The Politics of the Palestinian BDS Movement

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The Politics of the Palestinian

BDS MovementSriram AnanthPublished online: 22 Nov 2013.

To cite this article:Sriram Ananth (2013) The Politics of the Palestinian BDS Movement,

Socialism and Democracy, 27:3, 129-143, DOI: 10.1080/08854300.2013.836317

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The Politics of the Palestinian BDS

Movement

Sriram Ananth

This article explores the Palestine-solidarity call and movementadvocating for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) of Israel.I examine the significance of the BDS call made in 2005 by Palestiniancivil society, along with the framework it utilizes for struggle, thenumerous solidarity-based BDS campaigns around the world, andfinally the possibilities it offers for understanding and implementingthe politics of solidarity.

On July 9, 2005, a coalition of Palestinian civil-society organizations,

activists, academics, intellectuals, and trade unions called for the BDS1 ofthe state of Israel. They called upon the international community in thespirit of international solidarity, moral consistency, and resistance toinjustice and oppression to implement this call until Israel meets itsobligation to recognize the Palestinian peoples inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international lawby: (1) Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dis-mantling the Wall; (2) Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israelto full equality;and(3) Respecting, protecting

and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homesand properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.2

The call for BDS was endorsed by over 170 Palestinian organiz-ations, collectively referred to as representatives of Palestinian civilsociety, within the Occupied Territories of West Bank and Gaza, thenational territory of Israel, and the Diaspora. The call was taken upby numerous Palestine-solidarity movements, primarily volunteer-driven and in the West. The heterogeneous and variegated

1. See http://www.pacbi.org/ and http://www.bdsmovement.net/ for moreinformation.

2. BDS National Committee (2005), Palestinian United Call for Boycott, Divestment andSanctions against Israel, 9 July 2005.http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/52.

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international BDS movement3 has become a significant component ofthe Palestinian struggle against Israeli oppression. The explosion of

BDS struggles across the world (especially after Israels assault onGaza in 20089, when the BDS National Committee (BNC) and thePalestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott ofIsrael saw a surge in BDS struggles the world over)4 has injectednew life into solidarity-based movements supporting the Palestinianliberation struggle.

Opponents of the BDS movement

Nothing illustrates the significance of the global BDS movementmore than the multitude of reactions from the Zionist establishment,including the Israeli state and its apparatus of support. These reactionshave spanned the spectrum in sentiment. They are, however, consist-ent in two ways: they stem from the traditional powers-that-be intodays imperialist world, and they display an obvious fear of the stra-tegic non-violence and moral high-ground that the BDS movementadheres to.5 I would like to analyze briefly some of these responses

as a way of showcasing the significance of the BDS movement.The Reut Institute, one of Israels leading think tanks, published anextensive study on the global BDS movement. It essentially stated thatthe Delegitimization Network (the BDS movement and larger Pales-tine-solidarity movement) and the Resistance Network (comprisingarmed militant groups) were the two biggest existential threats to Israelas a Zionist state.6 It betrayed its opposition to true democracy in the

3. My rationale for calling it a movement, despite it being dispersed and multi-sited, isprimarily because it has a loose, yet coherent, logic stemming from the BDS call. I

refer to the BDS Movement as the Palestinian leadership (i.e. the BNC), and theBDS struggles worldwide that have responded in solidarity to the call. See http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/54, http://www.endtheoccupation.org/article.php?list=type&type=203, and http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=870 formore information.

4. See BNC Statement (27 December, 2010), On the Second Anniversary of IsraelsBloodbath in Gaza: End International Complicity, Intensify BDS, http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/791, PACBI Newsletter #1 2009 BDS Highlights,http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=1146. The general sentiment among pro-gressives following that assault was expressed by Naomi Klein in a fiery op-edentitled Enough. Its time for a Boycott,The Guardian, 10 January 2009.

5. Bakan, Abigail and Abu-Laban, Yasmine (2010), Palestinian resistance and inter-national solidarity: the BDS campaign.Race and Class, July 2009, vol. 51 no. 1: 29 54.

6. The Reut Institute (2010),The Delegitimization Challenge: Creating a Political Firewall.http://reut-institute.org/en/Publication.aspx?PublicationId=3769.

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http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/54http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/54http://www.endtheoccupation.org/article.php?list=type&type=203http://www.endtheoccupation.org/article.php?list=type&type=203http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=870http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/791http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/791http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=1146http://reut-institute.org/en/Publication.aspx?PublicationId=3769http://reut-institute.org/en/Publication.aspx?PublicationId=3769http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=1146http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/791http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/791http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=870http://www.endtheoccupation.org/article.php?list=type&type=203http://www.endtheoccupation.org/article.php?list=type&type=203http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/54http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/54


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region when it wrote: The Delegitimization Network. . .aims to super-sede the Zionist model with a state that is based on the one person, one

vote principle and Israel must face this network by focusing on thehubs of delegitimization. . .[and] undermining its catalysts. The studycalled for the Israeli government to direct substantial resources toattack and sabotage this movement in what Reut believes are itsvarious international hubs in London, Madrid, Toronto, theSan Francisco Bay Area and beyond.7 The Reut Institute later removedwords like attack and sabotage in an attempt to sanitize the docu-ment, but the intent was clear. Israeli lobby groups ranging from therabidly right-wing Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) and American

Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), to the more centrist J Street,expressed alarm at the growing BDS movement delegitimizingIsrael.8 While the ZOA expressed its opposition to BDS with manicvenom, even condemning other Zionist groups in the process,9 AIPACaimed to counter it with plans to end Israels isolation in internationalforums. The steps laid out by AIPACs Executive Director during thegroups March 2010 conference,which included high-ranking US officialslike Hillary Clinton, were to pursue aggressive strategies to end Israelsisolation in international forums like the UN Security Council, make

Israel a part of the OECD and NATO, and end the Arab boycott ofIsrael that was instituted in the 1970s.10 J Street offered a more liberalcounter to BDS, condemning it but upholding BDS activists rights tofree speech, while simultaneously pushing for a two-state solution.

J Street was instituted as a lobby group that was more liberal and

7. Abunimah, Ali (2010), Israels new strategy: sabotage and attack the global justicemovement, Electronic Intifada, 16 February 2010. http://electronicintifada.net/v2/

article11080.shtml.8. Ibid; and Horowitz, Adam (2009a), AIPAC ED fears the growing movement to sanc-

tion Israel could fundamentally change US policy towards Israel. Hes right and(2009b), J Street seeks to undermine BDS, both in Mondoweiss: The War of Ideas inthe Middle East, http://mondoweiss.net/2009/05/howard-kohr-bds.html, http://mondoweiss.net/2009/11/j-street-seeks-to-undermine-bds.html; and Young, Art(2009), Pro-Israel lobby alarmed by growth of boycott, divestment movement,Links: International Journal of Socialist Renewal,http://links.org.au/node/1128.

9. In its vitriol against BDS, the ZOA condemns even the civil-rights leaning, soft-Zionist, New Israel Fund. See ZOA Press Release. (22 November 2010), ZOA:New Israel Fund Admits It Funds Groups That Promote Boycotting, Divesting

From, & Sanctions Upon, Israel. http://www.zoa.org/sitedocuments/pressrelease_view.asp?pressreleaseID=1970.

10. See AIPAC Outlines Plan to Decrease Israels Isolation, Jewish Daily Forward, 22March 2010.http://www.forward.com/articles/126768/.

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http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11080.shtmlhttp://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11080.shtmlhttp://mondoweiss.net/2009/05/howard-kohr-bds.htmlhttp://mondoweiss.net/2009/11/j-street-seeks-to-undermine-bds.htmlhttp://mondoweiss.net/2009/11/j-street-seeks-to-undermine-bds.htmlhttp://links.org.au/node/1128http://www.zoa.org/sitedocuments/pressrelease_view.asp?pressreleaseID=1970http://www.zoa.org/sitedocuments/pressrelease_view.asp?pressreleaseID=1970http://www.forward.com/articles/126768/http://www.forward.com/articles/126768/http://www.zoa.org/sitedocuments/pressrelease_view.asp?pressreleaseID=1970http://www.zoa.org/sitedocuments/pressrelease_view.asp?pressreleaseID=1970http://links.org.au/node/1128http://mondoweiss.net/2009/11/j-street-seeks-to-undermine-bds.htmlhttp://mondoweiss.net/2009/11/j-street-seeks-to-undermine-bds.htmlhttp://mondoweiss.net/2009/05/howard-kohr-bds.htmlhttp://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11080.shtmlhttp://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11080.shtml


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peace-minded than AIPAC. It pursued a policy of being Pro-Israel,Pro-Peace. In response to the BDS movement, J Street issued a policy

statement where it attempted to advocate a pro-peace stand while stillupholding the notion of a Jewish nation-state, condemning the BDSmovement for its punitive approach towards Israel, and accusing itof becoming a convenient mantle for thinly disguised anti-Semitism(ignoring the vast number of Jewish activists in the BDS movement).11

The Anti Defamation League (ADL) issued a statement identifyingthe top 10 anti-Israel Groups in America, which included evenantiwar groups.12 The mainstream media in Israel and the US also por-trayed the prevailing pro-Israel establishment viewpoint. While numer-

ous articles condemning the BDS movement continue to appear inIsraeli newspapers from the Jerusalem Post to Haaretz,13 even sizeableAmerican news outlets, like Newsweek and the ultra-liberal HuffingtonPost, started carrying pieces on the BDS movement, again condemningit in similar fashion.14

Major steps were soon taken to target the BDS movement. The pan-American Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) and the JewishCouncil for Public Affairs (JCPA) launched the Israel ActionNetwork. . .a multimillion-dollar joint initiative to combat anti-Israel

boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns in order to influencecivic leaders, while political groups like the ZOA, AIPAC, and J Streetwere to focus on the political arena, and institutes like Israel Projectand the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America

11. J Street (2010), Boycott, Divestment, & Sanctions Movement. http://jstreet.org/boycott-divestment-sanctions-movement/.

12. ADL included anti-war groups like Act Now to Stop War and End Racism(ANSWER) in its list. ADL Press Release. (14 October 2010), ADL Identifies Top

10 Anti-Israel Groups in America, http://www.adl.org/main_Anti_Israel/top_ten_anti_israel_groups.htm?Multi_page_sections=sHeading_2.

13. See for example: BDS: Nuisance or genuine threat,Jerusalem Post, 15 June 2010,http://www.jpost.com/Features/InThespotlight/Article.aspx?id=178466, andAnti-Israel economic boycotts are gaining speed, Haaretz, 5 September 2010,http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/business/anti-israel-economic-boycotts-are-gaining-speed-1.312210

14. See Weisberg, Jacob (2010), Dont Boycott Israel: The very idea is repellant,News-week, 24 July 2010, http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/24/don-t-boycott-israel.html, and Levy, Bernard-Henri (2010), Why the Call to Boycott Israel Is CrapHuffington Post, 25 January 2011, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bernardhenri-

levy/why-the-call-to-boycott-i_b_813856.html where the repetitive arguments ofanti-semitism, contradictory statements of Israel being a Jewish nation-state thatis also democratic, Israel not being a totalitarian regime, and boycotts impedingfree speech are used.

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http://jstreet.org/boycott-divestment-sanctions-movement/http://jstreet.org/boycott-divestment-sanctions-movement/http://www.adl.org/main_Anti_Israel/top_ten_anti_israel_groups.htm?Multi_page_sections=sHeading_2http://www.adl.org/main_Anti_Israel/top_ten_anti_israel_groups.htm?Multi_page_sections=sHeading_2http://www.jpost.com/Features/InThespotlight/Article.aspx?id=178466http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/business/anti-israel-economic-boycotts-are-gaining-speed-1.312210http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/business/anti-israel-economic-boycotts-are-gaining-speed-1.312210http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/24/don-t-boycott-israel.htmlhttp://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/24/don-t-boycott-israel.htmlhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/bernardhenri-levy/why-the-call-to-boycott-i_b_813856.htmlhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/bernardhenri-levy/why-the-call-to-boycott-i_b_813856.htmlhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/bernardhenri-levy/why-the-call-to-boycott-i_b_813856.htmlhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/bernardhenri-levy/why-the-call-to-boycott-i_b_813856.htmlhttp://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/24/don-t-boycott-israel.htmlhttp://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/24/don-t-boycott-israel.htmlhttp://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/business/anti-israel-economic-boycotts-are-gaining-speed-1.312210http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/business/anti-israel-economic-boycotts-are-gaining-speed-1.312210http://www.jpost.com/Features/InThespotlight/Article.aspx?id=178466http://www.adl.org/main_Anti_Israel/top_ten_anti_israel_groups.htm?Multi_page_sections=sHeading_2http://www.adl.org/main_Anti_Israel/top_ten_anti_israel_groups.htm?Multi_page_sections=sHeading_2http://jstreet.org/boycott-divestment-sanctions-movement/http://jstreet.org/boycott-divestment-sanctions-movement/


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(CAMERA) were to key in on the media.15 The millions of dollars infunding was for hiring people in universities, NGOs, civic institutions

etc to primarily combat BDS. One could see the effects of these heavilyfunded efforts almost immediately. The Reut Institute contacted manyBDS groups around North America with strange requests for meetings.16

Zionist groups on campuses across the nation targeted BDS efforts andthe Palestine-solidarity groups via large national bodies like the Israelon Campus Coalition (ICC),17 which includes Hillel, the Jewish Commu-nity Relations Council (JCRC), and almost all other Zionist groups asmembers. Various Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chaptersinvolved in Palestine-solidarity work across North America were

attacked in different ways, including having their posters torn downand members slandered. Academics critical of Israel were attacked andeven students studying Palestine were campaigned against.18 CampusWatch, a Zionist organization Monitoring Middle East Studies onCampus, has been at the forefront of targeting Palestinian and Pales-tine-solidarity students/teachers, normally utilizing highly Islamapho-bic rhetoric.19 Simultaneously the Israeli state started a PR campaign,FacesofIsrael, to counter delegitimization on NorthAmerican campuses.20

Documentaries blatantly attacking Palestine-solidarity activists,

Muslims, and progressives alike, and websites attacking the BDS move-ment were created.21 The benignly named NGO Monitor, a pro-Zionistgroup monitoring NGOs for any anti-Zionist or anti-Israel references/

15. Berkman, Jacob (2010), Federations, JCPA teaming to fight delegitimization ofIsrael, in JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People, 24 October 2010.http://jta.org/news/article/2010/10/25/2741418/jfna-and-jcpa-create-6-million-network-to-fight-delegitimization-of-israel .

16. Various members of the national organizing list of BDS groups in North Americastarted getting emails in early 2011 from the Reut Institute requesting meetings con-

cerning anti-Israel activities.17. Countering Delegitimization (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) Resources from the

Israel on Campus Coalition website, 8 November 2010. http://www.israelcc.org/resources/Countering_BDS.htm.

18. Various accounts of SJP chapters in the national SJP organizing list indicated attackson different SJP chapters in schools across the country (Source: email exchanges onlist). Researchers and students studying Palestine from a perspective critical ofIsrael often face roadblocks, from denial of funds and tenure to blocking research.

19. Source:http://www.campus-watch.org/20. See Connie Hackbarths February 2011 article inThe Alternative Information Center,

http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/topics/news/3306-israel-

launches-new-pr-campaign-on-north-american-campuses-faces-of-israel21. See the documentary film,Crossing The Line: The Intifada Comes to Campus (http://

campusintifada.com/), as well as websites Divest This! (http://www.divestthis.com/), andBDS Cookbook(http://www.stopbds.com/)


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http://jta.org/news/article/2010/10/25/2741418/jfna-and-jcpa-create-6-million-network-to-fight-delegitimization-of-israelhttp://jta.org/news/article/2010/10/25/2741418/jfna-and-jcpa-create-6-million-network-to-fight-delegitimization-of-israelhttp://www.israelcc.org/resources/Countering_BDS.htmhttp://www.israelcc.org/resources/Countering_BDS.htmhttp://www.campus-watch.org/http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/topics/news/3306-israel-launches-new-pr-campaign-on-north-american-campuses-faces-of-israelhttp://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/topics/news/3306-israel-launches-new-pr-campaign-on-north-american-campuses-faces-of-israelhttp://campusintifada.com/http://campusintifada.com/http://www.divestthis.com/http://www.divestthis.com/http://www.stopbds.com/http://www.stopbds.com/http://www.divestthis.com/http://www.divestthis.com/http://campusintifada.com/http://campusintifada.com/http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/topics/news/3306-israel-launches-new-pr-campaign-on-north-american-campuses-faces-of-israelhttp://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/topics/news/3306-israel-launches-new-pr-campaign-on-north-american-campuses-faces-of-israelhttp://www.campus-watch.org/http://www.israelcc.org/resources/Countering_BDS.htmhttp://www.israelcc.org/resources/Countering_BDS.htmhttp://jta.org/news/article/2010/10/25/2741418/jfna-and-jcpa-create-6-million-network-to-fight-delegitimization-of-israelhttp://jta.org/news/article/2010/10/25/2741418/jfna-and-jcpa-create-6-million-network-to-fight-delegitimization-of-israel


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people, started devoting major efforts towards targeting and maintaininga blacklist of organizations with even cursory ties to BDS activities.22

These are only a few examples of anti-BDS initiatives with manymore in existence, too numerous to mention, save one more. The anti-BDS frenzy fueled by Zionist institutions reached the highest echelonsof the Israeli state, with legislation being introduced that shows thestate cutting a steady path to outright fascism and theocracy.23 Twopieces of legislation merit a brief look. First is the Loyalty Oath Bill24

that forces non-Jewish citizens of Israel to swear loyalty to Israel as aJewish nation-state, the passing of which was catalyzed by anti-BDS sen-timent (resulting ironically enough in an increase of boycott cam-

paigns25

). Indeed, Israel already has a loyalty oath to the state ofIsrael, but the new legislation seeks to make it a loyalty oath to thestate of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. Second, and the onemore directly targeting BDS, is the anti-boycott legislation called theLaw for Prevention of Damage to the State of Israel through Boycott,also known as the Boycott Law, which threatens to punish anyonecalling for the boycott of Israel with either fines or jail time, without

22. The list includes human rights organizations like Addameer, Al Haq, AlternativeInformation Center, and Coalition of Women for Peace, all in Europe (Source:http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/ngo_leadership_in_boycott_and_divestment_campaigns). NGO Monitor has, among others, Zionist ideologues like Alan Dersho-witz on its advisory board.

23. See Levy, Gideon (2010), The Jewish Republic of Israel,Haaretz, 10 October 2010,http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/the-jewish-republic-of-israel-1.318135, an article where he condemns the Loyalty Oath. Levy states [T]he Knessetis to debate close to 20 other anti-democratic bills. . .a loyalty law for Knessetmembers; a loyalty law for film production; a loyalty law for non-profits; puttingthe Palestinian catastrophe, the Nakba, beyond the scope of the law; a ban on

calls for a boycott; and a bill for the revocation of citizenship. Its a dangerousMcCarthyist dance on the part of ignorant legislators who havent begun to under-stand what democracy is all about.

24. See Israels loyalty oath time bomb, Jewish Week, 11 October 2010, Rallyagainst loyalty oath: Israel becoming fascist in YNet News, 10 October 2010,and Israel approves loyalty oath in Al Jazeera, 10 October 2010 at http://www.thejewishweek.com/blogs/political_insider/israels_loyalty_oath_time_bomb ,http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3967277,00.html, and http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/10/2010101013028364300.htmlrespectively

25. British filmmaker Mike Leigh cancelled a trip to Israel following the passage of the

Loyalty Oath Bill (Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11566956), while conversations I had with Jewish Palestine-solidarity activists indi-cated that the passing of the bill pushed some individuals and groups that had pre-viously not endorsed BDS to call outright for endorsement.

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http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/ngo_leadership_in_boycott_and_divestment_campaignshttp://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/ngo_leadership_in_boycott_and_divestment_campaignshttp://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/the-jewish-republic-of-israel-1.318135http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/the-jewish-republic-of-israel-1.318135http://www.thejewishweek.com/blogs/political_insider/israels_loyalty_oath_time_bombhttp://www.thejewishweek.com/blogs/political_insider/israels_loyalty_oath_time_bombhttp://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3967277,00.htmlhttp://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/10/2010101013028364300.htmlhttp://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/10/2010101013028364300.htmlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11566956http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11566956http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11566956http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11566956http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/10/2010101013028364300.htmlhttp://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/10/2010101013028364300.htmlhttp://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3967277,00.htmlhttp://www.thejewishweek.com/blogs/political_insider/israels_loyalty_oath_time_bombhttp://www.thejewishweek.com/blogs/political_insider/israels_loyalty_oath_time_bombhttp://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/the-jewish-republic-of-israel-1.318135http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/the-jewish-republic-of-israel-1.318135http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/ngo_leadership_in_boycott_and_divestment_campaignshttp://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/ngo_leadership_in_boycott_and_divestment_campaigns


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even requiring proof of actual damage being caused.26 The Loyalty OathBill met with full cabinet approval on October 10, 2010, while the Boycott

Law was approved in the Knesset on July 11, 2011.Of interest is the homogeneity of reactions from the right-wing

Zionists to the more liberal Zionists, with the BDS movement almostacting like a galvanizing moment to bring them together. In February2011, a statement condemning BDS was released, signed by a widespectrum of over 60 Zionist groups, from lobbies to faith-based groupsto college fraternities.27 This indicates the relatively little distanceamong them on the political spectrum, despite public posturing to thecontrary.28

The only Jewish groups expressing positive reactions to BDS wereones actively participating in BDS movements, like the International

Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) and American Jews for a JustPeace (AJJP), i.e. those who adhered to the basic framework of theBDS call, or others like Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), who have not pub-licly endorsed BDS, but actively participate in boycott movements tar-geting Israel. The crucial difference between the Jewish groupsendorsing or supporting BDS and those that opposed it was the separ-ation of Jewishness from Zionism, and the willingness to combat, or at

least consider an alternative to, the fundamentally racist notion of aZionist state, while still upholding Jewish identity.

The reactions from Zionist groups shed light on the liberatingpotential of the BDS movement. The Reut Institute29 is a major Israelithink-tank advising the state of Israel that was, in its own words, estab-lished to serve Israeli government agencies and decisionmakers pro-bono, and was established by a former member of the Israeli Prime Min-isters office, who served as secretary of the negotiating team with the

26. This was passed as a direct result of the burgeoning BDS movement. See: Israelsanti-boycott legislation in Alternative Information Center, 4 July 2010, and Israelisinciting anti-Israel boycotts could soon be forced to pay dearly Haaretz, 14 July2010, at http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/topics/economy-of-the-occupation/2706-israels-anti-boycott-legislation, and http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israelis-inciting-anti-israel-boycotts-could-soon-be-forced-to-pay-dearly-1.301968respectively, as well as Israelis divided over new law thatbacks businesses hit by trade boycotts, Guardian, 15 July 2011, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/15/israelis-law-businesses-hit-boycotts

27. See Statement of Jewish Organizations on BDS, http://www.stopbds.com/?page_id=1318

28. A few liberal Zionist groups like J Street take a moderate stand against the occu-pation and settlements in West Bank and Gaza, but fail to take into account apart-heid and historical colonialism.

29. Source:http://reut-institute.org/en/Default.aspx


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PLO from 1999 to 2001. Groups like ZOA, AIPAC, J Street, ADL, JFNA,JCPA, ICC, Hillel, JCRC, Israel Project, CAMERA, and numerous others

constitute the citadel of Zionist lobbying and image-boosting for Israelin the US. This citadel is crucial for the enormous apparatus ofsupport the US provides in propping up the state of Israel.30 The reac-tions from the very institutions that buttress the oppression of the Pales-tinians show that the BDS movement has the potential to undermine andultimately dismantle those structures of oppression. Following the Reutstudy, multiple reactions emerged from activists and writers highlight-ing the study as indicative that the BDS movement poses a serious chal-lenge to the structures of oppression that Palestinians faced.31 It is

important then to understand the guiding framework of the BDS callthat causes it to have such potency in the long run. This will furtherexpand on its liberating possibilities and, thereby, the reasons for theinstitutions of oppression to fear it.

The BDS movements theory and structure

The framework of oppression laid out by the BDS call is brought to

focus through its demands. The BDS call identifies a tripartite structureof oppression: Colonialism (marked by the demand for the Right ofReturn of Palestinian refugees and an end to colonization), apartheid(marked by the demand for full equality of Palestinians in Israel),and Occupation (marked by the demand for an end to the occupationand the dismantling of the wall). It also lays out a clear definition of theoppressor institution (the Israeli state) to be targeted non-violentlywith BDS until the oppressed people (Palestinians) are liberated.Finally, it clearly defines what liberation from said oppressor meansin material terms, again clearly reflected in demands that reflect allthree systems of oppression that together constitute what the Palesti-nian people as a pre-defined cultural-national entity suffer. Thus it

30. See Bakan and Abu-Laban, Palestinian Resistance and International Solidarity(note 5), where they point to an international racial contract which, from 1948,has assigned a common interest between the state of Israel and international politi-cal allies, while absenting Palestinians as simultaneously non-white, the subjects ofextreme repression and stateless, something they state the BDS movement haschallenged.

