Majed Abusalama writes that Palestinians are tired of demanding their obvious human rights, but there is now an opportunity to compel the international community to humanize Palestine and to treat Palestinians with full rights — the BDS movement.
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement hit back at UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plans to ban public authorities from participating in the international movement boycotting Israeli goods, and likened the move to Margaret Thatcher’s decision to ban local British councils from boycotts and divestment against apartheid South Africa.
Although a new bill in the Massachusetts State House didn’t mention the BDS movement, its sponsors left no doubts about its intentions. “This is a proud moment where the legislature can stand together in support of Israel” said State Representatives Steve Howitt after introducing it, “This bill clarifies to businesses that either support BDS or who boycott Israeli-owned businesses and products that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will not engage in commerce with them. I look forward to its quick passage.”
If you think Zionism is out of step with 21st century norms, then Trump’s declaration of war on anti-Zionism and BDS is the battle you have been waiting for.
On December 11, President Trump signed an executive order that effectively weaponizes antisemitism as a cudgel to beat back BDS activities on college campuses. The order threatens to withhold federal funding from universities if the government determines that they’ve failed to prohibit discrimination. Trump’s move was barely announced before a member of congress attempted to use the new playbook. Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-VA) has sent a letter to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos asking for Georgetown University to be investigated over its alleged anti-Israel bias.
Freedom Is the Future is a joint project recently launched by US Campaign for Palestinian Rights and Adalah Justice Project to establish Palestine’s place in the broader progressive movement by promoting a rights-based framework. “This came about in part because there was a recognition that there was an absence of a framework and reference points within progressive organizing here in the United States that was Palestinian-authored and Palestinian-centered,” Yousef Munayyer explains.
President Trump is on the verge of signing an executive order aimed at cracking down on the campus Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. The order recognizes Judaism as a nationality and uses a civil rights loophole that will allow the government to withhold funding from schools that failed to effectively crack down on discrimination, which in this case might mean criticism of Israel. “This is a baldfaced attempt to silence the movement for Palestinian rights on college campuses – something that has been at the top of the Trump administration’s agenda,” said Palestine Legal director Dima Khalidi says.
The US Campaign for Palestinian Rights is the target of a $90 million lawsuit that accuses the group of engaging in environmental terrorism. “The lawsuit is a ludicrous abuse of U.S. courts to silence calls for Palestinian freedom,” says the Center for Constitutional Rights Deputy Legal Director Maria LaHood.
Research by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in the U.K. reveals that British universities invest over £456 million in companies complicit in Israeli violations of international law. The research was published as hundreds of students across the country take action as part of ‘Apartheid Off Campus’ day of action, with banner drops and protests at campuses across the UK.
“I am convinced that the loss of legitimacy of the Zionist idea, of the idea of a special state for a special people, is irreversible, that that cannot be resurrected in the 21st century, a time when we at least preach if not practice universal rights and equality,” the writer Ali Abunimah said in a landmark speech ten years ago, and his remarks have proved to be prophetic in describing the anti-Zionist movement inside progressive life.