Governed and directed by academics, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) is a grass-roots community of nearly 55,000 university and college professors, researchers, administrators, teachers, librarians, and students on more than 3500 campuses worldwide. All receive our SPME Faculty Forum. Nearly 40 campuses in the US and abroad now have their own chapters (see SPME Chapters ). SPME is an independent, not-for-profit organization chartered in the State of Pennsylvania under provision 501(C)3 of the US tax code.

As our name implies, we envision and strive for peace in the Middle East: a world in which Israel exists as a sovereign Jewish state within secure borders and her neighbors achieve their legitimate peaceful aspirations. As scholars, we commit ourselves to the promotion of research, education, and service to achieve this just peace. We also envision and strive for a region in which human rights, stability and economic development grow and benefit all the peoples of the area.

However, we observe that academic discourse is increasingly influenced by ideological distortions, politically biased scholarship, and agenda-driven speakers who demonize Israel and Zionism as bearing full responsibility for the Middle-East conflict. Such indoctrination violates academic traditions of scholarly integrity and degrades the academic enterprise. It poisons debate about the Middle East, inflames hatred of Israel, spreads anti-Semitism, incites anti-Israeli militancy, and serves to excuse or tolerate terrorist attacks and genocidal threats against Israel. Anti-Israel slanders exacerbate conflict and undermine prospects for peace.

Our mission is to inform, motivate, and encourage faculty to use their academic skills and disciplines on campus, in classrooms, and in academic publications to develop effective responses to ideological distortions, including anti-Semitic, anti-Zionist, and anti-Muslim slanders, that poison debate and work against peace. SPME opposes all manifestations of anti-Semitism in academia, including calls for an academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions. In a time when faculty members sympathetic to or merely suspected of being sympathetic to Israel may be subject to hostility and intimidation, we also serve as a network for mutual support.

SPME welcomes scholars from all disciplines, faith groups, and nationalities who share our desire for peace and our commitments to academic freedom, academic integrity, and honest debate.

Revision Adopted and Approved by The SPME Board of Directors
June 5, 2008

Professor Travels to Israel for Cross-Cultural Fellowship
 

Barry Rubin: Middle East 101: Understanding Regional Political Logic
 

Walter Reich: An Israel in Despair Deserves much Better
 

Luis Fleischman: MARIO VARGAS LLOSA Y EL ESTADO DE ISRAEL (MARIO VARGAS LLOSA AND THE STATE OF ISRAEL) In Spanish and English
 

Jewish Organizations Protest UC President's Handling of Reports of Anti-Semitism
 

2010-08-26 - Haifa University Students Prepare to Rally Against Leftist Teachers
 

2010-07-26 - Israeli Bill Reflects Frustration with Academics who Support Boycotts
 

2010-07-26 - French University Cancels Writer's Conference Due to Anti-Israel Protest
 

2010-07-14 - U.S. Lawmakers Seek Action against Campus anti-Semitism
 

2010-07-12 - Clerics to Work Within Schools of Iran's Capital
 

President Abbas and Peace Talks
 

Mudar Zahran: Demonizing Israel is Bad for the Palestinians
 

Hagai Mazuz: The Root of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: The Classic Islamic View of Jews
 

Jonathan Spyer: The Forgotten Minority
 

Beni Begin: Constructive Clarity in Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations
 

Britannia Waives the Rules: Edward Alexander Reviews Anthony Julius's " Trials of the Diaspora: A History of Antisemitism in England" (Oxford University Press, 2010)
 

How Not To Make Peace in The Middle East
 

Jeffrey Schaler: December, 2007 Special Issue: Anti-Semitism the World Over in the Twenty-First Century Available
 

Ernest Sternberg: A Revivified Corpse: Left-Fascism in the Twenty-First Century
 

Itamar Rabinovich Offers Person-Statement on New Book "The View From Damascus"
 

2010-08-31 - Terrorist Attack Kills Four Israelis but Will Not Derail Peace Talks
 

2010-08-31 - Poll: Palestinians back negotiations with Israel
 

2010-08-31 - Barak meets Abbas in Amman on eve of peace talks in US
 

2010-08-27 - Netanyahu Proposes Bi-weekly Meetings with Abbas During Direct Peace Talks
 

2010-08-20 - Mideast Quartet Calls for Israel, Palestinian Talks
 

2010-08-15 - Harvard University Fund Sells All Israel Holdings
 

2010-08-13 - French Minister Calls Israeli Boycott a ‘Crime'
 

2010-08-13 - Major Powers Drawing Up Framework for Mideast Talks
 

To: British Academic Participating in Silent Boycott of Israeli Academics and Institutions
A Petition To Condemn The 2009 British UCU's Silent Boycott of Israel Academics and Institutions

Read and Sign | More SPME's Petitions

To: Colleagues in the Academic Community
SPME Statement on Discrimination Against Israeli Academics and Institutions

Read and Sign | More SPME's Petitions

Yale to Host International Conference on antisemitism
 

3rd Annual ASMEA Conference - Call for Papers
 

CAMERA: One Day Conference: Israel and International Law at Northwestern University School of Law
 

American University Washington DC: Academic Conference: "Israel in a Time of Global Change" and Other Upcoming Events
 

YIISA: Upcoming Conference: "Global Antisemitism" - Call for Papers