Is the Boycott Movement Anti-Semitic?

[Mosby]

-snip-

Ever since Lawrence Summers asserted that the divestment movement proposals were “anti-Semitic in their effect, if not in their intent,” we have had a model to use in examining the prejudicial implications of BDS in a more thoughtful way. That does not mean that every divestment proposal is anti-Semitic, but it does help us see why people who advocate the elimination of Israel as a Jewish state are promoting a goal that has anti-Semitic effects.

Arguments that Jews have no ancient connection to the land, that Israelites and Hebrews never existed — positions that some academic BDS advocates promote — also have an anti-Semitic component. The demand that the citizens of Israel give up their right to political self-determination and the unsupportable assertion that the Israeli government is an exceptionally egregious human rights violator are also consciously or unconsciously underwritten by the long-term history of anti-Semitism and the history of efforts to isolate and “other” the Jewish people.

I realize that people will dispute these conclusions, but they nonetheless offer examples of a more serious basis for debating the issue I am urging all of us to address. Doing so also requires that we confront the policies vigorously promoted by virtually all of the BDS movement’s major spokespeople, whether or not the movement officially endorses them. These include advocacy by Omar Barghouti and others of a one-state “solution” encompassing Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank in which Jews would become a minority. That demand is typically accompanied by the call for the Palestinian diaspora’s “right of return” to this new state, a plan that would further marginalize the Jewish population. Both positions are put forward in Barghouti’s Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions, Judith Butler’s Parting Ways, and other books.

The confidence with which some BDS advocates assure us Jews could live peacefully and safely and have full religious freedom in an Arab-dominated state is so contradicted by regional history, culture, and politics that one has to consider the possibility that they really do not care about the fate of Israeli Jews. Naivety alone does not seem to account for so thorough a denial of reality. The real perils Jews could face in an Arab-dominated state undercut the rather pious claims about the movement’s dedication to nonviolence that are part of its founding principles. Once again, highly likely violent effects call into question the status of nonviolent intent. Equally worrisome are those BDS supporters who ally themselves with Hamas, despite the organization’s ferociously anti-Semitic and genocidal charter. One might well wonder why those in the West who would ordinarily oppose a group that vilifies gays — and has an appalling view of women — would overlook these facts because of Hamas’s stance toward Israeli Jews.

https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2014/09/02/essay-considers-how-issue-anti-semitism-plays-out-boycott-movement

[bemildred]

1. It is definitely anti-Zionist. nt

[grossproffit]

2. Of course, it is. eom

[King_David]

3. .

http://www.democraticunderground.com/113479820

[Scootaloo]

4. It was anti-white in the 80's

At least, according to racist white people. And now, it's anti-jewish, according to racist Jews.

it's a little strange to have those who think violence, racism, oppression, and brutality are inherently, indelibly "Jewish" attempt to assert that other people are anti-semites, isn't it?

[King_David]

5. Why are there so so many examples

of calls to boycott Jewish stores?

"Racist Jews "doing that huh ?



Why are the extreme right wing antiSemitic hate --championing the BDS cause ?

"Racist Jews" ?

[Scootaloo]

7. because some people are dicks, Dave.

I don't assume that such dicks speak for BDS any more than I assume that persons like you or Mosby speak for Jews or gay people.

And yes, it is racist Jews - or similarly racist knuckleheads, I suppose, seen plenty of it from WASP types now that i think on it - insisting that BDS is antisemitic. Just as it was racist whites insisting it was antisemitic to advocate it against South Africa. even down to the same argument. "What will happen to the Good Race when the Animal Race takes over?!?!?!"

[King_David]

8. There's more examples of these antiSemitic

BDS than ones who aren't .

[Scootaloo]

10. I seriously doubt that, Dave

For one, the assertion relies entirely on confirmation bias.

So real quick. I used to be indifferent to the movement - remember, I was of the opinion of "if people want to, that's their thing, whatever." I've since come to the opinion that, knowing the US will never broker fairly, that Israel will never seek peace so long as it is "winning," and that the Palestinians themselves are unable to get any traction, Boycotts, divestment, and sanctions against the state of Israel and its businesses are a completely legitimate method to exert pressure.

Now, point-blank, are you going to assert that I hate Jews? I know you like to insinuate it via underhanded comments, but I want a straight yes or no answer, Dave.

[King_David]

11. I don't take well to people ordering me around

and telling me what to do or say or which posts to answer or which questions to answer .

[Scootaloo]

12. Unsurprising response.

[4now]

6. If you disagree with Israels right to murder over 500 innocent children

then you must be anti-semitic.

Thanks for posting about BDS. I am seeing a lot more posts about BDS all the time.

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanction movement is getting bigger everyday.
End Israeli apartheid.
Boycott, Divest, Sanction.
http://www.bdsmovement.net/


Israeli soldier posts Instagram image of Palestinian child in crosshairs of rifle

[King_David]

9. See this one ?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/113479820

Btw is that pic you keep posting of some jerks Instagram a pair of handcuffs ?
I first thought it was a popular pic used everywhere and then I realized it's always in your posts . You sure like it a lot.

