Academic Boycott of Israel by Universities in Africa, Asia and Latin America: Analysis of Political and Legal Discourse

This study is aimed at determining the specifics of the content range of the political and legal discourse of academic institutions in Africa, Asia and Latin America, which focuses on the academic boycott of Israel. The study consistently reveals as part of event analyses the specifics of the response of university communities in the states of these regions to the events of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict of 2023-2024. As the study showed, in the states of Africa, Asia and Latin America, the political and legal understanding of the boycott is tied to the academic, mainly university environment and, with the exception of South Africa, is not shared by official authorities in regard to the legality and effectiveness of the academic boycott. In general, the range of attitudes is represented by pursuance of break in relations, suspention or, on the contrary, maintaining academic ties with Israel. While the official political and legal discourse of the academic sector of South Africa, as well as Latin American countries, includes all three attitudes, only the third one is characteristic of India. In this regard, the anti-Israeli academic boycott as a social movement of global nature is not absolute at the level of institutional decisions. In addition, there are no decisions taken at the intergovernmental level regarding academic cooperation.