Tags: BDS

Texas: she didn’t sign the “Israel Oath,” so she got fired

A children’s speech pathologist refuses to sign a will-not-boycott-Israel oath: she loses her job, an unknown number of children lose her advocacy. She notes how outlandish it is that she is not required to uphold the interests of the United States, or Texas, or children, but a foreign country.
As The Intercept has repeatedly documented, the most frequent victims of official campus censorship are not conservative polemicists but pro-Palestinian activists, and the greatest and most severe threat posed to free speech throughout the west is aimed at Israel critics.

Marc Lamont Hill’s “anti-Semitism” is a distraction

Marc Lamont Hill, in Nazareth 2014. screenshot from Vimeo video. As is often the case with proponents of justice for Palestinians, Marc Lamont Hill was watched closely by Israel partisans as he spoke before the UN last week. They took a phrase – one phrase – from the speech and threw the rest aside, hoping…

BDS victory:  2 U.S. Police Departments Drop Out of  Training Program With Israel

As a result of public pressure, the Vermont State Police and the police department for Northampton Massachusetts have decided to pull out of the ADL-sponsored, all-expenses-paid “Resiliency and Counterterrorism” program in Israel. The seminar highlights methods Israel uses to “thwart terrorism within its framework of a democratic and multicultural nation.”

Let’s talk about the lawsuit against Airbnb

The lawsuit against Airbnb’s de-listing of Israeli settlement properties sounds pretty flimsy: religious discrimination (illegal settlements are by definition all-Jewish); failure to provide equal access (Palestinians are barred completely – and it’s their land); Airbnb is siding with Palestinians against the occupation (everything about the occupation and settlements is illegal, so, yeah).

Gideon Levy Tells It Like It Is: “In U.S. Media, Israel Is Untouchable”

Gideon Levy calls out US media’s cowardice. He highlights the double standard in which Palestinians can only be villainized, but Israel can only be defended, and the misuse of the term “anti-Semitism.” How is it that an Israeli newspaper can publish this, but in the US, CNN is required to fire Marc Lamont Hill?  

Action Alert: tell Booking.com to follow Airbnb in de-listing Israeli settlement properties

Booking.com needs to take a stand against occupation by de-listing properties located on stolen land in Israeli settlements The popular global tourism company Airbnb recently announced its decision to de-list properties in illegal Israeli settlements, a move which Human Rights Watch (HRW) praised as “a stand against discrimination, displacement, and land theft.” Now it’s time for Booking.com to…

The United Nations is anti-injustice, not anti-Semitic

A United Nations committee is directed to facilitate self-determination among colonized and suppressed people groups. The committee is poised to pass 9 resolutions against Israel. Predictably, the charge of anti-Semitism arises. 

It is not hard to dismantle the accusation – using context, fact-checking, and a bit of logic.

Election of 3 Israel critics to Congress is historic, but many new Dems are committed to Israel

The good news: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib are Israel-criticizing congressional newcomers. The bad news: other Dem midterm winners join the army of Israel supporters – having vowed to keep America’s commitment to Israel “as fixed and as permanent as the sky” and “make sure that we are supporting Israel into the next generation.” In addition, some key leadership positions will be filled by pro-Israel Jews. Norman Finkelstein sees this as a sign of “a growing divide between US Jews and Israeli Jews.”