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BDS Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 05, 2015 8 Comments
We are in the midst of "Israel Apartheid Week."  In the U.S. it lasts from February 26-March 12 -- which is more than one week, but anti-Israel groups always take liberties with terminology and numbers. On campuses we will see mock "Apartheid Walls" (referring to the Israeli security barrier); but we will not see any mock suicide bombers, whose relentless self-detonation killed 452 Israeli civilians in 2002 leading to construction of the barrier (a wall in some places, but mostly fencing). Student groups like Students for Justice in Palestine, will chant and scream slogans like "From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free."  I believe them when they say that. The BDS movement is about the destruction of Israel, even if some naive supporters think otherwise. Guess who is a big, big fan of Israel Apartheid Week? None other than the Supreme Leader of Iran, that beacon of freedom and justice for all, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, who tweeted this greeting: https://twitter.com/khamenei_ir/status/572834761250639873 He has good reason to gloat.

Posted by Julius Kairey on March 04, 2015 6 Comments
If Israel were an Arab country, it would receive near-universal praise as a paragon of justice. Its robust protections of freedom of speech, along with frequent and open elections, would make it the only Arab state in which people have a real say in the operation of their government. Israel would be celebrated as the only gay-friendly state in a region of rampant anti-gay persecution. Its strict prohibition of the traditional practice of honor killings — where women accused of disgracing the family name are murdered by their male relatives — would be lauded as proof of its progressive and egalitarian values. And its modern capitalist economy, driven by a dynamic high-tech sector, would be the model for other Arab nations seeking to lift their people from the depths of poverty. Of course, Israel isn’t an Arab nation, and it is treated according to this double-standard. It is the world’s only majority-Jewish state, and it is surrounded by Arab theocracies, dictatorships and monarchies, each of which have gone to war in a failed bid to end its existence. And yet, Israel’s remarkable history of repeated triumph in the face of seemingly insurmountable adversity receives little sympathy among some “left-wing” segments of communities across the nation. It is not immediately obvious why this is so. Israel’s history reads like a liberal success story.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 02, 2015 19 Comments
We previously reported extensively on the blockade of the San Mateo - Hayward Bridge on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day by a group of protesters. What started as a #BlackLivesMatters protest was hijacked by anti-Israel protesters who draped the Palestinian flag across both sides of the bridge at its highest span. http://abc7news.com/483891/ The action was extremely dangerous, trapping hundreds of motorists and causing multiple traffic accidents. One vehicle with a 3-year-old child in medical distress reportedly had to be rerouted. 68 protesters, most of them Stanford University students, were arrested.

Posted by Amy Miller on March 01, 2015 11 Comments
Today, I braved an ice storm to video protests at the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference in Washington, DC. The nasty weather didn't stop a group of around 60 anti-Israel activists from storming the steps of the Washington Convention Center and blocking at least one entrance to the conference grounds. Code Pink and other anti-Israeli groups went into a frenzy against AIPAC, the "Israel lobby," and what they believe is the "Apartheid" State of Israel. I also saw harassment of men, women, and children who had done nothing to deserve it except make the mistake of revealing their conference badge before they reached the door. Those who were obviously religious Jews (based on their head coverings, clothing, and facial hair) got it worse.  There were shouts of "Go Home" hurled at the attendees. There was also the Hezbollah flag flying overhead, as this video shows.  There were chants that "BDS is the best" (Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement), and "The State of Israel's Got to Go."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 27, 2015 4 Comments
On Thursday, I had the pleasure of giving a presentation to House staffers on the BDS movement, and the role Congress legitimately can play in addressing the new form of the century-old Arab boycott of Jews in the land of Israel. I spoke about pending legislation, as well as possible additional legislation. The moderator for my presentation was David Hazony of The Tower Magazine: Back at CPAC, I spent some time on "Radio Row," where many high profile radio talk shows have set up booths. I've been fortunate to interview with several of them, including Larry O'Connor of WMAL in D.C. ...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 24, 2015 8 Comments
By now, most of you have heard of Steven Salaita, whose unhinged (that's a charitable description) tweets apparently caused the University of Illinois Board of Trustees not to approve his contingent offer of tenured employment. Shortly after UI at Urbana-Champaign Chancellor Phyllis Wise indicated that she would not forward the contingent offer to the Board (though she later did so), I noted the irony of protests that Salaita's academic freedom was being infringed, Steven Salaita controversy points to the hypocrisy of anti-Israel academic boycotters:
I have argued strenuously against the academic boycott of Israel, led by people like Steven Salaita, on a number of grounds. Not the least of those grounds is that academics who insist on violating the academic freedom of Israelis and those who wish to interact with Israelis do damage to the system in its entirety.... There is a related point to how academic boycotts have a negative ripple effect. On what ground do the academic boycotters of Israel claim their own academic freedom if they are so quick to deny it to others?

