Bienstock '20: Understanding BDS Beyond the Headlines, by Faris Barhoum

Brown University Jewish Voice for Peace, student group emblem. 

                                                         






November 20, 2019




By Faris K. Barhoum




    Brown University student and Brown Jewish Voice for Peace and Brown Students for Justice in Palestine member Ben Bienstock, just wrote an op-ed piece for The Brown Daily Herald, where he outlined why the Palestinian led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement was started and singles out the state of Israel. As stated by Bienstock, "Opponents of the movement have gained media and political prominence. Pundits have gone at length about the movement's supposed extremism, its 'one-sidedness' and especially its alleged antisemitism. Politicians have fumed about the movement, propelling dozens of states to pass legislation that attempts to outlaw BDS. Congress even briefly considered an ill-advised and certainly unconstitutional bill to criminalize supporters of the movement" (Bienstock, 1). As a result the BDS movement has become very controversial in the last couple of years and the State of Israel has gone to great lengths to criminalizing those that support the movement, and Israel has labeled BDS co-founder Omar Barghouti as a "terrorist." As of 2017, Israel has raised over $72 million in an effort to combat the movement at home and abroad.

Brown Students for Justice In Palestine, student group emblem. 

 
    Bienstock believes that the negative discussion on BDS has overshadowed why it was started and what it aims to do in the long run. The main goal of the BDS movement is to hold Israel accountable for their crimes against the Palestinian people and supporters of BDS want a state that allows for Palestinians to live side-by-side with Israelis. Bienstock contends: "Yet, amid this clamor, many people pay remarkably little attention to what the BDS movement actually is; in the process, they ignore the voices of the Palestinians who called for the movement and the experiences that led them to do so" (Ibid, 1).
     The BDS movement has broad support from around the globe and Bienstock points out that we should pay attention to this call. Bienstock states, "Globally, BDS has won the support of labor unions, religious organizations, student governments and academic associations. Before the movement, discussions of the 'Israeli-Palestinian conflict' erased Palestinian voices and misrepresented Palestinian resistance as merely one side in some kind of old-age intractable sectarian strife. BDS has begun shifting the focus of these conversations to simple questions of human rights and is generating grassroots pressure to win freedom and, justice and equality" (Ibid, 2).
   The BDS movement has clearly started a real conversation and it is worth listening to because debate and controversy are good, we need to hear differing opinions. It will be interesting to see where this movement goes in the coming years. Till then we just have to stay tuned.


Article,

Bienstock, Ben. The Brown Daily Herald, "Bienstock '20: Understanding BDS Beyond The      Headlines."
      http://www.browndailyherald.com/2019/11/17/bienstock-20-understanding-bds-beyond-
      headlines/. 11/20/19.

Tensions Mont Over Another BDS Panel At UMass, by Faris K. Barhoum

UMass Communications Professor Sut Jhally.

                                                     



November 13, 2019





By Faris K. Barhoum






      This past Tuesday [November 12], the University of Massachusetts held an event titled, "Criminalizing Dissent: The Attack on BDS & American Democracy." The panel event was organized by UMass Professor Sut Jhally. Professor Jhally, who teaches communications organized the event for Tuesday night at UMass. The event was moderated by Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour, and the panel featured Harvard Professor Cornel West, journalist and activist Shaun King, anti-racism advocated and author Tim Wise; Palestine Legal director Dima Khalidi; and remotely from Skype, BDS co-founder Omar Barghouti.
  The event highlighted the "accelerating efforts by U.S. political leaders, pro-Israel lobbying groups, and college and university administrators to silence, smear, and criminalize" those who support the BDS movement (Christensen, 1). Those who are against BDS have called the movement "anti-Zionist and anti Semitic." It is vitally important to point out that the movement is not anti-Semitic, the movement is not against Jews or Judaism; but to be anti-Zionist has nothing to do with being an anti-Semite (Ibid, 1). Zionism calls for an ethno-religious state for Jews and Jews only. The BDS movement is vehemently opposed to this because it leaves no room for the Palestinian people, who are the indigenous population of Palestine. The BDS movement would like to see a state that allows for Palestinians to live in a secular state alongside Israeli Jews with full equality and human rights for all.
   Hillel at UMass, held a counter event. The Hillel students organized a "peace walk," in opposition to the panel organized by Professor Jhally. The UMass administration got involved as well. As stated by Dusty Christensen of The Daily Hampshire Gazette: "Ahead of the panel, Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy released a statement distancing the university from the event, criticizing it as 'polarizing' and stating that UMass is 'firmly opposed to BDS'" (Ibid, 2). In response to Chancellor Subbaswamy's statement, Jewish Voice for Peace sent an open letter stating that Subbaswamy's rhetoric "contributes to racist and Islamophobic harassment and intimidation that Palestinian students and community members routinely face for speaking out in favor of BDS" (Ibid, 2).

UMass Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy. 

   According to Christensen, Professor Jhally and other faculty at UMass wrote an open letter criticizing Chancellor Subbaswamy's statement as falling "far short of the robust defense of academic freedom...that we expect of our chancellor." The open letter has been signed by over 130 faculty members according to Professor Jhally. In addition, "the university chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine [at UMass], also has written a letter condemning the chancellor's remarks, as have academics and activists outside the university--including dissident and linguist Noam Chomsky and University of California professor and activist Angela Davis" (Ibid, 1). It is quite clear that there is real resistance to hearing a debate that is not supportive of Israel and highlights the plight of the Palestinian people. We should be able to hear a differing viewpoint on the subject of Israel/Palestine.


Article,

Christensen, Dusty. "Tensions Mont Over Another BDS Panel At UMass."
    https://www.gazettenet.com/Supporters-critics-speak-out-ahead-of-BDS-event-at-UMass-Amherst-
    30273539. 11/13/19.

Israel Court Rejects Human Rights Watch Activist's Deportation Appeal, by Faris K. Barhoum

Omar Shakir of Human Rights Watch.

November 6, 2019


By Faris K. Barhoum




   This past Tuesday [November 5] the Israeli Supreme Court upheld a ruling that a Human Rights Watch employee must leave the Jewish State. Omar Shakir, a senior member of Human Rights Watch is to be deported from Israel on the grounds of supporting the Boycott Divestment Sanctions Movement or BDS. The BDS movement was started by Palestinians in 2005 to hold Israel accountable for their continued occupation of the Palestinian people and to pressure states, entities, and nations from conducting military and economic business with Israel.
   Mr. Shakir will be deported and his work permit will be revoked by the Jewish State because the interior minister of Israel stated: "He [Shakir] had supported a boycott of Israel. Israel formally revoked his work permit in the spring of 2018 for his support of the BDS movement, but for the last year Mr. Shakir challenged the state of Israel at the Supreme Court level (BBC.com, 1). Mr. Shakir is a trained lawyer.
   According to the BBC, "It [Israel], based the decision on a dossier covering his activities over the previous 10 years, almost all of them predating his Human Rights Watch role" (Ibid, 1). Mr. Shakir and Human Rights Watch have explicitly stated that neither support a boycott of Israel. Human Rights Watch for its part never supported the BDS Movement back in its inception in 2005, and they currently do not support the boycott. In the case of Mr. Shakir, he never actively pursued nor supported the boycott while in his role at Human Rights Watch. Mr. Shakir merely did his job as an employee of Human Rights Watch, which was holding Israel accountable for its human rights abuses against the Palestinians.

Article,

BBC.com, "Israel Court Rejects Human Rights Watch Activist's Deportation Appeal,"
    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-50300959. 11/6/19.