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BDS Tag

For many years we’ve been documenting anti-Israel activity on U.S. university and college campuses, typically part of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and carried out by student groups like Students for Justice in Palestine. In these prior posts we’ve described many instances when this Israel-related activism has crossed over the line into blatant anti-Jewish animus, including at schools as diverse as Vassar, Oberlin, and University of Illinois.

The academic boycott of Israel, part of the broader Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, has been endorsed by approximately 1400 university and college faculty members in the U.S. alone. So far, the only major academic association to endorse the academic boycott was the American Studies Association (December 2013), though there have been failed attempts at the American Anthropological Association, the Modern Language Association, the American Historical Association and other major organizations.

Senator Cory Booker appeared at the Netroots 2018 conference. Netroots is the annual gathering of far-left ("progressive") activists. For presidential hopefuls hoping to generate buzz among the base, Netroots is a must. This year Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and Cory Booker were among the speakers.

Why are so many of America’s mainline churches partnering with the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), an anti-Israel organization which allegedly has financial ties to terror groups and is a leader and mobilizer of BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) activism? As we’ve highlighted in many prior posts, the USCPR has long played an outsized role in advancing a vehemently anti-Israel agenda in America’s Protestant churches.

The American Studies Association (ASA) was the first, and so far the only, major American academic association to adopt the academic boycott of Israel, part of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) call to isolate and cut ties with Israel and Israelis. The fallout from the December 2013 ASA resolution was swift. The ASA action, which is considered a violation of academic freedom by the American Association of University Professors, was condemned by over 250 university presidents and numerous university associations.

Democrats had high hopes for a pick up in the newly-redistricted 1st District of Pennsylvania, the result of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision that threw out the 2010 redistricting for allegedly violating the Pennsylvania Constitution. The issue of whether partisan redistricting violates the U.S. Constitution remains an open question, despite recent SCOTUS decisions. But since the PA Sup Ct decided the case based on the PA Constitution, the attempt to get SCOTUS to review the case failed.

In several posts we have described how biased teaching materials about the Arab-Israeli conflict and the history and practice of Islam were used for years in the curriculum of two public high schools in the Boston suburb of Newton, Massachusetts:

The 223rd General Assembly (GA) of the mainline Presbyterian Church (USA) wrapped up yesterday on June 23rd with voting commissioners approving a number of overtures (resolutions) which “featured one-sided condemnations of Israel” while “almost no effort” was made to hold Palestinian governments accountable for stymying peace or “harming Israelis and Palestinians alike.”

Wednesday June 20th was World Refugee Day, a day when the international community expresses solidarity for people forced to flee their homes as a result of war, persecution, or violence. Palestinians and their supporters globally typically also use the opportunity of World Refugee Day to raise awareness about the current situation facing Palestinian refugees and also to remind people about what befell the Palestinians in the 1947-1948 war for Israel’s independence.

The Israeli government has released detailed research they claim exposes the connection between global anti-Israel boycott movement and terrorist groups. The study commissioned by the Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy described the web of connections joining prominent anti-Israel boycott organizations as the "hate network," with their findings allegedly connecting prominent BDS groups operating in the West to Palestinian terror groups such as Hamas and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

Last week the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism’s official summer camping arm, the National Ramah Commission (NRC), pledged not to partner with an activist group of Ramah camp alumni affiliated with the far-left “IfNotNow” (INN) group. In a letter distributed on June 11th to its institutional partners, whose programs this summer include more than 11,000 children and staff members in the U.S., Canada and Israel, the leaders of Camp Ramah explicitly noted that they will “not engage in any way” with INN as an organization.

Scott Wallace is the progressive Democratic nominee in the 1st Congressional District in Pennsylvania, running against Brian Fitzpatrick in the newly created district. Fitzpatrick is the current Representative in the soon-to-be extinct 8th District, which disappeared as part of judicially-ordered redistricting. Wallace's foundation, the Wallace Global Fund, was a funder of some of the worst anti-Israel and BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) groups, including Code Pink, Jewish Voice for Peace, Haymarket Books, and Linda Sarsour’s group.

On April 16h, Durham, North Carolina became the first American city to align a municipal public policy with the agenda of the virulently anti-Jewish and anti-peace extremist organization Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), which falsely blames Israel and American Jewish organizations for U.S. domestic police militarization and instances of police violence against blacks and other minorities in America, Demonization: Durham NC City Council bans police exchanges with Israel. As we discussed, in a statement which passed unanimously, the City Council of Durham imposed a total ban on police exchanges with “only one country in the world: the Jewish nation of Israel.”

From June 16-23 the General Assembly (GA) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) will meet in St. Louis where delegates will consider for passage at least eight Israel-related resolutions. By contrast, in terms of its Middle East coverage, the GA is slated to consider only one overture “responding to the current Syrian crisis” and one responding to the devastating humanitarian crisis in Yemen.

Israel called on the European Union (EU) to stop funding organizations supporting terrorism against Israeli civilians and the boycott campaign against the state of Israel. A study published by Israel's Ministry of Strategic Affairs singled out more than a dozen European and Palestinian non-governmental organizations, or NGOs, that have received millions of euros from the EU despite their links to internationally designated terrorist groups and the anti-Israel boycott movement. A copy of the study was handed to the EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, British newspaper Daily Mail confirmed.

The demonization and delegitimization of Israel and bigotry directed toward Jewish faculty, staff, and students is increasing at dramatic rates on university and college campuses. In these supposedly intellectual spaces, virulently anti-Israel “scholars” and student-activists connected to, and supportive of, the global BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) movement regularly:

Pennsylvania's newly formed 1st Congressional District is a classic "swing" district, and is rated a toss-up by Cook Political Report. Scott Wallace just won the Democrat nomination, and will run against Republican Brian Fitzpatrick, currently the Rep in the soon-to-be phased out 8th District. Here's the new judicially-ordered congressional map for Pennsylvania: