[Peace-discuss] Letter to editor re BDS

[David Green]

>
> This letter, published in today's N-G and also submitted to the Daily
>> Illini, raises issues regarding BDS from a pro-Palestinian perspective; 250
>> words was not enough to elaborate a full critique, but I do support a
>> focused BDS, or at least BD (because S has not really been relevant), given
>> a context of activism and resistance to occupation that is worthy of the
>> Palestinian cause; and that allows those Jews, "leftist" or otherwise, to
>> productively express their dissatisfaction with Israel and with the Israel
>> Lobby, especially in relation to elected officials and even university
>> administrators, as craven as the latter tend to be.
>
>
DG

Israel’s half-century illegal occupation of Palestine—the West Bank and
Gaza—continues apace, with the systematic brutalization of children among
its daily crimes. Israel’s policies have largely lost the support of
Jewish-American youth. Local Jewish institutions—Sinai Temple, Hillel,
Jewish Federation, and UI Jewish Studies—make no effort to justify Israel’s
chronically sadistic and bellicose behavior; mention of Israel has been
nearly cleansed from their websites.

It’s clear that Israel’s depredations can continue only with U.S.
governmental support, and that non-violent resistance on the ground in
Palestine is central to liberation. Nevertheless, the Boycott Divestment
Sanctions (BDS) movement loses sight of these central realities, and
expends enormous energy on symbolic and ultimately futile gestures.
Moreover, by not clearly supporting a two-state solution—which has
unanimous international support legally and politically—BDS advocates are
exposed to valid if cynical accusations of anti-semitism.

The recent generalized divestment referendum roundly rejected by UI
students—which did not even mention Palestine—exemplifies this futility.

In this context, ten hypocritical Jewish faculty members, led by the odious
Cary Nelson—none of whom has ever uttered a public criticism of Israel’s
relentlessly murderous behavior—oppose divestment in a March 8th letter to
the *Daily Illini*. They claim to support “nuance and context, providing
students the opportunity to learn in detail.”

Coming from these individuals, this is intellectual debauchery.
Nevertheless, I recommend the voluminous details contained in Norman
Finkelstein’s *Gaza: An Inquest into its Martyrdom*, accurately described
as “an act of resistance against the forgetfulness of history.”
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