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BDS Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 28, 2014 17 Comments
Casey Breznick is the Editor in Chief of The Cornell Review, the conservative Cornell undergraduate journal and its blog, The Cornell Insider. Casey also writes for Legal Insurrection and previously College Insurrection. Casey has done a lot of great reporting for the Review on political events, such as the Martha Robertson campaign, "Rape Culture" protests, and also on the anti-Israel Students for Justice in Palestine protest at Ho Plaza on Cornell's campus on November 19, 2014. That Ho Plaza incident also has been reported at Legal Insurrection, based in part on Casey's work for the Review blog: On Tuesday night, November 25, Casey covered for the Review the Ithaca community vigil regarding the Michael Brown case. The vigil quickly turned into a street protest in which roads were blocked in downtown Ithaca and cars were trapped, leading to police intervention. In the Cornell Insider post about the protest, Casey recounts how two of the non-students involved in the SJP Cornell protest spotted him and tried to get him to stop filming.  One of them, kat yang-stevens, pushed her sign into Casey. Here is Casey's video: (language warning)

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 28, 2014 14 Comments
We are dealing with some really sick minds when it comes to the proponents of the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) movement propaganda machine. The latest is from a group with over 91,000 Facebook fans, called "I Acknowledge Apartheid Exists." That phrase is an integral part of the BDS movement, which falsely seeks to portray Israel as the equivalent of apartheid South Africa. That claim of Apartheid status was the founding propaganda principle of the BDS movement, which was started at the anti-Semitic 2001 Durban conference. The group has posted a photoshop of Nazi concentration camp inmates holding anti-Israel signs, on its Facebook page. It's unclear if the group created it, or is just promoting it. https://www.facebook.com/IAcknowledgeApartheidExists/photos/a.116419295219428.1073741828.116415985219759/321047701423252/?type=1 The image is being spread by others as well, such as the Central NY Committee for Justice in Palestine: [Note 11-28-2014 10:15 p.m. - sometime tonight CNYCJP removed the image after complaints were posted in its comments in response to Legal Insurrection's coverage, and after the image was CNYCJP's Facebook page for about two days the cache version of the post is here]

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 26, 2014 7 Comments
We previously posted video of anti-Israel protesters getting in the face (literally) of pro-Israel students at Cornell who were holding counter-protest signs, Cornell Pro-Israel students taunted: “F**k You Zionist scums”. The incident depicted in the prior video actually was the second incident of the day, I have learned. Prior to that confrontation, Ilan Kaplan, a Cornell student on leave but who is still active in the Cornell Jewish community, alleges he was accosted as he held a sign, had his sign torn out of his hands, had water thrown on him, and was threatened. Here is my interview with Kaplan: Language Warning

