The academic boycott of Israel is the hill to fight on
The BDS movement charged up the wrong hill, and American civil society is fighting back to protect one of our core freedoms.
As to where the anti-boycott efforts are going, this is just the beginning.
We will continue to rally support among American civil society. That support comes willingly, as one of the movers behind the Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) movement in the U.S., who runs the Electronic Intifada website, lamented today on Twitter:
Nobody asked but University of Chicago leaders have also now denounced “academic boycotts” http://t.co/Fej6yh0pcU
— Ali Abunimah (@AliAbunimah) December 23, 2013
The BDS movement went too far this time. Its position on academic boycotts is indefensible.
The supporters of academic BDS have exposed themselves as the threat to civil society they are. It’s easy to laugh when they do flash mobs outside coffee shops and in grocery stores and call for the boycott of hummus. It’s not so easy to laugh when they shout down speakers.
It creates spontaneous outrage when they use academic organizations as political tools and easily cast aside the academic freedom of everyone in their desire to damage Israel.
BDS charged up the wrong hill.
When some of the harshest critics of Israeli policies say an academic boycott of Israel is too much, the academic BDS movement has no ground to stand on.
This is not, as Electronic Intifada claims, a counterattack by the Israel Lobby. It’s a counterattack by American civil society, and soon political society, against the attack on our core freedoms.
Don’t let this pass with just denunciations.
This is the hill to fight BDS on.
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For the latest, see our two summary posts:
- List of Universities rejecting academic boycott of Israel
- University statements rejecting academic boycott of Israel
(Featured Image: BDS protest U. Michigan)
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Comments
This is the first step in the war for intellectual and cultural freedom. The ones we are fighting against are Communists and Muslims making common cause to deprive us of our rights to freedom of association and speech. Another prong in this war is that against Judaeo-Christianity. Israel is our foundation and we must fight to preserve that.
[…] institutions and individuals who participate in it should be ashamed of themselves. Glenn Reynolds thinks that the best way to […]
Boycott Is Real [Ly Stupid] according to guy on the far left. How appropriate.
I would love to see a 20 year graph of Israeli versus Palestinian GDP with world aid for each country superimposed. My guess is that Israeli GDP continues to grow against mainly US aid while Palestinian GDP shrinks in relation to world aid. I could be wrong but I doubt it.
Go ahead and tweet it, punk. Make my day.
“Going to boycott Israel. Hope I don’t get into trouble. Just kidding. I’m ASA!”
Americans must do everything we can to ensure the survival of Israel. I believe the future of Western Civilization depends on it.
Yup, like I said, Israel is our foundation.
Boycotting Israel’s academics is indefensible as well as being stupid considering Ashkenazi Jews are the most intelligent ethnic population on Earth.
However, denouncing and boycotting the government of Israel for their apartheid state, their miscegenation laws, etc., is more than fair.
Watch the video I posted above with an open mind and you’ll understand some of the reasons the Palestinian economy is gutted by Israeli armed might.
The economy of the Arabs in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza is gutted only by their own intransigence and corruption. Instead of stashing world aid in Swiss bank accounts, instead of spending millions to program children to hate and kill Jews, instead of wasting valuable resources on rewriting history and attempting to persuade the world that Jesus was a “Palestinian”, read “Muslim”, they would do well to use their knowledge and skills to improve their lives. Don’t try to make Kassam rockets; instead, try to produce something that is not oriented towards mass slaughter.
You’re lying or you’re ignorant. I don’t know which is the case.
As I said, the video shows how Israel uses apartheid backed by force to undermine the Palestinian economy and advantage Israeli firms. If you can’t be bothered to watch it, then just repeat your lies and propaganda.
your discussion is based in “watch this hour long video, or else you’re stupid or lying”?
I watched a minute or two, and she didn’t impress me as any kind of expert … certainly not enough to make me watch for an hour to see if she offered any more than the usual propaganda.
And you offer zero evidence yourself … except “watch this hour of video”.
You should watch the video. It makes a wide-range of important moral and practical points. I expect you to avoid watching it, however.
As for how the Palestinian economy is stifled by Israel, here. The video goes in to specifics.
You did a great job as usual on Michael Graham’s show today. Let me know how Boston College reacts.
the 45 minutes that will wipe your case against #israel right to the entire mandate territory #israel right http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub2x5UvjUs4 … … …
gilhal, I don’t really have a case against Israel’s current borders, although I’m sure there is one that could be argued. I am commenting about the apartheid nature of the state, the miscegenation laws, etc.
I had no problem, in particular, with South Africa’s borders (not being an expert in them), but did have a problem with how the South African black population was treated. Do you understand the distinction I’m making?
I also consider the physical security and rights of South Africa’s white population important as I do those of Israeli and other Jews.
However, that video may well be interesting and I’ve added it to my Watch Later list. The video I linked to above is excellent and well worth watching. I urge you and all here to watch it.
I really enjoyed your commentary on the apartheid nature of Islamic countries, Christoph. Judenrein, almost Christianrein; no freedom of worship or association even in private; no intermarriage with Muslim women unless the man converts; no Christians allowed to build or repair churches; no assistance for Christian families whose daughters are kidnapped, raped, forced into marriage with Muslims, and forced to convert to Islam; no reparation for Jews who were forced to abandon homes, property, wealth when they were cast out of Islamic countries; no equality under the law between non-Muslims and Muslims such that Christians are imprisoned on the slightest false accusation while Muslims kill Christians with impunity.
Had it not been for you, we would not have realized that Islamic lands are a paradise in comparison to Israel. There, those dastardly Jews, so full of hatred for the other, sought to provide better housing accommodations for the Bedouins of Israel. What a terrible thing to do! Thank God protesters were there to put a stop to Bedouins having better homes.
You are offering nothing but a red herring.
I never claimed Islam nor Muslim nations are without fault.
Where is a pressure-cooker bomb-bearing Islamic terrorist when you need one?
BDS. I thought you meant “Bush derangement syndrome.” The same humanoids, so why not use the same initials?
Don’t worry about Israel. When Obama goes too far, the Israelis will say to the Chinese, “Hey, how about some support? In exchange we’ll help you create a First World military using all the technology we jointly developed with the Americans.”
If the US is stupid enough to let that happen, we’ll deserve whatever an up-armed China can deliver.
Who was it who said Obama was a genius? Oh, I remember now. More than half the country. Twice.
Duh-mocracy.
Obama also got 70% of the Jewish vote. Twice
We are the guy who sees everyone in the playground bullying a kid and pushing him around. We may or may not know why; we just realize something’s wrong. So we step in.
The work ethic of the Palestinian and Israeli people are great, but ideology and religious fervor separates them. What the Israelis have done in the desert is just a fraction of could be done if those two peoples could work together. The Palestinian leadership apparently knows no way other way to lead other than through the barrel of a gun and hatred of the Jews and it is keeping the Palestinian people down. So sad. Yet the Left in the West can see no wrong being performed by the Palestinians. The Palestinian leadership’s totalitarian rule and the religious/cultural discrimination or worse against gays and women seemly never become part of the Left’s agenda. Thus, in my mind, such organizations have zero creditability.