The vice-president of the International Network of Genocide Scholars has pulled out of the group’s conference at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, following appeals by Palestine solidarity campaigners. BDS South Africa, an organization supporting the Palestinian call for a boycott of Israel, has announced that University of Cape Town professor Mohamed Adhikari had informed it that he has withdrawn his presentation from the conference. The British genocide scholar Martin Shaw has also announced he is pulling out of the conference, which begins Sunday.
Rebecca VILKOMERSON: "I’m Jewish, and I want people to boycott Israel" (The Washington Post, June 24, 2016): click here!
Murtaza HUSSAIN: "Students in California Might Face Criminal Investigation for Protesting Film on Israeli Army" (The Intercept, June 23, 2016): click here!
Last month, a group of students at the University of California, Irvine gathered to protest a screening of the film Beneath the Helmet, a documentary about the lives of recruits in the Israeli Defense Forces. Upset about the screening of a film they viewed as propaganda for a foreign military, the students were also protesting the presence of several IDF representatives who were holding a panel discussion at the screening.
David PALUMBO-LIU: "Backing BDS: Another Pulitzer winner comes out for Palestinian rights " (Salon, June 22, 2016): click here!
Last week Viet Thanh Nguyen, a professional associate of mine, became the fourth winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction to endorse the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS), joining Alice Walker, Richard Ford, and Junot Diaz.
"PRESS STATEMENT: Prominent South African human rights centre withdraws from Israeli conference" (BDS South Africa, June 22, 2016): click here!
The human rights and Palestine solidarity organisation BDS South Africa welcomes the withdrawal by the Centre of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) from an upcoming conference in Israel. The prominent South African human rights organization, the CSVR, was scheduled to participate at the upcoming International Network of Genocide Scholars (INoGS) conference at Israel’s Hebrew University between the 26th and 29th of June 2016.
In the absence of persuasive arguments to counter boycott calls, much less any plan to change its policies, Israel has issued a tender for a counterdelegitimizer-in-chief.
"Viet Thanh Nguyen, 2016 Pulitzer Prize winner, endorses academic and cultural boycott of Israel" (Mondoweiss, June 17, 2016): click here!
Scholar and writer Viet Thanh Nguyen, 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner and associate professor of English and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California, has endorsed BDS and the cultural and academic boycott of Israel in support of Palestinian rights.
Omar BARGHOUTI: "BDS: Discussing Difficult Issues in a Fast-Growing Movement" (Al Shabaka, June 14, 2016): click here!
Israel’s attacks on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and other human rights defenders living under occupation, such as Al Haq staff, have dominated the headlines in recent weeks, including the direct threats made by leading Israeli officials against BDS activists and in particular against the movement’s co-founder Omar Barghouti.
Dov BENOVADIA: "Law Would Penalize Israeli Universities for Professor’s BDS Activity" (Hamodia, June 13, 2016): click here!
A new law would penalize universities and colleges for activities by staff that advance academic boycotts of Israel.
Although comparisons between Israel and South Africa stretch back to the early 1960s, the past decade has seen a growing recognition that Israel’s policies should be characterized as apartheid.
"Irish public figures’ statement in support of Israel boycott welcomed by human rights campaigners" (Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, June 14, 2016): click here!
In an open letter published in today’s Irish Times and Irish Independent, thirteen of Ireland’s best-known musicians, writers, artists and sports stars have called on the Irish government to join them in supporting the growing worldwide boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.
Jamil DAKWAR & Nimer SULTANY: "Only BDS Can Force Israel to Prove It's a Democracy for Its Arab Citizens Too" (Haaretz, June 14, 2016): click here!
When Michael Karayanni was appointed law school dean, Isaac Herzog hailed it as 'break[ing] another glass ceiling for Israel’s Arabs'. But one academic's success can't erase Israel's institutionalized racism directed at its Arab citizens.
There is much to discuss and some of the issues are difficult ones, including questions of framing. Al-Shabaka Executive Director Nadia Hijab discussed some of these issues in a wide-ranging conversation with Omar Barghouti.
Even those who don’t believe in the boycott, or think there are better ways to fight the occupation (such as?) cannot go along with this crushing move to criminalize it.
Steven SALAITA: "Israel Boycott Has Staying Power" (The Chronicle of Higher Education, June 8, 2016): click here!
It’s crucial to think about why academic boycott exists in the first place. It is not a silly diversion from the serious work of teaching, service, and research. It affirms the ideals of equal access underlying that work. The immediate goal of academic boycott is to offer fellowship to our colleagues in Palestine. Its ultimate goal is to help provide much-needed relief from the miserable conditions under which they often labor.