31. See for example: Kane, Alex (2010), New Reut Institute case study tacit admissionthat BDS is working, inMondoweiss: The War of Ideas in the Middle East, 8 August 2010,http://mondoweiss.net/2010/08/new-reut-institute-case-study-tacit-admission-that-bds-is-working.html, and Abunimah, Israels new strategy (note 7).

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clearly defines the framework of oppression and the framework ofliberation.

What the BDS movement represents, and is calling for, is a trans-formative praxis of emancipatory resistance that matches the evolvingsocio-spatial apparatus of oppression. This oppression is the Israelistate strongly supported by numerous international allies, the UnitedStates being the most powerful of them, and a large, powerful Israelilobby outside the national territory of Israel. The call understandsthat the political-economic sources of the oppression of Palestiniansexist beyond the specific geographic boundaries of the state of Israeland the occupied Palestinian territories.

At play in the Palestinian call for BDS are two clear notions ofsolidarity. One, it defines the Palestinian people against a tripartitestructure of oppression consisting of colonialism, apartheid and mili-tary occupation that has been suffered by them as a cultural-nationalentity. Two, in opposition to this historic injustice, it makes anemotive call for solidarity from international civil society organiz-ations and people of conscience all over the world, outside of thatcultural-national entity, to boycott Israel until the oppression endswith the implementation of their three demands. This includes a

specific invitation to conscientious Israelis to support this Call,for the sake of justice and genuine peace. Thus there are threeentities an oppressed people defined, an oppressor institutionidentified, and everyone else called to stand in solidarity with theoppressed people.

The call thus represents an urgent attempt, among others, to createan alternative socio-spatial imaginary that strives to match andstruggle against that oppression through a call for solidarity. Thisalternative socio-spatial imaginary is framed in the three demands

that the call clearly states, with the idea that solidarity-based BDSmeasures must be implemented until the demands are met.This is however not a new concept or strategy, and the BDS move-

ment is inspired by another boycott movement that was rather success-ful in getting its demands met. This is crucial to understanding thepossibilities that the BDS movement offers, not only for the liberationof the Palestinian people, but also liberation struggles in general, andthe obvious fear it evokes in the powers-that-be. . .because it hasworked before.

The Palestinian BDS call was inspired by solidarity-calls for theboycott of apartheid-era South Africa. The African National Congressand other groups fighting apartheid in South Africa had issued calls forboycotting South Africa until apartheid ended, starting with Albert


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Luthulis call in 1959, and derived from the ANCs Freedom Charter.32

These were taken up in a variety of ways over the years through anti-

apartheid movements in the West, the global Artists United AgainstApartheid, different Third World governments in the UN working toinstitute the UN Special Committee Against Apartheid, and campaignsin the Commonwealth countries to implement the highly successfulsports boycott. The sports boycott was particularly crucial in isolatingSouth Africa from two of its most popular sports, cricket and rugby.The cricket boards in former colonized countries like India, Pakistan,and the Caribbean nations took the lead in the cricket boycott, while theNew Zealand group Halt All Racist Tours played an important role in

spurring the rugby boycott. India also boycotted the 1974 Davis Cuptennis final against South Africa.33 The leaders of the South Africananti-apartheid movement realized early on that international boycottwould be a useful tool in their fight against apartheid. While the degreeof influence is difficult to assess, one cannot avoid the fact that theboycott movement playeda key role in bringingdown the legal structuresof apartheid in the country.

There are, of course, differences between the situations in Pales-tine/Israel and South Africa, both in objective conditions and subjec-

tive forces, with sheer numbers being possibly the most crucial.Black South Africans were and continue to be the overwhelmingmajority in the country, so when they took on a boycott of WhiteSouth African institutions, including mass labor strikes, it was boundto have major effects. Indeed, the ANCs labor struggles were hugelyimportant in bringing down apartheid, because White South Africancapitalists relied heavily on the exploitation of Black labor.34 This isnot the case in Palestine/Israel. Palestinian citizens of Israel arearound 20% of the population, and even if one includes Palestinians

in the Occupied Territories, it still only adds up to around the samenumber as the Jewish population of Israel. The Israeli economy used

32. See Ngeleza, Bangani (2005), The Role of International Campaigns for Boycott,Divestment and Sanctions, in Badils quarterly journal, al-Majdal, Spring 2005,http://www.badil.org/en/al-majdal/item/914-the-role-of-international-campaigns-for-boycott-divestment-and-sanctions-b

33. See an essay written by E.S. Reddy, former director of the United Nations Centeragainst Apartheid, entitled Sports and the liberation struggle: a tribute to SamRamsamy and others who fought apartheid sport, http://scnc.ukzn.ac.za/doc/

SPORT/SPORTRAM.htm34. For a more detailed discussion see Wolpe, Harold (1972), Capitalism and Cheap

Labour-power in South Africa: From Segregation to Apartheid, Economy andSociety, Vol. 1, No. 4: 425 456.

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to be fairly dependent on exploiting Palestinian labor from the Occu-pied Territories, but this has changed with Israel reducing its depen-

dence on Palestinian labor35 by importing labor from South andSoutheast Asia, thus preventing a South Africa-like situation of Pales-tinian labor strikes from threatening the status quo of a Zionist state.

