Ben White begins North American speaking tour in the face of opposition

British author Ben White begins his U.S./Canada speaking tour “Israel: Apartheid Not Democracy” this week in the United States. White will be visiting 13 different locations between November 11 – 25.

In a recent interview White told me that:

I hope that through this tour, students will be able to grasp aspects of Israel’s apartheid regime that are typically not reported or much discussed, and that in learning about the reality on the ground, will also be motivated to take action on campus in solidarity with Palestinians. “

Over a week before the tour began, opposition to his talk at Brooklyn College hit the NY Daily News.

Many times opponents to the Apartheid argument will point to how well Palestinians in Israel have it in comparison to other places in the Arab world as a point of deflection. To this point, White responds:

“This comparison is a transparent distraction – the comparison is not between a Palestinian in the Galilee and an Iraqi in Baghdad, but between the Palestinian citizen in Haifa and the Jewish Israeli who lives under the same regime but is granted privileges the Palestinian is not. From the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, the State of Israel affords and denies rights to Jews and Palestinians on a discriminatory basis, a result of the state’s settler-colonial past and present.”

Above is a short video interview with White about his upcoming tour. For event information, see White’s website.

 

 

 

 

 

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Ben’s talks are good fuel for BDS activists on campus. The problem is that there are no BDS activists on campus, any campus, not since April 2013 in California.

I am glad Ben is hoping that his talk will motivate students “to take action on campus in solidarity with Palestinians”; yes, of course I hope the same.

But Ben spoke in March 2013 at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor to a roomfull of the most dedicated Palestine solidarity students from several Michigan campuses, and at least one Canadian campus. Afterwards, they never pushed for even the weakest BDS resolution, anywhere. They were thrilled to just pose for pictures with Ben and call that “activism”.

It is now November 2013, and not a single visible campaign to boycott Israel exists on any campus in North America. Not in Michigan, either.

Even if Ben bluntly urges the students to march into their student governments and demand Boycott-Israel resolutions, they won’t. And they will list a dozen “strategic” reasons why now is “not the right time”. They will tell you that instead they are “organizing smart”. They will tell you they are “building bridges”.

Even if Ben offers to personally lead them into their own student governments and speak for their boycott resolutions, nobody will accompany him.

After 2001, where has there been a single group of students with the self-confidence to demand Boycott-Israel resolutions on any campus, in any sustained way? The tiny handfull of exceptions (California, Wayne State, DePaul, UMich-Dearborn) last for no longer than a snowflake on a hot day. Compare that to the last decade of feverish campus campaigns to boycott Coke, Adidas, and fossil fuels– to alleviate oppression that’s not one-tenth of the brutish strangulation visited on Gaza.

Speeches like Ben’s (even with his nice clear slideshow) simply will not move the students to demand boycott resolutions.

Israeli massacres of Gaza and Lebanon won’t move the students to demand boycott resolutions. These students are permanently paralyzed when it comes to demanding boycott against Israel. Privately, they grin for photos with their fellow BDS supporters — and this is the sum total of the “BDS movement” on campuses.

Too bad for Gaza, but there is a silver lining: happy party times for U.S. BDS supporters at their conferences, once a year. Good luck, Ben. Those students grinning for photos with you are never going to demand BDS in real life, on any campus.

Oh, I wasn’t aware that Ben White is a Brit. I assumed that he is an “Ami”. Anyway, I hope that he will come to Germany, too. Perhaps he can bring our politicians to reason.

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.557192#

“North American Jews are realists. We acknowledge problems and seek solutions to strengthen our Jewish communities, Israel and the world around us. ”

What if strengthening Jewish communities in the US means dumping Zionism?

4 speaking engagements in the Greater Toronto Area. SMH

Ben, You should have done 2 in Toronto, 1 in Montreal, and 1 in Ottawa (where I live, would like to have seen this)

To “LaDiDah”,

The core problem is that SJP’s are terrified of living through a “controversy” from September thru March, every year. So they stall until April (or never) before asking for any divestment resolution.

But “controversy” is the way you get heard! Who would even know about the Brooklyn College event without that “controversy” that advertised it?

Since the SJP’s have no experience facing “controversy” (that means screaming Zionists), they don’t know that it’s really possible to ignore the bastards. Just turn your back and keep demanding boycott.

It’s untrue that campus divesmtment campaigns are impossible before April. You don’t need September thru March to educate with tiny events that no one sees or hears. You need September thru March to loudly educate by demanding boycott, and then letting the Zionsts scream as loud as they like. That gets the slogan “Boycott Israel” into the campus paper.

But if there’s no audible noise on campus against Israel all year long, no real “alliance building” and “educating” can be happening, can it?

Tell me, can you imagine if the whole 1960’s had consisted of silent “alliance building” and invisible “educating” — would any Black person be allowed to vote in Mississippi, even today?