Posted by Miriam Elman on February 22, 2015 6 Comments
One day before the terror attacks in Copenhagen, during a Friday, February 13 sermon, Hajj Saeed, the imam of the city’s Al-Faruq Mosque rejected inter-faith dialogue with Jews calling it a “malignant idea”. There can be no reconciliation with the Jews, said Saeed; it would be like trying to “reconcile Truth with Falsehood”. It’s easy to dismiss Saeed’s words as the rantings of a hater. In fact, that’s what people involved with interfaith organizations tend to do. Everyone pretends as if Muslim preachers the world over aren’t saying these things. The only problem is that they’re getting harder to ignore. These days it seems like a week doesn’t pass without hearing about some hostile imam or sheikh shouting “death to the Jews”, or some angry mob harassing Jews on the streets.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 22, 2015 3 Comments
On February 10, 2015, I wrote about legislation introduced in the House targeting the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, whose goal is the destruction of Israel through economic, cultural and academic boycotts. The legislation, called the United States-Israel Trade and Commercial Enhancement Act, focuses on the "economic" boycott of Israel, expanding upon prior legislation implemented several decades ago in response to the Arab League Boycott of Israel. The legislation reportedly was intended to force European countries and companies, where the BDS movement has some influence, into adopting anti-BDS policies and procedures as part of a proposed free trade agreement between the European Union and the U.S. The EU would be forced to choose between a massive free trade agreement which would bring enormous economic benefits to the floundering EU, or the anti-Israel BDS movement. You could have a boost to European economies and employment, or you could have BDS, but you couldn't have both. The sponsors of the legislation presumably expect Europe to choose prosperity over anti-Israel activism. In reviewing the legislation initially, however, it was unclear to me whether the provisions would have the intended effect:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 20, 2015 4 Comments
Anti-Israel divestment resolutions have had success in the U. California system this semester, including the bizarre and seriously mocked decision of the university-wide student council to divest not only from some companies doing business in Israel, but also from the U.S. government. None of these resolutions are binding, but they are an important part of the War on Israel on campuses, in which anti-Israel groups seek to hijack every possible forum and to make everything about hating Israel. One of the most controversial resolution sessions took place at the UC-Davis Student Senate, which passed a divestment resolution. [caption id="attachment_117054" align="alignnone" width="600"]https://twitter.com/SJPUCDavis/status/561048869316722688/photo/1 [UC-Davis SJP students celebrate student Senate Divestment Vote, Jan. 30, 2105][Image via Twitter][/caption]Supporters chanted "Allahu Akbar" at pro-Israel students, and swastikas were painted on a Jewish fraternity though no perpetrator has been identified so far (pro-divestment activists claim it is a hoax). A pro-divestment student leader posted on Facebook after the vote that "Hamas & Sharia law have taken over UC Davis. Brb crying over the resilience" though she claimed it was just satire.  All in all, it made for a poisonous campus atmosphere. The divestment resolution was challenged in the student-run Court of Associated Students as beyond the scope of the Student Senate jurisdiction. Here is the argument Wednesday night:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 19, 2015 13 Comments
Is this now a series? At my speech in Rochester I found Philly Guy. On Wednesday night, February 18, 2015, I appeared on a CAMERA panel in West Palm Beach about countering the anti-Israel movement on campus. I don't know the official count, but I'm guesstimating about 200 people in attendance. I found Legal Insurrection reader, commenter and Twitter fan @SGLawrence [Featured Image], who attended with her daughter. More than that, they gave me a wonderful gift of two illustrated books by Sam Fink, Exodus and The Constitution, accompanied by a wonderful note:
Every time I on on Legalinsurrection.com, I feel that all is not lost -- if there are still thinkers out there like you, applying their incredible talents in these times, I must remain an optimist. Ever since I discovered Sam Fink, I have made it my business to share his beautiful books on The Constitution and on the 5 Books of Exodus. There's just something about Fink that reminds me of you -- a real love of America and Israel, I guess.