However, akin to the South African boycott movement and a formof internationalism (not unlike the proletarian kind), the PalestinianBDS call has spawned numerous solidarity-based movements acrossthe world, whether via existing Palestine-solidarity movements imple-menting BDS campaigns or in the birth of new ones. In fact, given thedifferences, there is reason to believe that BDS may be even more effec-

tive in the liberation of the Palestinian people than it was in the liber-ation of Black South Africans.

The different BDS campaigns together with the BDS leadership inPalestine form the heterogeneous global BDS movement, a movementwhose campaigns operate independently from each other, while main-taining some coordinating mechanisms. The solidarity campaigns thatemerged in response to the BDS call have been primarily based in theWest, though many have emerged in South Africa and West Asiancountries, with nascent campaigns starting in India, Pakistan, and

Southeast Asia too. The solidarity campaigns in the West are theones causing the maximum consternation to the Israeli state and itssupporting apparatus. These have spanned the spectrum of BDS cam-paigns, and include academic boycott, cultural boycott, sanctions, andeconomic divestment.36 They have primarily emerged out of existingPalestine-solidarity networks and the larger peace movement. They

35. For a more detailed examination see Farsakh, Leila (2005), Palestinian labourmigration to Israel: labour, land and occupation. New York: Routledge, and AbuShemala, Nawaf Mahmoud (2006), The Future Of Palestinian Workers In Israel,

in Al-Siyassa Al-Dawliya, Issue 165, July 2006, http://www.mafhoum.com/press9/287S28.htm

36. There are perhaps 150 or more active BDS groups in North America. They includeacademic boycott (e.g. http://usacbi.wordpress.com/, http://www.bricup.org.uk/, http://www.epacbi.eu/), cultural boycott (e.g. http://adalahny.org/,http://www.artistsagainstapartheid.org/), direct divestment (http://mn.breakthebonds.org/), faith-based (http://fosna.org/), multi-pronged (http://www.baceia.org/, http://www.tadamon.ca/, http://psgchicago.org/), largecoalitions (http://www.endtheoccupation.org/index.php, http://www.caiaweb.org/, http://www.palestinecampaign.org/), company-focused (http://

jewishvoiceforpeace.org/tiaa-cref, http://www.codepink4peace.org/section.php?

id=415, http://jfjfp.com/?p=20748) and community-centric (http://al-awdany.org/wp/, http://www.ijsn.net/home/). A number of these campaigns are alsopart of a national coalition in North America, with a fundamental adherence tothe BDS call as a guiding framework.


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are heterogeneous and volunteer-driven, but are also coalescing into alogic of their own, derived primarily from a shared unity under the

rubric of the BDS call.The BDS movement also faces gargantuan opposition. In terms of

strategy, almost all the campaigns have to take into account backlashfrom the existing apparatus of support for the Israeli state, includingthe US polity. The movement is unlike other solidarity-based move-ments in the Western world because of the cultural-hegemonic stran-glehold the Zionist lobby has over mainstream discourse, primarilyin the US and Europe.

Because of this stranglehold, the BDS call asks for people to take a

stand, an uncompromising position where good intentions alone willnot suffice, because those good intentions can be swept up by establish-ment discourse. In a sense, what the BDS call is saying is that youcannot hedge when it comes to resisting oppression, even at timeswhen nuanced hedging seems reasonable. Noam Chomsky and UriAvnery, both progressive thinkers highly critical of Israel, found them-selves reinforcing an oppressive status quo precisely because theyhedged. Chomsky, while calling for universities to boycott companiesdoing business in Israel, was not in favor of academic boycott itself,

instead calling on Western academics to utilize other means to fightIsraels atrocities; Avnery went with the liberal Zionist argument ofdistinguishing between the occupation/settlements and the Israelistate as a whole, even surreptitiously playing the anti-Semite card.37

The BDS call essentially tells us there is no hedging until the oppressionstops, no matter how uncomfortable it might get to the Western,liberal-rationalist mind for which nuanced hedging is a privilege thatthose facing multiple forms of oppression cannot afford.

The possibilities the BDS movement offers to any solidarity-based

struggle class, nationalist, gender, anti-colonial, anti-imperialist orany other are not necessarily unique or new, but they should bestated regardless. The demands are critical to a clear understandingof what liberation means. Liberation is not an abstract concept, nor isit a utopian one. Liberation has to be grounded in material reality;thus, the stand that the BDS call asks people to take is one of actualmaterial conditions rather than easy platitudes.

37. See http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=175085&sectioncode=26and listen to http://bdsmovement.net/?q=node/625for a chal-lenge to Chomsky. Also see http://original.antiwar.com/avnery/2010/08/29/the-boycott-israel-movement-needs-to-rethink-tactics/.

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However the BDS movement is not without its limitations, most ofthem inherent in the form of struggle it takes. They have to do with not

knowing the trajectory of struggle afterliberation has taken place. Themovement doesnt offer a political program beyond the guidelines ofliberation. Because the movement is enmeshed in solidarity, it is notas structured as a political party, and cannot expect to have rigorouslydisciplined cadre.

