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BDS Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 20, 2016 7 Comments
It was one of the most notorious statements of the academic boycott movement against Israel. Shortly after the American Studies Association adopted the academic boycott of Israel in December 2013, and a firestorm of condemnation by University Presidents and associations erupted, then ASA President Curtis Marez justified singling out Israel because "one has to start somewhere":
The American Studies Association has never before called for an academic boycott of any nation’s universities, said Curtis Marez, the group’s president and an associate professor of ethnic studies at the University of California, San Diego. He did not dispute that many nations, including many of Israel’s neighbors, are generally judged to have human rights records that are worse than Israel’s, or comparable, but he said, “one has to start somewhere.”
In that single phrase, "one has to start somewhere," was the hypocrisy and essential anti-Semitism of the BDS academic boycott movement laid bare.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 01, 2016 6 Comments
The core problem in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute is not "the occupation" of Judea and Samaria (the "West Bank") or the lawful Israeli military blockade of Gaza to keep out Iranian armaments. The problem, to which the Western world is just waking up, is the pervasive top-down and bottom-up incitement against Jews and Israel in Palestinian society in which even the youngest children are taught to hate Jews and to kill Jews by whatever means possible, including stabbing, shooting and ramming with cars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnLIzNGb9gI We have highlighted this problem for years, including these recent posts:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 30, 2016 11 Comments
Recently we posted videos documenting the incitement to violence against Jews in Palestinian Arab media, political spheres, social media, and schools, focused on "children": That incitement particularly focuses on urging children to carry out knife attacks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnLIzNGb9gI

Posted by Dexter Van Zile on June 28, 2016 23 Comments
Last week, the Presbyterian Church USA, a liberal Protestant denomination with approximately 1.5 million members, held its General Assembly in Portland, Oregon. The assembly, which takes place every even-numbered year, is a regular scene of controversy over the church's stance on the Arab-Israeli conflict. The fighting began in 2004 when the GA voted to divest from companies that did business with Israel's defense establishment. In 2006, opponents of divestment were able to convince the GA to reverse its decision to single Israel out for divestment, but the anti-Zionists kept at it until 2014, when the GA voted to divest from three companies that do business with the Israeli government: Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard and Motorola. This year, there was yet another round of proposals targeting Israel for condemnation.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 27, 2016 2 Comments
Just over a week ago I reported how Rhode Island legislature passes anti-BDS law, becoming the 10th state to pass legislation exercising the state's right not to subsidize the discriminatory Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS). The forms of such legislation in various states focus on pension investments by and/or contracting with state agencies. None of these recent laws, or NY Governor Cuomo's Executive Order, criminalize or prohibit such boycotts, though some states have longstanding anti-discrimination laws barring boycotts based on national origin, race and other factors. In May, the New Jersey Senate passed a bill barring pension investments in companies engaging in BDS, and as it moved on to the state Assembly, BDS forces mounted a counter attack, but to no avail. An overwhelming bipartisan majority in the Assembly passed the law:
The New Jersey Legislature passed legislation that prohibits the state from investing  pension and annuity funds in companies that boycott Israel or Israeli businesses.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 25, 2016 3 Comments
The anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is very adaptive. As its tactics fail, BDS adjusts. The latest adjustment is moving its focus to graduate student unions, where the student population is a subset of the entire student population. In such unions (similar to some faculty associations), BDS supporters take over governing councils and turn the union into a BDS-controlled anti-Israel propaganda activist organization. We saw this in the U. Cal. system, and again at NYU. In each of those instances, the grad student union was an affiliate of the United Auto Workers. In the U. Cal. case, the UAW overruled the BDS resolution as contrary to the UAW's governing rules. It just happened again at NYU.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 18, 2016 2 Comments
The Rhode Island legislature has joined numerous other states in passing legislation prohibiting the state and its subdivisions from contracting with entities involved in discriminatory boycotts, which would cover the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Signature by the Governor is expected. The recognition that boycotts based on religion and national origin are discriminatory is a prime focus of such legislation. There is no doubt that Israel is singled out because it is majority Jewish and that Israelis are singled out because of national origin. Such boycott anti-discrimination laws have been on the books for decades in New York and California. The New York law caused the GreenStar Food Coop in Ithaca to reject a BDS resolution, and the California law forced the BDS-compliant American Studies Association to abandon its annual meeting policy of excluding representatives or officials of Israeli universities. The key component of the legislation passed by the RI House of Representatives provides:

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on June 16, 2016 2 Comments
What should be first of its kind, a leading German bank has shut down an account connected to the anti-Israel boycott campaign -- also know by the acronym of BDS. Commerzbank, Germany’s second largest bank, closed the account of anti-Israel and pro-BDS website “Der Semit”. The action is expected to have implications for other banks providing services to groups affiliated to the BDS campaign throughout Germany. Israeli Minister for Public Security Gilad Erdan welcomed the decision taken by Commerzbank and urged other European banks to take similar steps against anti-Israel and anti-Semitic groups raising funds and carrying out transactions in Europe.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 15, 2016 5 Comments
On June 10, 2016, I reported on how Someone wants to suppress this video of vile BDS shoutdown of Professor. The video in question showed Irish anti-Israel activist Joseph Loughnane verbally abusing and threatening Professor Alan Johnson, who runs the Fathom Journal and was giving a lecture against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. His speech was titled, Solidarity not Boycotts: the progressive case against boycotting Israel:
Thank you for inviting me to Galway University. I am the editor of Fathom journal, and Senior Research Fellow at BICOM. I speak as a friend of Israel, a friend of Palestine and friend of peace. I am not Jewish. I am a democratic socialist, an editor of Dissent magazine and a former editor of Historical Materialism. I am a Professor of Politics – my inaugural lecture was on the thought of the Auschwitz survivor, Primo Levi.

