City of…

There has been a really exciting recent burst of conversation in a variety of media outlets about the call for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions to be applied against Israel’s policies of occupation and apartheid against the Palestinian people, so I wanted to share some of that with you all.

First came Israeli professor Neve Gordon, who wrote a soul-searching–and somewhat pained–op-ed in the Los Angeles Times explaining why he, as an Israeli, has come to believe that boycotts are the only way to end Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land. Here are a couple parts that really stuck with me:

It is indeed not a simple matter for me as an Israeli citizen to call on foreign governments, regional authorities, international social movements, faith-based organizations, unions and citizens to suspend cooperation with Israel. But today, as I watch my two boys playing in the yard, I am convinced that it is the only way that Israel can be saved from itself.

The question that keeps me up at night, both as a parent and as a citizen, is how to ensure that my two children as well as the children of my Palestinian neighbors do not grow up in an apartheid regime.

It’s an intense article, but also very well written and sensitive. Check out the whole thing here.

Gordon’s article led to a flurry of responses, both attacking him and supporting him. His university’s president has been particularly vitriolic in attacking him, indicating that he should perhaps not only leave the university but the country as well.

Compared to the hysteria of the reactions against Gordon, however, those speaking out in his defense have been bold, articulate, and clear. Take Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, who published the following withering critique of those calling for Gordon’s head in the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz:

The timing of the mini-maelstrom over an opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times by Neve Gordon, who teaches politics and government at Be’er Sheva’s Ben-Gurion University, calling for a boycott of Israel, was somewhat grotesque. Hardly have the throats dried of those calling for his dismissal, for his citizenship to be revoked, for his expulsion and, if all else fails, his stoning, when another petition has surfaced on the Internet, this one calling for a boycott of Ikea. A bad article on the back page of a Swedish tabloid is enough to produce a call here for a consumer boycott to which thousands sign their names. Turkey has barely recovered from the boycott that our package tourers imposed on it because its prime minister had the gall to attack our president, and already we are cruising toward our next boycott target. It’s our right.

Other Israeli voices, such as Anat Matar, went even further in their defense of Gordon. And check out long-time editor of The Christian Century (and United Methodist, might I add) Jim Wall, who, in response to Gordon’s op-ed called for churches to stop talking and start acting on his blog Wallwritings:

This is not the time for U.S. denominations to keep debating inadequate, diluted, compromised resolutions on “peace in the Holy Land”. It is rather, kairos time, the moment to move against Israel’s apartheid dominance over four million Palestinians by embracing the non-violent strategy of BDS, Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. Christian denominations have spent far too many years trapped in dreary hotel conference rooms working to “get along” with one another by approving meaningless resolutions that fooled few and excited none. Resolution time has far outlived its expiration date. It is time to join a growing number of justice-oriented communities and take direct action against Israel’s oppressive actions against an oppressed people.

Amen! Read the whole thing here.

Most recently, Cecilie Surasky of Jewish Voice for Peace has published a great interview with Naomi Klein and the Israeli publisher of the Hebrew translation of her excellent book The Shock Doctrine. Here’s the publisher, Yael Lerer, on why he as an Israeli supports boycott and divestment:

Twenty years ago I could never have imagined this semi-apartheid situation. I care about the future in this place. I care about my fellow Israelis. I have a huge family here and many, many friends. I know many people who don’t have any other passports, and who don’t have any other options. I think that the solution for this place, the only possible future, is living together. Unfortunately, at this stage, I don’t see how this future can be achieved without international pressure. And I think that boycott is a nonviolent tool that has already shown us that it can work. So I’m asking: please boycott me.

And here’s Klein on why BDS matters in the United States:

I also believe this movement could be a game-changer in the United States. Let’s remember that a huge part of the success of the anti-apartheid struggle in the eighties was due to popular education….The Palestinian BDS call could play that kind of movement-building role today, giving people something concrete they can organize around in their schools and communities…. Whether he recognizes it or not, Obama needs the Palestinian struggle to be a popular, grassroots issue like the South African struggle was….[The] only hope of not just having him hold to this tentative position but actually improving this position is if there’s a popular movement that is very clear in its demands for Israel abide by international law on all fronts, and that’s exactly what BDS is.

Check out the whole thing here.

All of this conversation is happening in the context of a growing movement, one that recently won the support of a major British union and convinced the British bank BlackRock to withdraw financial support from Israeli settlements. Check out more BDS related news here.

It’s probably obvious to you that I find this stuff pretty exciting. I AM excited by this outpouring of support for the movement, from so many directions, and I think that you should be excited too! Click here to find out how you can get involved in the growing, global BDS movement!

Alright, that was long. Here’s your reward: an awesome video from Detroit-based Israeli-American hip hop artist Invincible, also related to BDS: