There is a concerted effort in the Western academic world to discriminate against Israel, its academic institutions, and its scholars, according to a new book published by The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.

That discrimination includes attempted boycotts of Israeli universities and academics, using anti-Semitic themes in university discussions and programs, and the occasional act of violence. The book claims that negative academics' actions are part of a much broader, ongoing propaganda war that is perpetrated against Israel, Zionists, and Jews on university campuses. 

Edited by Manfred Gerstenfeld, chairman of the Board of Fellows at The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, the book contains 18 essays from four continents. The articles discuss a variety of cases of discrimination, and how Israel and Jews can defend themselves against such initiatives.  

Among the essays are analyses of events on many prestigious Western campuses of higher education, including Columbia, Rutgers, Harvard, the University of California-Irvine, and several British universities. The book also has chapters about anti-Semitism on Australian, Austrian, Canadian, Dutch, and other European campuses. 

There are chapters on the reaction to anti-Semitism by organizations such as Stand With Us and Scholars for Peace in the Middle East; recent attempted boycotts in the United Kingdom; and anti-Semitism in Palestinian universities. 

The collection has a foreword from former Israeli cabinet member Natan Sharansky and a lengthy introduction from Gerstenfeld, in which he describes and pieces together the global situation. 

Gerstenfeld has spent the last few years researching what he feels is an issue that has not been given its due. He sees it as the gradual intensification of anti-Israel bias on campuses across the world, culminating in this year's effort on the part of British academics to boycott Israeli universities. 

"The academic boycott and similar attempts should be seen in the context of the much broader, multiple, ongoing attacks against the Jewish people and Israel," Gerstenfeld writes in his introduction. "These initiatives are part of a postmodern global war."  

—Hiram M. Reisner