Moreover, there are spaces of tension within the model of strugglethe movement employs. Because it is predicated on volunteer-drivensolidarity from people occupying positions of immense socio-economicprivilege compared to most Palestinians, it is always subject to dilution

and revisions not stemming from actual material conditions. Differentparticipants in the movement are not subject to the same kind ofaccountability, in theory at least, that one would find in a cadre-driven party or as an elected representative of a trade union. Theaccountability is based on a moral commitment to the cause ratherthan the franchise of a voting member, or money from either fundingor membership dues. This makes BDS campaigns less susceptible tocorruption but more susceptible to waywardness. The heterogeneityof the movement, which is one of its greatest strengths, can also be a

potential weakness because of the ever-present danger of traditionallyprivileged actors exercising dominance.

Nevertheless, the BDS movement offers something cruciallyimportant in understanding non-violence as a strategy for taking themoral high-ground against a vastly more powerful oppressor. It putsthe oppressor on the defensive by going on the offensive, framingthe conditions of liberation rather than having them framed by theoppressor. It provides clear guidelines for solidarity activists, andthus is against utopianism and fence-sitting, because it clearly asks

for a stand to be taken and lays out guidelines on how it must be taken.

Understanding solidarity

In that spirit of solidarity in real-life struggles I would like to con-clude by reverting back to the two moments of solidarity at play in thecall. The first is the manner in which the Palestinian people aredefined. This is predicated against a common oppressor (in this casethe Israeli state), similar to understandings of black solidarity that

were explored during black liberation struggles,38

or to solidarity

38. See Shelby, T. (2005),We Who Are Dark: The Philosophical Foundations of Black Solidar-ity.Cambridge and London: Belknap Press.


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among women workers,39 and crucially also very similar to the basicmanner in which class-solidarity is conceived of by Marxist thought,

i.e. based on common material interests, which in Marxism arebroadly dependent on a persons relationship to the means of pro-duction.40 But the definition of Palestinian people is also based onthe logic of a national identity similar to the kind of nationalism thatis critiqued as potentially damaging to working-class international-ism.41 It is important to understand that this notion of Palestinianpeople is deployed by the BDS call specifically in order to constructa notion of solidarity with Palestinians as an oppressed whole, basedon the fact that all Palestinians, regardless of differences among

them, face numerous forms of oppression at the hands of the Israelistate.

The second moment of solidarity is that which the BDS movementcalls for from the international community. Here too, one can see con-sistency with other forms of solidarity like that of class, because thePalestinian call that seeks to end the oppression that Palestinianssuffer as a cultural-national people will (at least theoretically) undothe contradiction between Palestinian and Israeli workers, which fallsfully within any notion of class-solidarity, even if that is not the

stated aim of the call. However the kind of solidarity that the BDScall seeks from the international community is just as vital as feministand other forms of solidarity because it is seeking solidarity frompeople clearly identified by the call itself as being outside of theimmediate realm of oppression that the Palestinians are under.

The BDS call thus also tells us that theoretical calls for solidarityneed to be constantly tested against real-life struggles that occupydifferent socioeconomic and spatial realms. Workers on the sameshop floor have an immediate common material interest in organizing

39. See Mohanty, C. T. (2003),Feminism Without Borders. Durham, NC: Duke UniversityPress.

40. Marx and Engels differed with the more anarchist Bakunin in this regard, i.e. on theprimacy of the relationship to the means of production as opposed to material con-ditions alone as what was important to understanding class-based revolutionarysubjectivity. Bakunin, for instance, considered the lumpen proletariat to be a revo-lutionary class while Marx and Engels didnt. For a more detailed exploration seeMarx, K. and Engels, F. (1848), Manifesto of the Communist Party; Marx and Engels(1872), Fictitious Splits in the International, http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1872/03/fictitious-splits.htm; and Marx (1864), Inaugural Address of

the International Working Mens Association, http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1864/10/27.htm.

41. See Pasture, P. and Johan Verberckmoes (eds.). (1998), Working-Class Internationalismand the Appeal of National Identity. Oxford: Berg.

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in class-solidarity with each other, as do Palestinians in Ramallah andJerusalem organizing in national-solidarity with each other against

Israeli oppression. When activists outside of those immediate materialconditions act in solidarity with them, the commonality of interestsbecomes more abstract and less immediate, but remains important asan investment in common materialpolitics.

The BDS call occupies distinct spatial and socioeconomic levels.The socioeconomic and spatial conditions inherent in the Palestinianpeople, while not accounting for differences among them, differ mark-edly from the socioeconomic and spatial conditions of the internationalcommunity in the Global North (including Israeli society) whose soli-

darity the BDS movement is calling for. Seen in this manner, the BDScall provides an interesting platform to understand that it is in thelived politics of solidarity-based struggle that one is able to determinewhere greater attention to difference is needed, where commonality ofinterests lies, and how to engage with the contradictions arising fromdifferent forms of solidarity for a transformative political movement.Above all, it is a movement that will not stop until liberation isachieved, through multiple highs and lows, because it is based on anironclad set of simple demands meant to dismantle the structures of

oppression through strategic expressions of solidarity.


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The Politics of the Palestinian BDS Movement

Documents

Transcript of The Politics of the Palestinian BDS Movement