The Dan David Prize Amid a Genocide?

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)

• 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