[4now]

13. I didn't realize that you were so interested in my posts and pictures.

Here is another good picture.


Thanks for bumping my BDS posts too.

End Israeli apartheid.
Boycott, Divest, Sanction.
http://www.bdsmovement.net/

[King_David]

15. Why you thanking me ?

Are you a prominent BDSr?
Are you on the BDS board?
How do you feel so close to BDS?

Are you involved like someone who's actually got a horse in the race or more in the mould of Greta Berlin and other American armchair activists?

[4now]

16. Because you like to bump my posts so often

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanction movement is getting bigger everyday.
End Israeli apartheid.
Boycott, Divest, Sanction.
http://www.bdsmovement.net/

[King_David]

17. Yes I read about it ,You on their board?

Involved ?

Or just a significant boycotter?


OECD: Israel fourth in foreign direct investment

http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/OECD-Israel-fourth-in-foreign-direct-investment-371637

[4now]

18. What is the BDS movement?

For decades, Israel has denied Palestinians their fundamental rights of freedom, equality, and self-determination through ethnic cleansing, colonization, racial discrimination, and military occupation. Despite abundant condemnation of Israeli policies by the UN, other international bodies, and preeminent human rights organisations, the world community has failed to hold Israel accountable and enforce compliance with basic principles of law. Israel’s crimes have continued with impunity.

In view of this continued failure, Palestinian civil society called for a global citizens’ response. On July 9 2005, a year after the International Court of Justice’s historic advisory opinion on the illegality of Israel’s Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), a clear majority of Palestinian civil society called upon their counterparts and people of conscience all over the world to launch broad boycotts, implement divestment initiatives, and to demand sanctions against Israel, until Palestinian rights are recognised in full compliance with international law.

The campaign for boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) is shaped by a rights-based approach and highlights the three broad sections of the Palestinian people: the refugees, those under military occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and Palestinians in Israel. The call urges various forms of boycott against Israel until it meets its obligations under international law by:

Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands occupied in June 1967 and dismantling the Wall;
Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194.

End Israeli apartheid.
Boycott, Divest, Sanction.
http://www.bdsmovement.net/

[King_David]

19. Your a board member ?

Part of the executive?


Israeli taxi app hails $25m investment from Swedish VC

http://www.haaretz.com/mobile/.premium-1.610428

[oberliner]

20. Question about the first map

What are little white dotted areas within the green area labelled Palestine?

And from 1948-1967 wasn't the West Bank occupied by Jordan?

[Jefferson23]

14. Instagram image suggests Palestinian child as IDF target

An image seeming to show a boy in cross hairs prompts outrage and disturbs the IDF's social media P.R. efforts
Natasha Lennard

In the recognizable soft-focus filter of an Instagram image, the back of what appears to be a young Palestinian boy’s head is framed in the cross hairs of a rifle. The photo, posted to the popular social media site by Israeli Defense Force sniper Mor Ostrovski, has caused outrage internationally since it was first flagged by Electronic Intifada’s Ali Abunimah. The Israeli army, according to Al Jazeera, is now investigating as it remains unclear where the photograph was taken.

Abunimah gives some background on the image from Ostrovski’s now-deleted Instagram account:

The context – particularly the character of the buildings seen in the background of the image – strongly suggests the child could be Palestinian.

There are no other images to suggest that the photographer actually fired at the person in the image in this case. The image is simply tasteless and dehumanizing. It embodies the idea that Palestinian children are targets.

As Salon noted during Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense attacks on Gaza last November, the IDF employed social media accounts to chilling effect. The army posted videos on YouTube of airstrikes taking out targets in Gaza, while threats to Hamas and warnings to Palestinian civilians were posted on Twitter. Meanwhile, as a number of commentators highlighted, IDF Instagram accounts featured appealing images of smiling, young, attractive IDF soldiers. Benjamin Doherty, also writing for Electronic Intifada, argued that such photographs use “male and female bodies to eroticize the military, to displace violence against Palestinians, to encourage Western publics to identify with Israeli soldiers.”

In an excellent analysis for the New Inquiry, Hew Lewey reflected that the IDF’s use of social media during the most recent Gaza assault was “perhaps an early test of social media’s ability to understand and mediate war within, or on the borders of, a Western society.” He noted of the Instagram effect:
advertisement

The use of commercially available Instagram filters replicates the visual culture favored by much of its audience, producing images that slip easily into their feeds, naturalising the content. “These are the photos you would take if you served in the IDF,” the aesthetic says, “we are just like you, and these military decisions are the ones you would take, if you were in our situation.” They also step beyond this, including an aspirational aspect of a desirable lifestyle — impossibly handsome young troops, having fun on their downtime.

http://www.salon.com/2013/02/19/instagram_image_suggests_palestinian_child_as_idf_target/