[#Blushing] Sam Fink Exodus The Constitution

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 12, 2015 16 Comments
The student government at a university in South Africa recently voted to expel Jews:
The vice chancellor of Durban University of Technology (DUT) in South Africa on Wednesday rejected the student council’s call to expel Jewish students who do not support the Palestinian cause. University Vice Chancellor Professor Ahmed Bawa released a statement calling the demand “outrageous, preposterous and a deep violation of our National Constitution and every human rights principle.” He added, “No student at DUT will be discriminated against on the basis of religion, race, gender, political affiliation or sexual orientation.” Bawa also told South Africa’s Daily News that the request was “totally unacceptable.” The demand to expel all Jewish students, especially those who do not support the Palestinian agenda, was made by the university’s Students Representative Council and Progressive Youth Alliance.
This is the logical progression in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. It's fitting that the vote took place in Durban, the scene of the anti-Semitic 2001 Durban Conference that created the BDS movement. While expulsion of Jews will not happen here, the BDS movement is moving towards a de facto bar on Jews who are not anti-Israel by alleging that taking subsidized trips to Israel or attending conferences and training through major pro-Israel Jewish organizations constitutes a conflict of interest. That standard would exclude a high percentage of pro-Israel Jewish students from participating in student government (not to mention excluding many leading non-Jewish pro-Israel students).

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 11, 2015 4 Comments
When the University of California system-wide student government passed a resolution not only divesting from Israel, but also the United States, it was met with widespread mockery and ridicule. The Stanford University Undergraduate Student Senate avoided that fate by failing to pass an Anti-Israel Resolution heavily promoted, including by dozens of Stanford pro-BDS professors to influence the outcome. As now seems to be a common tactic, the #BlackLivesMatters leadership was recruited to help with the effort. There was a Petition and some very good dissections of the Resolution by opposition students. One analysis indicated it wasn't even clear that Stanford invested in the companies from which divestment was sought, The Hidden Agenda Behind SOOP’s False Divestment Claims. The vote was close -- the boycotters needed a 2/3 majority, but fell just short. But a fail is a fail, and this at least gives pro-Israel, pro-peace students some time to regroup and reconsider how to fight this scourge. Multiple student Senate members who voted for divestment claimed in speeches that they did it for love of Israel, as if it was their job to know better what is good for Israelis than Israelis. When the vote was announced, there was a chorus of cheers, followed by someone (not sure if faculty, administrator or student) asking people to just get along, followed by shouts from an angry member of the crowd:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 10, 2015 7 Comments
Congressman Peter Roskam (R-IL) and Congressman Juan Vargas (D-CA) have just introduced sweeping revisions to anti-boycott legislation long on the books, in order to counter the global and domestic anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Prior legislation countering the Arab League Boycott arguably did not apply to the BDS movement because BDS is not a country-sponsored boycott. I believe that BDS was structured that way to evade such legislation, and Congress appears to be both tightening the language, and expanding its scope. The Times of Israel reports that the bill is linked to pending U.S.-European Union trade negotiations:
The bill, which has been worked on for over six months, does not authorize any sort of federal response to domestic BDS initiatives, but rather would use free trade negotiations to discourage foreign and international institutions from supporting initiatives to boycott, divest from, or sanction Israel. The bill’s sponsors have their eyes on the ongoing negotiations to create a free trade agreement between the US and EU – an agreement that proponents say will be the largest free trade deal in history....

