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BDS Tag

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:

The Student Council at Germany's prestigious Heidelberg University has passed a resolution rejecting the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Movement for being antisemitic. Last Tuesday, the student body voted in favor of severing ties with groups engaged in anti-Israel boycott campaign, barring them for getting university funding and venues for staging events.

Starting in June, the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), an anti-Israel organization based in Washington, DC, is planning to launch a “three-year plan” to support “municipal-level campaigns across the country” which aim at ending U.S. support for Israel. In rolling out this new plan to advance “exciting work” at the “street-level,” USCPR is hoping to capitalize on the recent success of its member groups in the city of Durham, NC.

You know, every day I am glad I converted politically and am no longer a leftist feminist shill, mainly because I cannot believe how intolerant and insensitive they've become. The latest controversy comes from a leftist feminist professor, who also supports the BDS movement against Israel, because a man had the nerve to joke about wanting to go to the women's lingerie department.

Last week Durham, North Carolina became the first American city to align a municipal public policy with the agenda of the anti-Israel fringe organization Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), which falsely blames Israel and American Jewish groups for instances of police violence against blacks in the U.S. and domestic police militarization. In a statement endorsed unanimously, the City Council prohibited international police exchanges "in which Durham police officers receive military-style training." The statement, after an intense lobbying campaign by anti-Israel activists and over the objection of police groups, mentioned only Israel by name in the opening paragraph of the document.

In the saturated arena of anti-Israel political activism in the U.S., the once little-known Washington D.C.-based organization IfNotNow (INN) is catapulting its way to the forefront of the pack. In one of its boldest moves, IfNotNow is planning to train camp counselors to "teach" campers at Jewish summer camps about the Israeli "occupation." Given IfNotNow's politics, described below, the teaching without a doubt will be anti-Israel. Parents who are sending their children to Jewish summer camps, motivated in part by establishing their children's connection to Israel, will be undermined without knowing it and probably without the camp administration's knowledge.

I've never seen the Israeli series "Fauda," but it certainly has received a lot of buzz. The series, in Arabic and Hebrew, details Israeli undercover units operating in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) against terror suspects. From the few clips I've seen, it's something along the action level of "24" though not on a 24-hour timeline.