Posted by Miriam Elman on June 09, 2016 6 Comments
This past Sunday Omar Barghouti blasted Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Executive Order No. 157 which directs NY state agencies to counter-boycott those companies that engage in discriminatory pro-BDS business activities. Barghouti (52) is one of the biggest names in BDS. He’s writes prolifically in support of the BDS agenda, goes on frequent speaking tours where he delivers vehemently anti-Israel propaganda to captive audiences on American college campuses and at mainline church events, and is featured prominently on BDS materials and in outlets that are sympathetic to the cause. In the mainstream media, he’s the go-to spokesperson of the movement and has been featured in a number of editorials in prominent newspapers (see here and here).

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 09, 2016 7 Comments
Just three days ago, on June 6, the American Anthropological Association announced that the membership narrowly defeated an anti-Israel academic boycott resolution. The resolution was opposed by many Israel anthropologists, including Dr. Michael Feige of Ben-Burion University of the Negev: Michael Feige Ben Gurion Page The boycott, if passed, would have directly affected not only universities like Ben-Gurion, but those who work there like Dr. Feige. Feige was one of hundreds to sign a statement against the boycott, which read in part:

Posted by Dexter Van Zile on June 08, 2016 2 Comments
For the past decade, anti-Israel activists in the United States and Europe have called on pension funds, universities and churches to sell their stock in companies that do business with Israel, particularly its defense establishment. They have also called for people and governments to boycott Israel, its products and services. It’s part of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign that seeks to isolate Israel from the international economy and force the Jewish state to make concessions to the Palestinians. BDS proponents say they want to promote human rights and peace between Israel and the Palestinians, but it’s hard to ignore that their criticism is nearly always directed at Israel while groups like Hamas and Hezbollah are given a pass. The effect is not to promote peace, but to portray Israel’s efforts to defend itself as immoral and indefensible.

Posted by Occam's Razor on June 07, 2016 4 Comments
The American Anthropology Association (AAA) has announced that the resolution to boycott Israeli university put before the membership was narrowly defeated. For our earlier coverage of the years-long effort of anti-Israel radical faculty to demonize and boycott Israel, see here, here, and here. [embed]https://twitter.com/AaaAdip/status/740022609321005056[/embed]

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 06, 2016 4 Comments
Leftist media and BDS supporters have railed against New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's executive order that will not allow state agencies to engage with businesses that participate in the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS) against Israel. They have thrown around typical scare words like "blacklist" and "McCarthyism" while praising a "grassroots" movement meant to economically deprive America's lone ally and stable nation in the Middle East. But as Eugene Kontorovich, law professor at Northwestern points out, the blacklist label does not apply because the government uses these lists against Iran and Sudan: https://twitter.com/EVKontorovich/status/739896419595784193 https://twitter.com/EVKontorovich/status/739897109420343296

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on June 05, 2016 10 Comments
Despite heavy campaigning against this move by the misnamed Jewish Voice for Peace, New York joins the growing number of states to divest public funds supporting the BDS movement against Israel. In an executive order, Governor Cuomo takes a "first-in-the-nation action [to] ensure that no state agency or authority engages in or promotes any investment activity that would further the harmful and discriminatory Palestinian-backed Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign in New York State." From the Governor's office:
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today issued Executive Order No. 157 directing state entities to divest all public funds supporting the Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel. The first-in-the-nation action will ensure that no state agency or authority engages in or promotes any investment activity that would further the harmful and discriminatory Palestinian-backed Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign in New York State. The Governor made the announcement at the Celebrate Israel Parade.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 01, 2016 9 Comments
Bernie Sanders made some waves recently by putting two well-known anti-Israel polemicists on the Democratic Party platform committee, Cornel West and James Zogby. It looks like a platform fight over Israel is in the offing, A Split Over Israel Threatens the Democrats’ Hopes for Unity:
A bitter divide over the Middle East could threaten Democratic Party unity as representatives of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont vowed to upend what they see as the party’s lopsided support of Israel. Two of the senator’s appointees to the party’s platform drafting committee, Cornel West and James Zogby, on Wednesday denounced Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and said they believed that rank-and-file Democrats no longer hewed to the party’s staunch support of the Israeli government. They said they would try to get their views incorporated into the platform, the party’s statement of core beliefs, at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia in July....

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 01, 2016 1 Comment
Faculty associations have been a focus of anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activity. Unlike at universities, where there are counter-balancing constituencies, such associations can be hijacked by relatively small percentages of the membership, who take over committees and national councils. This allows the agenda to turn away fein the academic purposes of the organization, and instead, to turn the organizations into anti-Israel activist platforms. We have seen that play out at the American Studies Association and some smaller associations. The American Anthropological Association just finished membership voting on a BDS resolution, but the results have not been announced. The faculty association warfare on Israel is getting very personal:
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