California University President Placed on Leave After Agreeing to Boycott Israel

The president of California’s Sonoma State University has been placed on leave after promising to work with pro-Palestinian protesters toward the university’s financial and academic boycott of Israel, a decision he said was made unilaterally. In a May 14 message to students and faculty, Sonoma State’s president Ming-Tung “Mike” Lee revealed details of the terms he brokered with protesters in exchange for ending their encampment on the campus lawn, which had persisted since April 26. Among the “key points of agreement,” he described, was for the university to initiate an “academic boycott” of Israel, in which any study abroad programs, faculty exchanges, or other formal collaborations sponsored by Israeli academic and research institutions would be terminated....