
Johanna Fernández
Aisha Finch
Tiffany N. Florvil
Nyle Fort
Marisa J. Fuentes
Lorgia García Peńa
Adom Getachew
Dayo F. Gore
Frank Guridy
Sarah Haley
Leslie M. Harris
Christina Heatherton
Marc Lamont Hill
Gaye Theresa Johnson
Nikki Jones
Joseph Jordan
Robin D. G. Kelley
Micah Khater
Tiffany King
La TaSha Levy
Toussaint Losier
Minkah Makalani
Wendell Marsh
Kyle T. Mays
Erik S. McDuffie
Uri McMillan
Robin Mitchell
Donna Murch
Premilla Nadasen
Leigh Raiford
Barbara Ransby
Conor Tomás Reed
Shana L. Redmond
Russell Rickford
Akira Drake Rodriguez
Dylan Rodríguez
J. T. Roane
David Romine
SA Smythe
C. Riley Snorton
Damien Sojoyner
Robyn C. Spencer-Antoine
Brandi T. Summers
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
Ula Y. Taylor
Jeanne Theoharis
Erik Wallenberg
Stephen Ward
Daniel Widener
Alden Young

Author affiliations are for identification purposes only. The authors and signatories offer this analysis as private citizens. The views expressed are their own and do not reflect any employer or university.