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 23, 2014 4 Comments
Our post and video, Cornell Pro-Israel students taunted: “F**k You Zionist scums” has started to gather attention, with articles in The Blaze, The College Fix, and elsewhere. The video has over 10,000 views as of this writing: Language Warning Please share the video, people need to see the reality of what pro-Israel students have to deal with on campuses. The open hate in the eyes and mouths of these anti-Israel activists reminds me of points I made back in June, during my interview with Larry Elder about the Boycott Divest and Sanctions movement. I had forgotten about it until it saw this Tweet this morning:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 21, 2014 24 Comments
We have long tracked the increasing aggressiveness of anti-Israel groups on campus. See my post this summer, Expecting anti-Israel violence on campuses this fall, for a partial catalog of such instances. One component of these protests is non-student activists inflaming the situation. For example, on April 10, 2014, after the Cornell student assembly tabled an anti-Israel divestment resolution, a non-student Ithaca activist (kat yang-stevens) confronted me and falsely accused me of putting my camera in her face. In fact, the video clearly shows (language warning) she made it up in order to create an incident. On November 19, 2014, Cornell Students for Justice in Palestine organized a mock Israeli checkpoint at Ho Plaza, a central student gathering point on campus between the Cornell Bookstore and Willard Straight Hall, where many student activities are centered. [caption id="attachment_106917" align="alignnone" width="600"]Cornell SJP - Mock Checkpoint Ho Plaza 11-19-2014 (Image via Casey Breznick)[/caption] Casey Breznick, Editor in Chief of the Cornell Review and an author at Legal Insurrection, has the story at the Cornell Review Blog of a confrontation that took place when a group of pro-Israel students counter-protested holding Israeli flags and signs calling for peace. Here is video we put together based on footage provided to us by multiple student sources, showing yang-stevens pulling the same ploy she pulled on me last April, claiming that the student had his camera in her face (which he denies both in the video and also in communications with me), as yang-stevens taunted the pro-Israel student to hit her. As another person shouted out "Fuck you Zionist scums": (Language Warning) In addition to his Review report, Casey told me:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 20, 2014 7 Comments
Rasmieh (Rasmea) Odeh was found guilty earlier this month in federal court in Detroit of unlawfully obtaining citizenship by lying on her 1994 visa and 2004 naturalization applications. In those documents, Rasmea falsely answered "No" to questions, among others, as to whether she "ever" had been convicted of a crime or been imprisoned. In fact, Rasmea was convicted in Israeli in 1970 of participation in the bombing of the Jerusalem SuperSol supermarket in which two Hebrew University students were killed, an attempted bombing of the British consulate, and other security offenses. Rasmea was sentenced to life in prison, but was released in 1979 in a prisoner exchange. Needless to say, the jury only took two hours to convict Rasmea on the immigration fraud charge. For a lengthy account of the evidence demonstrating Rasmea's guilt both in Israel and Detroit, see our post yesterday, Rasmea Odeh rightly convicted of Israeli supermarket bombing and U.S. immigration fraud. After the conviction in Detroit, Rasmea's bond was revoked by the Judge, and she was taken into custody pending sentencing in March 2015. Rasmea moved for reconsideration, and the prosecution responded late yesterday afternoon. The prosecution's response (embedded in full at the bottom of this post) revealed information never before public about the underlying Israeli conviction and Rasmea's conduct since then. This information, while not relevant to or admissible in Rasmea's trial, was relevant and could be considered by the court in connection with post-conviction bond proceedings. Here is an excerpt, but by all means, read the whole thing.
The government thus offers the following discussion simply to demonstrate that Defendant has been serially untruthful for decades, and thus cannot demonstrate eligibility for release on bond. See 18 U.S.C. § 3142(g)(3) (in considering whether to grant bond, the court shall consider “the history and characteristics of the person.”).

Posted by CampusClimatologist on November 14, 2014 4 Comments
Last year, UCLA’s Jewish community and its allies mustered campus support to defeat a BDS resolution and to retain an anti-BDS plurality in student government. I have chronicled the maneuvering of the anti-Israel groups at UCLA since then: But this summer and fall, a series of resignations, defections, and a special election cost the party allied with the Jewish community its student government plurality. Next Tuesday, in a meeting closed to the press and alumni, BDS is likely to pass in the face of muted opposition. As SJP and their allies fought on, the pro-Israel community, as we feared and warned, were unable to keep up.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 14, 2014 7 Comments
David Sheen is a name you probably haven't heard before, at least not the David Sheen who is a leading anti-Israel propagandist. Sheen, along with Max Blumenthal, travels the globe presenting a gross negative caricature of Israel worthy of 1930's cartoons. Sheen and Blumenthal were to present their anti-Israel campaign in the German Bundestag (parliament) until a left-wing German lawmaker, Gregor Gysi, objected (allegedly) on the grounds that the two were anti-Semitic. That objection reportedly almost got Sheen and Blumenthal disinvited, although they did end up giving their presentation. Sheen and Blumenthal then chased the lawmaker down the hallway. Both men got in Gysi's face, and Sheen tried to push his way into a bathroom as the lawmaker tried to shut the door. Sheen, writing at the anti-Israel, anti-Zionist Mondoweiss website, explained how it developed:
At the end of our presentations, Max called upon those assembled to join us and confront Gregor Gysi, and this call was applauded by many in the audience. A group of us then walked to his office, prepared to talk to him politely and explain the consequences of his cavalier political ploy. However, he refused to come out of his office and meet with us, even for a minute. When he finally emerged, he strode right past us at a brisk pace, and – well, you probably saw the rest – I followed him and demanded that he acknowledge responsibility for the repercussions that I would have to face as a result of his actions.
Sheen shot this video: Someone else filmed from a different angle, starting with an initial confrontation (which appears to be outside Gysi's office):