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 08, 2015 20 Comments
We have covered anti-Israel student government divestment votes the past couple of years. Groups, typically led by Students for Justice in Palestine assisted by Jewish Voice for Peace, try to get student governments to vote to divest from specified companies doing business in Israel, such as Caterpillar and HP. Sometimes they succeed, mostly they fail. In the end, it's purely symbolic, since student governments have no such power. Symbolism matters, though, because the campus movement is part of a larger goal of demonizing and dehumanizing Jewish Israelis.  Even when they lose a vote, the BDS crowd claims victory because they forced people to talk about their issue. Last academic year there were a series of divestment initiatives that failed, but recently in the U. California system, several have passed. The anti-Israel groups are very strategic, taking the time to elect their supporters to student councils, and that long-term strategy has paid off in places like UCLA, which rejected divestment last spring, only to see it pass this fall after a change of board membership. One thing that slowly is coming to light, however, is that the anti-Israel movement is not the grassroots, student-led movement it purports to be. In fact, it has a highly coordinated, well-funded action plan assisted and coordinated by outside groups. A column in the UCLA Bruin newspaper details what is happening, Co-author of UCSA resolution needs to disclose affiliations:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 03, 2015 3 Comments
On Tuesday night, February 3, 2015, there will be a fundraiser organized by Chicago-area branches of Students for Justice in Palestine, honoring and supporting Rasmea Odeh. Full details are in our prior post, Upcoming fundraiser for convicted terrorist Rasmea Odeh at DePaul Univ. The fundraiser is being held at the student center at DePaul University, the scene of some not-so-pleasant anti-Israel protests in the past. Rasmea was convicted of the SuperSol supermarket bombing in Jerusalem in 1969 that killed two Israeli students, Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner. [caption id="attachment_106161" align="alignnone" width="490"]http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d93_1412329044 (Newspaper headline “The War Came to the Supermarket”)(via Live Leak)[/caption] Rasmea then lied about her conviction and imprisonment when she immigrated to the United States and became a naturalized citizen.  Rasmea was convicted of immigration fraud in November by a federal jury in Detroit, and is awaiting sentencing. The evidence supporting Rasmea's Israeli and Detroit convictions was overwhelming, as I documented in Rasmea Odeh rightly convicted of Israeli supermarket bombing and U.S. immigration fraud. Nonetheless, Rasmea has become a hero to the anti-Israel activist community, particularly in Chicago where she lived since immigrating.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 02, 2015 9 Comments
This is a theme we have explored exhaustively here, in connection with the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement and anti-Semitic rallies and violence in Europe. There is a theoretical difference between being anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic. But that theoretical distinction has been completely lost on the street and campus thugs in Europe and elsewhere, who use anti-Zionism as cover for hate of Jews. That they are urged on by some left-wing Jews doesn't change the reality on the street or campus. That's why anti-Zionists attack Jews for appearing Jewish (what I call Walking While Jewish). The Prime Minister of France called it what it was:
“There is a new anti-Semitism in France,” he told me. “We have the old anti-Semitism, and I’m obviously not downplaying it, that comes from the extreme right, but this new anti-Semitism comes from the difficult neighborhoods, from immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa, who have turned anger about Gaza into something very dangerous. Israel and Palestine are just a pretext. There is something far more profound taking place now.” In discussing the attacks on French synagogues and Jewish-owned businesses this summer, during the Gaza war, he said, “It is legitimate to criticize the politics of Israel. This criticism exists in Israel itself. But this is not what we are talking about in France. This is radical criticism of the very existence of Israel, which is anti-Semitic. There is an incontestable link between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. Behind anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism.”
And now a German Judge has also, via Times of Israel, German judge rules: Anti-Zionism is code for anti-Semitism:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 01, 2015 4 Comments
Rasmea Odeh is the Palestinian woman convicted of the 1969 Supersol supermarket bombing in Jerusalem which killed two Israeli students, Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner.  Rasmea also was convicted of the attempted bombing of the British Consulate. [caption id="attachment_106215" align="alignnone" width="600"]http://www.investigativeproject.org/4634/part-3-spinning-a-terrorist-into-a-victim-rasmieh (Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner)[/caption] Rasmea lied about her past on her immigration and naturalization papers, and was recently convicted by a federal jury in Detroit.  The brother and niece of Joffe attended the trial. The evidence against Odeh was overwhelming on both the murder and immigration charges, as I documented in my post, Rasmea Odeh rightly convicted of Israeli supermarket bombing and U.S. immigration fraud:
If this were just another immigration fraud story, it would be unremarkable. Regardless of whether Rasmea’s Israeli conviction and prison time were deserved or just, they happened and needed to be disclosed in response to clear questions on immigration forms. Case closed. But there is another story here, in which Rasmea, her attorneys and supporters seek to exonerate Rasmea in court and in the court of public opinion by trying to relitigate Rasmea’s 1970 conviction, and the history of the Middle East conflict going back to the creation of the State of Israel.
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