In the coming weeks, the Modern Language Association (MLA) could vote to simultaneously protect and abridge its members’ rights to academic freedom.

Whether this contradiction will hold, or whether it will give way to an ethically consistent stance, will say a lot about the MLA. And it will set a precedent for other organizations contemplating a boycott of Israeli state institutions.

Members of the MLA, the world’s largest organization of literature and language scholars, are now considering two resolutions (voting opened on April 19 and ends June 1). One calls on the MLA to “refrain from participating in a boycott of Israeli universities.” The other asks that the association endorse the American Association of University Professors’ document, “Higher Education after the 2016 Election.” The resolution notes that the MLA “upholds the ideal of free and unfettered scholarly exchange, including the right to travel across international borders”; that the group “opposes discrimination . . . on the basis of race, gender, class, ethnicity, color, age, sexual orientation, disability, religion, political belief, or national origin”; and that “the Trump administration threatens to violate these core principles of democracy and academic freedom.”