Activists from Adalah-NY sing songs promoting BDS at Occupy Wall Street on November 13, 2011 (Photo: Alex Kane)
“New York is different,” Riham Barghouti, a well-known member of Adalah-NY: The New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel, told me last weekend at the end of a boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) information action at Zucotti Park, where Occupy Wall Street (OWS) has taken root. She was referring to the fact that asserting Palestinian rights at Occupy Wall Street, or using the Occupy movement’s language when talking about Palestine, has engendered some controversy in New York City, as opposed to in Boston or California.
Indeed, two days after dozens of Palestine solidarity activists gathered at the OWS encampment in lower Manhattan to promote the BDS campaign, the Anti-Defamation League (whose main office is in New York City) went on the attack, and accused the “anti-Israel left” of “exploit[ing] the enthusiasm of the [OWS] movement and channel[ing] it for their cause.” The BDS action, as well as other Palestine-related actions at Occupy encampments, were criticized by the ADL.
Barghouti said that in NYC particularly, there is a constant process of Israel advocacy groups going on the attack, and a notion among some on the left that Palestine is a “divisive” issue. Barghouti has a point; while the Israel lobby has national reach, New York is a center of power for the lobby (as it is for finance; the line between Wall Street and the lobby is blurry). In addition, Palestine has long been a contentious issue in left politics, especially in the anti-war movement, but the issue has recently begun to make headway within movement.
The ADL criticism was a familiar one to activists involved in both Palestine solidarity and OWS work. Marc Tracy at Tablet leveled the charge that overt Palestine solidarity at OWS would “drown out” the movement’s “compelling economic message.”
The criticisms, though, rest on a distortion of the intentions of Palestine solidarity activists and a misunderstanding of the type of politics behind Occupy Wall Street. Activists involved in Palestine-related work have been involved in Occupy Wall Street actions since the beginning of the movement, and the movement’s message has not been “drowned out.” Palestine solidarity activists do indeed see the OWS movement as fertile ground for organizing, but so does the anti-police brutality movement, the environmental movement and a host of other social justice groups. With such a fluid, broad-based, left-wing movement, Palestine will come up.
For example, Jewish activists involved with both Palestine solidarity and the Occupy movements brought the movements together when they disrupted and “occupied” a Birthright Israel event promoting Wall Street last week. In a post on Mondoweiss, the activists explained that:
This movement’s power lies in its broad appeal to anyone oppressed by the economic status quo. OWS is about much more than banks, and the economy doesn’t stop at U.S. borders. We honor the OWS message by casting light on and holding our community accountable to a substantial economic problem: the occupation of Palestine yields huge profits for American corporations and has absorbed over 33 billion dollars in U.S. taxpayer dollars
In a similar vein was the Palestinian BDS National Committee statement that read:
Our aspirations overlap; our struggles converge. Our oppressors, whether greedy corporations or military occupations, are united in profiting from wars, pillage, environmental destruction, repression and impoverishment
Palestine solidarity activists organizing at OWS does not equal an attempt to make the movement about Palestine. And the big reason why OWS has found such broad appeal, as the “Occupy the Occupiers” statement points out, is that the tactics of the Occupy movement are so diffuse and decentralized, which makes room for a variety of groups who resonate with the message of the “1% in the U.S. has captured the government.”
BDS activists say they won’t be bowed by these criticisms, and are looking to continue organizing for BDS and Palestine at Occupy encampments.
Barghouti was optimistic about the potential for further Palestine solidarity activism at OWS.
“Around the world, Palestine is a part of this movement.” Looks like the ADL has their work cut out for them.
The Palestinian BDS National Committee has it exactly right. It makes me think of why I spend so much time on this site – what other issue encompasses all the antagonisms and inherent inequalities in the western system ( the world system at this point)? It’s all here, along with most of what is great and terribly, terribly wrong with US, as humans.
New York is a center of power for the lobby (as it is for finance; the line between Wall Street and the lobby is blurry)
LOL, I am sure it has NOTHING to do with the 2 million + Jews in NYC. Excellent journalism here Alex!
The BDS movement is a gross and opportunistic distraction from the work of “occupy wall street” and its many spin offs.
The 99% movement is NOT a coalition of various factional perspectives, but a uniquely unifying class and society oriented movement.
It is not limited in the slightest to banking issues, but includes the common cause of working people.
BDS is a dividing issue for OWS because it is a zero-sum one. Israelis and Palestinians are included in the 99%. It is unnecessarily divisive, no matter how much of an opportunity you consider it, with activists gathered.
Oh dear! So some Tablet editor thinks Palestinian solidarity will “drown out” OWS’s “compelling economic message”? Thanks for the concern, troll.
Is it callous to point out that if every Tablet subscriber who has participated in OWS opted to stay home and play Angry Birds instead, there would be no discernible difference whatsoever in downtown Manhattan? Who do these people think they’re kidding?
America’s expensive, destructive and thoroughly counterproductive Middle East policy is painfully related to our current crisis, and America’s lavish strategic support for Israel and the Egyptian military absolutely needs to be discussed at Zuccotti Park and at Occupy sites everywhere. No amount of whiny special pleading by the Israel Lobby’s liberal-ish fringe will change that. And if you think my sentiment is not “inclusive” enough, how “inclusive” is it for the US to subsidize ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and Jerusalem?
Thanks to all the BDS activists out there making the connection between US foreign policy and the domestic economic crisis. You people are heroes.
excellent report alex