The American Association of Geographers became the latest professional association to face pressure to adopt a boycott of Israel after a recent member petition urged the association “to endorse the campaign for an academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions.”

The campaign also calls for “financial disclosure and divestment of any AAG funds invested in corporations or state institutions profiting from the ongoing oppression of the Palestinian people.” 

A special member meeting is scheduled for Oct. 3 to move toward a vote on the resolution after the group behind the petition succeeded in reaching the required 10% of member signatures. An AAG spokesperson told Jewish Insider that the organization has “no statement or resolution about Israel-Palestine.” AAG did not respond to a follow-up inquiry asking which Israeli institutions the association currently invests in.  

“I was absolutely shocked,” Liora Sahar, an Israeli-American member of AAG, told JI.

Sahar, a geospatial expert with a PhD from Georgia Tech, said that she first noticed anti-Israel rhetoric within the association at this year’s annual meeting, held in Detroit in March. 

“I was deeply disturbed by the inclusion and promotion of sessions that allowed for inflammatory, biased and harmful rhetoric, far removed from academic rigor or geographic inquiry,” said Sahar. 

“Sessions, organized by a group calling itself ‘Geographers for Justice in Palestine,’ centered not on scholarly exploration, but on academic boycott and divestment campaigns. These are political actions, not scientific ones, and they directly undermine the values of academic freedom and open discourse.” 

Sahar, who attended the conference virtually, said that she came across a session titled “Dismantling the Palestine Exception” as well as six other “related abstracts [that] accused Israel of ‘ethnic cleansing’ and a ‘U.S.-enabled genocidal war.’”

“It had nothing to do with geography,” she said. Geographers for Justice in Palestine’s “entire goal was to get 10% of the AAG membership to sign the petition.” 

The Anti-Defamation League urged the AAG to reject the resolution in a statement, highlighting “its divisive impact on academic communities and violations of AAG’s own ethical guidelines. We have previously expressed concerns about similar issues at AAG meetings and are ready to help AAG understand the potential harm of this resolution before the meeting.”

The campaign comes as members of other professional associations have also called for the adoption of academic boycotts of the Jewish state, a movement that has gained momentum in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks and the ensuing Israel-Hamas war. 

Last September, for example, the American Association of University Professors reversed course and dropped its longtime opposition to academic boycotts. Faculty members on several campuses soon after started implementing non-official boycotts of Israel by not assigning articles written by Israeli scholars, refusing to invite Israeli academics to conferences and declining to write study abroad letters for students wishing to spend a semester in Israel.