‘We can have a debate about whether Hamas did the right thing’: Judith Butler’s Moral Relativism

By Cary Nelson
Academic Judith Butler’s evolving responses to 7 October are critically examined by Cary Nelson.   When Judith Butler expressed... Read more > March 2024

Antizionism at the Modern Language Association

By Cary Nelson
After nearly two decades of trying, on 6 January the Modern Language Association’s annual meeting finally succeeded in... Read more > February 2024

Universities in Crisis | What three American University Presidents should have said to the US Congress about campus antisemitism

By Cary Nelson
Cary Nelson is emeritus professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His Hate Speech and Academic Freedom... Read more > January 2024

Universities in Crisis | ‘We need to reckon with how horrific liberation can be’: How Lara Sheehi Rationalised the Hamas...

By Cary Nelson
Cary Nelson argues that Lara Sheehi’s comments over recent weeks have provided a roadmap for rationalising the nightmare... Read more > November 2023

Opinion | A ceasefire would normalise the pogrom

By Cary Nelson
Cary Nelson argues that those calling for a ceasefire ignore, are ignorant of, or are unconcerned by the... Read more > October 2023

Lara Sheehi’s Joyous Rage: Antisemitic Anti-Zionism, Advocacy Academia and Jewish Students’ Nightmares at GWU

By Cary Nelson
Fathom Editor’s Introductory Note. Sometimes it is hard to know what is the more alarming: the state of... Read more > April 2023

Christians and the reconciliation route to resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict

By Cary Nelson
A few months ago, Presbyterians for Middle East Peace (PFMEP) published Peace And Faith: Christian Churches and the... Read more > June 2022

The Anti-Israel Politicisation of the US Academy: The Next Phase is Happening at California and Illinois

By Cary Nelson
The University of California and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign UIUC are on the verge of green-lighting... Read more > May 2022

Amnesty International, Israel and Race-Baiting

By Cary Nelson
Cary Nelson argues that Amnesty International’s report, by reducing a complex, political, national question involving two victim peoples... Read more > March 2022

Rasmea Odeh: How an unrepentant Palestinian terrorist became a political hero of the anti-Zionist left

By Cary Nelson
Cary Nelson reviews Steven Lubet’s The Trials of Rasmea Odeh: How a Palestinian Guerilla Gained and Lost U.S. Citizenship.... Read more > October 2021

Fathom Long Read | Valentina Azarova: A Controversy Assessed

By Cary Nelson
Debate rages about the possible appointment of Valentina Azarova to the position of Director of the Toronto Law... Read more > July 2021

Fathom Long Read | Antisemitism and the IHRA at University College London

By Cary Nelson
For twenty years Cary Nelson was part of the elected leadership of the American Association of University Professors,... Read more > May 2021

Once Again on the Jerusalem Declaration: A Rejoinder to Derek Penslar and Michael Walzer

By Cary Nelson
Cary Nelson’s responds to replies by Derek Penslar and Michael Walzer to his Fathom article ‘Accommodating the New... Read more > April 2021

Fathom Long Read | Accommodating the New Antisemitism: a Critique of ‘The Jerusalem Declaration’

By Cary Nelson
Download and print a PDF version here.  In this comprehensive critique Cary Nelson argues that the recent ‘Jerusalem... Read more > April 2021

A Pandemic of Anti-Zionist Signification: Exploiting Gaza for Ideological Gain

By Cary Nelson
‘Close and unprecedented’ was how the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied... Read more > April 2020

Book Review | Behind the Mask: The Antisemitic Nature of BDS Exposed

By Cary Nelson
‘The world would be soooo much better without jews man.’ This post from a social media account appears... Read more > October 2019

Israel and the Left: Three Studies of the Crisis: (3) Israel Denial and the University

By Cary Nelson
A system is now in place to grant inaccurate and exaggerated ‘anti-Zionist’ claims credibility by giving them a... Read more > July 2019

The Word Crimes Controversy (1) | Cary Nelson Reviews Word Crimes

By Cary Nelson
Editorial Introduction: The controversy sparked by the publication of Word Crimes: Reclaiming The Language of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, the... Read more > May 2019

Book Review | Why Palestine Matters: The struggle to end colonialism

By Cary Nelson
The Presbyterian Church (USA) has published an ideological and political manual for anti-Israel organising ahead of its bi-annual... Read more > May 2018

Book Review | Boycott! The Academy and Justice for Palestine

By Cary Nelson
Sunaina Maira’s book Boycott! The Academy and Justice for Palestine would not ordinarily be a publication of special... Read more > May 2018

Book Review | Kingdom of Olives and Ash: Writers Confront the Occupation

By Cary Nelson
Kingdom of Olives And Ash: Writers Confront the Occupation, edited by Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman, is a... Read more > Summer 2017

The BDS Disinformation Campaign in the Modern Language Association

By Cary Nelson
In this comprehensive essay, Cary Nelson, former president of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and co-editor... Read more > Winter 2016

Perry Anderson’s House of Zion: A Symposium | Cary Nelson

By Cary Nelson
Perry Anderson’s Reactionary Fantasy Editorial introduction to the Symposium: Perry Anderson’s long essay, ‘The House of Zion’, was... Read more > Spring 2016

Multi-stage Coordinated Unilateralism: A Proposal to Rescue the Two-State Paradigm

By Cary Nelson
In this wide-ranging and hopeful essay, Cary Nelson aims to move the international conversation about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict away from mutual... Read more > Summer 2015

The new assault on Israeli academia (and us)

By Cary Nelson
Cary Nelson, former president of the American Association of University Professors and co-editor of The Case Against Academic... Read more > Spring 2014