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BDS Tag

The false claim that Israel is an 'apartheid' state underpins the intellectual foundations of the BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) movement. The smear actually originated in anti-Zionist campaigns that were initiated by Communist states during the Cold War. Since the 2001 UN conference in Durban, which launched the BDS movement, the comparison of Israel with racist apartheid-era South Africa has also been a key leitmotif of anti-Israel activists.

One of the most important developments in the academic boycott of Israel took place a couple of weeks ago. A professor at the University of Michigan, John Cheney-Lippold, agreed to write a recommendation letter for a student, Abigail Engber, but later refused when he found out the letter would be used for the student to apply to a study abroad program in Israel.

The virulently anti-Jewish and anti-peace extremist organization Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) has partnered with the organization Researching the American-Israeli Alliance (RAIA) on several new projects for its undeniably antisemiticDeadly Exchange” campaign which, based solely on spurious accusations, singles out U.S. police department trainings in Israel for prohibition.

The Algemeiner "was founded in 1972 by famed journalist Gershon Jacobson as Der Algemeiner Journal and was originally published in Yiddish." It's now one of a core of "Jewish" publications, but unlike some leftist publications like The Forward, it's more moderate in its politics. We often link to Israel and BDS-related stories that run in The Algemeiner. In that regard, there's an overlap with our coverage of those issues.

A Washington D.C. chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) is spearheading a coalition of far-left groups who are calling on the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) to end its participation in police exchanges and counter-terrorism training visits to Israel. The effort follows on a decision this past April by the Durham, North Carolina City Council to impose a total ban on police exchanges “with only one country in the world: the Jewish state of Israel.”

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: