The Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles is set to host a boycott of Israeli academics by the American Studies Association, a group of college professors who study American history and culture. As such the hotel chain is poised to violate California’s civil rights laws pertaining to public accommodations such as hotel and restaurants.
The ASA, meanwhile, is turning linguistic somersaults trying to pretend it will not actually deny Israeli participation at its upcoming November conference at the hotel. The group, which has been censured by more than 250 American colleges and universities for its Israeli boycott, is claiming that it is only boycotting Israeli academic institutions, not individuals, and so long as individuals don’t claim to be representing those institutions, hey, they won’t be denied participation in the conference.
The twisted logic has succeeded in confusing the Jerusalem Post, but the law professors of the Washington Post blog the Volokh Conspiracy are not amused: “Per the ASA’s recently adopted policy, Israeli academics will be subject to unique exclusionary restrictions based on their national origin.”
The American Center for Law & Justice, meanwhile, is threatening to sue the hotel chain for violation of the California civil rights law, which is in essence a restatement of the landmark federal 1964 Civil Rights Act which ended legal segregation on the basis of race or national origin. A simpler, less expensive action would be to encourage everyone to refuse to do business with the Westin hotel chain so long as it plays at discrimination in its hosting policy.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 