October 4, 2025
Headquartered at Tel Aviv University, the Dan David Prize is one of many Israel-based awards that attempt to legitimize the Israeli state and its policies on a world stage. Along with the Wolf Prize, awarded to “Scientists and Artists for their achievements in the interest of mankind and friendly relations amongst peoples,” the Jerusalem Prize, a literary award given to writers promoting “freedom of the individual in society,” and others, the Dan David Prize works to erase and normalize colonial occupation and racial apartheid by honoring, celebrating, and rewarding international academics and artists for their individual excellence.
For decades, many Palestinian scholars and scholars in solidarity with Palestine have called on colleagues to reject these awards as part of a global Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. In 2001, when Edward Said heard that Susan Sontag had agreed to accept the Jerusalem Prize, he reminded her of Israel’s colonial occupation of Palestine and asked her to decline the award. He wrote: “Thus, your charismatic presence for the Prize and your acceptance of it is, for the Israeli government, a badly needed boost to its poor international standing, a symbol that the greatest talents in the end subscribe to what Israel is doing.”
It is impossible to dissociate Tel Aviv University and the Dan David Prize from the colonial occupation of Palestine. Located about 40 miles from Gaza, the university was built on the ruins of a Palestinian village eviscerated by Israeli forces in 1948. Researchers and faculty at Tel Aviv University have worked closely with Israel’s university-military complex, including through the Institute for National Security Studies. The Dan David Prize publicizes its affiliation with Tel Aviv University, including that “the university’s President traditionally serves as the Chairperson of the Prize’s Board, and the Selection Committee usually includes a faculty member.”
Although individual honors and lucrative awards may be difficult to turn down, some individuals have done so as a matter of principle. In March 2025, architect Yasmeen Lari declined the Wolf Prize, citing “the unfortunate continuing genocide in Gaza.” Back in 2016, historian Catherine Hall publicly refused the Dan David Prize. The Dan David Prize has had a public relations makeover since, now branding itself as “the largest history prize in the world” and limiting the award to younger scholars. Perhaps not surprisingly, among the recent awardees have been scholars of race, colonialism, and genocide—and, as of this year, Asian American history.
We find accepting the Dan David Prize especially in 2025, during the height of Israel’s unrelenting bombardment and siege of Gaza, to be bewildering and unconscionable. In the ongoing genocide, the state of Israel has destroyed all twelve universities in Gaza, along with hundreds of archives, libraries, museums, and bookstores. The wholesale destruction of Palestinian academic institutions and communities of scholarship is scholasticide. Beyond killing untold numbers of Palestinian faculty and students, Israeli forces have annihilated Palestine’s educational and scholarly infrastructure.
As scholars of Asian American Studies, we feel compelled to remind ourselves and the public at large of our field’s anticolonial roots and aspirations and to reaffirm our field’s commitment to BDS. Engaged in student and community struggles against colonialism and racism, those who helped to found Asian American Studies voiced their solidarity with the Vietnamese resisting decades of colonial occupation and genocidal warfare. Building on that legacy, in 2013, the Association for Asian American Studies became the first US-based academic organization to adopt a resolution boycotting Israeli universities.
From Jim Crow Montgomery to apartheid South Africa and beyond, boycotts have been a powerful organizing tool in movements against racism and colonialism. We view grassroots boycotts as an invitation to refuse collaboration with institutions actively causing harm and violence and to apply public pressure on states and institutions. When the anti-apartheid South African writer Nadine Gordimer agreed to attend a conference in Jerusalem, Dr. Haidar Eid of Gaza’s Al-Aqsa University asked her to boycott the conference. He wrote in 2008: “My students, psychologically and emotionally traumatized and already showing early signs of malnutrition as a result of the genocidal policy of the country whose birth you intend on celebrating, demand an explanation.”
We call on our colleagues in Asian American Studies and all scholars of conscience to honor the BDS movement and to refuse the appropriation of our fields of knowledge in service of Israel’s campaign to legitimize its regime of genocidal warfare, colonial occupation, and racial apartheid.
Signatories (in alphabetical order)
Neel Ahuja
Evelyn Alsultany
Gina Apostol
Megan Asaka
Aimee Bahng
Crystal Mun-hye Baik
Nerissa Balce
Jody Blanco
Rick Bonus
Lucy Burns
Sylvia Chan-Malik
Derek Chang
Juliana Chang
Piya Chatterjee
Cindy I-Fen Cheng
Mark Chiang
Jennifer Jihye Chun
Chris Cynn
Monisha Das Gupta
Iyko Day
Josen Diaz
David Eng
Candace Fujikane
Takashi Fujitani
Evyn Lê Espiritu Gandhi
Inderpal Grewal
Zareena Grewal
Ju Hui Judy Han
Christine Hong
Grace Kyungwon Hong
Madeline Y. Hsu
Juliana Hu Pegues
Emily Hue
Ren-yo Hwang
Rana Jaleel
Amira Jarmakani
Michael Jin
Moon-Ho Jung
Moon-Kie Jung
Laura Hyun Yi Kang
Ronak Kapadia
Manu Karuka
Maryam Kashani
Eunsong Kim
Jinah Kim
Jodi Kim
Joo Ok Kim
Lili Kim
Richard S. Kim
Karlyn Koh
Dorinne Kondo
Larissa Lai
Latipa
James Kyung-Jin Lee
Sue-Im Lee
Eng-Beng Lim
Imogene Lim
Marie Lo
Lisa Lowe
Mary Ting Yi Lui
Simeon Man
Bakirathi Mani
Wendy Matsumura
Sean Metzger
Susette Min
Kit Myers
Asha Nadkarni
Nadine Naber
Mae Ngai
Nguyen Tan Hoang
Viet Thanh Nguyen
Vinh Nguyen
Jan Padios
Mark Padoongpatt
A. Naomi Paik
Susie Pak
David Palumbo-Liu
Hiram Pérez
Minh-Ha T. Pham
Smitha Radhakrishnan
Vicente Rafael
Junaid Rana
Chandan Reddy
Victoria Reyes
Dylan Rodríguez
Sharmila Rudrappa
Steven Salaita
Jeffrey Santa Ana
Dean Saranillio
Sarita See
Shalini Shankar
Nitasha Tamar Sharma
Naoko Shibusawa
Setsu Shigematsu
Caroline Chung Simpson
Davorn Sisavath
Christine So
Neferti Tadiar
Ty P. Kāwika Tengan
Stanley Thangaraj
Elda Tsou
Thuy Linh Tu
Ma Vang
Linta Varghese
Kamala Viswesaran
Janelle Wong
Lily Wong
Rita Wong
Sunny Xiang
Traise Yamamoto
Caroline Yang
Chi-ming Yang
Hentyle Yapp
Lisa Yoneyama
Mari Yoshihara
Henry Yu
Ji-Yeon Yuh
First published at the Critical Ethnic Studies Journal blog.
