Nathan Thrall published A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy on October 3, 2023, four days before Hamas and other Palestinian militants launched a deadly ground invasion of Israel from the Gaza Strip. After October 7, one-quarter of Thrall’s book tour appearances in the fall were promptly canceled, in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Houston, and Washington, DC, all for more or less the same reason.

Venues did not want to stoke “controversy” by hosting an event that seemed remotely critical of Israel or sympathetic to Palestine. But Thrall’s speaking engagement at the University of Arkansas was canceled for a different reason — because Thrall, an American Jewish journalist who lives in Jerusalem, refused to sign a pledge to not boycott Israel. Arkansas is one of thirty-seven states in the United States that has passed a law that restricts participation in the Palestinian Boycott, Sanctions, and Divestment (BDS) movement.

Given that Thrall is a Jew who lives in Israel, it’s ironic that his refusal to formally repudiate the BDS movement would prevent him from performing a speaking engagement in Arkansas. However, it’s also fitting, given the way BDS is modeled after the Anti-Apartheid Movement opposing South Africa’s apartheid system. Thrall’s book documents the Palestinian experience of living in what nearly every human rights organization in the world has called an apartheid state.