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 07, 2014 1 Comment
The American Studies Association annual meeting, which started yesterday, had a panel of faculty opposed to the ASA's anti-Israel academic boycott. That panel came against the backdrop of ASA being forced to abandon its previous written policy of excluding representatives of Israeli academic institutions under threat of legal action against the hosting hotel. Apparently, the anti-BDS panel's mere existence was upsetting to some boycott supporters, including Micki McGee of Fordham, who was in the spotlight when she filed a university religious discrimination complaint against a fellow professor who objected to the boycott. Fordham rejected the charge. Inside Higher Ed reports:
It was just the first day of the American Studies Association’s annual meeting here Thursday, but tensions surrounding the organization’s year-old academic boycott of Israel were already flaring. The flashpoint was an anti-boycott panel that sought to explore such questions as the role of political ideology in academic debate, whether the Israel-Palestine conflict is within the purview of the ASA, and whether academic boycotts are a legitimate means to political ends. But while some attendees said they appreciated the panelists' thoughts, others accused them of perpetuating a “for” or “against” line of thinking they said has done irreparable damage to the discipline.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 02, 2014 33 Comments
Some people. The first image is an  Anti-Scott Walker protester who, along with a friend, locked her head to State Capitol railing in June 2011 in a budget protest, via JSOnline.  The police broke the lock and released her.  At the time we noted there was a simpler solution:
Turn out the lights, lock the doors, and go home. And leave them there.
Wisconsin State Capitol head lock The second image is from the anti-Israel "Block the Boat" protest in Tampa this weekend, via Twitter account Global Revolution TV.  Presumably, she too was unlocked by police: Tampa Block the Boat Head Locked Here's the view from another angle, via Twitter user RadicalMedia_:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 02, 2014 8 Comments
We have covered the academic boycott of Israel extensively, focusing on the American Studies Association. Recently, in connection with the ASA annual meeting this week in Los Angeles, we reported on ASA's discriminatory policy to bar attendance by representatives of Israeli Universities or any Israeli academic holding a representative title such as Dean or Rector. After a letter alerting the hotel hosting the ASA annual meeting, The Westin Bonaventure, to the hotel's legal obligations and potential liability, the ASA changed its position. The legal challenge was that hotels are bound by laws barring anti-discrimination in public accommodation, and therefore have a legal duty not to knowingly permit discrimination on the premises. In reaction, ASA denied that it ever had the discriminatory policy which ASA in fact published multiple times and had on its website. ASA even announced that it welcomed Bibi Netanyahu to the conference. In another development, as reported by Eugene Kontorovich at Volkokh Conspiracy at The Washington Post, The Times of Israel, and JNS, among others, the Rector [Dean] of the University of Haifa is taking up the challenge, and sending an official representative to the ASA conference. As part of my occasional and continuing efforts to access new audiences, I have a column about the ASA conference at the O.C. Register, Unfairly singling out Israelis. In the column, I examine how the public and the hotel would have reacted if the discrimination were directed at any national origin group other than Israelis. OC Register Unfairly Singling Out Israelis Here is an excerpt:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 25, 2014 14 Comments
We made the Students for Justice in Palestine Zionist enemies list. I really can't imagine why. Maybe it's because we exposed in great, fully-documented detail, what SJP on campus actually represents. How SJP at Northeastern University engaged in "dorm storming" and marched to the chant of "Long Live Intifada" (the bloody suicide bombing campaign directed at Israeli civilians). And the dorm storming at New York University, in violation of university rules.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 21, 2014 1 Comment

Ever since I started covering the anti-Israel academic boycott of the American Studies Association in December 2013, I have interacted with some of its members who are reasonable people concerned about the direction the ASA has taken.  But those voices have been drowned out by a shrill and vocal minority.

