LIF exposed MESA’s degeneracy to its institutional members, asking whether they accepted the academic boycott of Israel and whether they planned to continue their MESA membership. Following the publicity LIF helped generate, at least seven universities announced they would not renew their membership in MESA or pay for their faculty members to belong to it. The seven are:

Boston College
Brandeis University
Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies
Florida State University
Marquette University
University of Arizona
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

LIF also co-signed a letter organized by The AMCHA Initiative addressed to the U.S. Secretary of Education: the letter asked the federal government not to fund Middle East studies programs boycotting Israel, on the grounds that the boycott violated the legislative intent of Title VI of the Higher Education Act that recipients of federal funding equip university students and faculty with a full and unbiased understanding of regions and countries vital to U.S. national security.