A little publicized fact is that less than one quarter of the membership voted in favor of the boycott (and depending on which membership numbers you use, perhaps as few as 16%), but it was enough to change the course of the organization due to low overall participation.

Once known as a somewhat obscure but well-regarded organization, ASA now is a pariah (as the NY Times described it) because of the boycott. ASA has become the poster child for how a relatively small group of anti-Israel radicals can take over key committees of a relatively small organization and leverage that power for a political agenda.

In this case, the agenda is the Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement, conceived of and scripted at the anti-Semitic 2001 Durban conference.  Part of the Durban script was to have Palestinian civil groups issue a call for a boycott.  That took place, and now groups like ASA cite the civil call for a boycott as their justification, ignoring its roots and preplanning.

At a time when the Humanities and Social Sciences are suffering and Ph.D. graduate students in fields like American Studies have few job prospects, the leadership and activists at ASA devote their energies to demonizing and delegitimizing Israel.

During this year's annual meeting, an entire day will be devoted to an offsite program run by ASA's Activism Caucus (yes, there really is such a thing) to teach faculty from around the country how to boycott Israeli universities, faculty, and scholars. ASA in a real sense has become a political activist organization.

The boycott, as applied to ASA's annual meeting, was discriminatory, and the hotel was put on notice that the hotel had potential liability.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 18, 2014 10 Comments
We have covered the American Studies Association academic boycott of Israel since inception, and compiled the definitive list and accompanying statements of universities and associations rejecting the boycott.  Scroll through the ASA Tag for the full history. The short version is that the boycott targeted all Israeli academic institutions, and importantly, faculty and scholars acting on behalf of the institutions either as representatives, ambassadors or by virtue of administrative status. From the earliest days of the ASA boycott, ASA tried to make a distinction between individuals and institutions, as if boycotting an institution was not also boycotting the people who worked there. That was a critical charade, because the boycotting of individuals was too odious even for many people supporting the academic boycott.  So ASA could have a boycott of individuals while pretending it was not boycotting individuals. That ASA distinction was set forth in a December 4, 2013 statement of the ASA National Council supporting the boycott and advocating for membership approval:
Our resolution understands boycott as limited to a refusal on the part of the Association in its official capacities to enter into formal collaborations with Israeli academic institutions, or with scholars who are expressly serving as representatives or ambassadors of those institutions, or on behalf of the Israeli government ....
That is a distinction ASA made throughout its public statements and position papers -- if you were a representative of an Israeli institution, or if you had an administrative title, you were boycotted. For example, a form letter ASA distributed to members to be given to university administrators made the same distinction:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 14, 2014 11 Comments
We have covered extensively the anti-Israel academic boycott passed by the American Studies Association, including yesterday when Doron Ben-Atar, a Fordham University History Professor, revealed that he had been subjected to "religious discrimination" charges by the pro-boycott head of Fordham's American Studies Department, Micki McKnee, after he called the boycott anti-Semitic. Ben-Atar was cleared of that charge but faces administrative threats for vowing to "fight" the ASA boycott. The ASA is having its annual meeting in Los Angeles in early November at the Westin Bonaventure. The ASA has stated that it will apply its boycott rules to exclude from the conference Israeli academic institutions and any individual Israeli academics who are there on behalf of their institutions or who hold administrative capacity (e.g. Dean). Only individual Israelis who pass the test of not being there in a representative capacity will be allowed to attend. These rules are unique to Israelis, and constitute national origin discrimination and potentially religious discrimination in violation of California's expansive anti-discrimination and public accommodation laws. That puts the Westin Bonaventure at legal risk, because those discriminatory rules are being applied at a conference on its premises. The American Center for Law and Justice, headed by Jay Sekulow, has sent a letter to the Westin Bonaventure, its owner and operating management, alerting them to the Westin Bonaventure's legal risk and obligations. The letter is posted on the ACLJ website and press release, and reads in part:
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