Boycott

Graffiti on the Israeli separation wall dividing the West Bank town of Bethlehem promotes the BDS movement, June 17, 2014. (Ryan Rodrick Beiler)

According to ‘Israel Hayom,’ BDS has nothing to do with the occupation

Israel’s most-read newspaper deletes crucial explanations from an Associated Press article, leaving its readers with zero understanding of why Palestinians might want the world to boycott Israel. The Associated Press published a feature article last week discussing the impact that the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement has had on the Israeli music scene as of…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man September 17, 2018

Israeli BDS activists take part in an anti-corruption demonstration in Tel Aviv's Habima Square, December 9th, 2017. (Hagar Shezaf)

Why has Israel banned Jewish leftists but not members of Nazi-linked groups?

Israel has banned leaders and key activists from Jewish Voice for Peace, the American Friends Service Committee, and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, among other groups that support BDS, from entering the country. So why doesn’t it extend the same restrictions to members of Nazi-affiliated groups? Israel’s latest step in its self-described “offensive” against the Boycott, Divestment…

By Natasha Roth-Rowland January 8, 2018

Palestine solidarity protesters supporting the BDS movement, 2010. (Photo by Stephanie Law/CC, cropped)

Israel to bar U.S. Jewish group from country over BDS support

As part of Israel’s anti-BDS campaign, officials say members of Jewish Voice for Peace, one of the fastest growing Jewish organizations in the U.S., will not be able to enter Israel. An Israeli government ministry confirmed on Saturday that the American Jewish organization, Jewish Voice for Peace*, is among 20 organizations from around the world that have been placed…

By Mairav Zonszein January 7, 2018

Latest

A pro-Palestine action at the Port of Oakland, California, August 16, 2014. (Alex Chis/CC)

‘A legal shield for the Palestine movement in the U.S.’

Pro-Israel organizations are increasingly using the law to target Palestinian solidarity groups in the United States. Dima Khalidi, head of Palestine Legal, speaks with +972 Magazine about the ‘Palestine exception’ to free speech, and what her organization is doing to fight back.

By Amjad Iraqi October 18, 2017

Palestine solidarity protesters supporting the BDS movement, 2010. (Photo by Stephanie Law/CC, cropped)

ACLU launches first major challenge of anti-BDS legislation

The lawsuit offers the most stark example yet of how anti-BDS legislation threatens Americans’ First Amendment rights. The American Civil Liberties Union announced Wednesday that it had filed suit on behalf of a Kansas public school educator who was asked to disavow a boycott of Israel as a condition for payment. The case comes amid growing concerns that…

By Samer Badawi October 11, 2017

‘There’s an opportunity to embed Palestine in the progressive agenda’

The Trump administration will pose challenges for Palestine/Israel organizing in the U.S. but it also presents opportunities. Among them, JVP head Rebecca Vilkomerson tells +972 Magazine, is showing American Jews that many of the policies they oppose under Trump also exist in Israel.

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man March 27, 2017

Palestinian men wait for their documents and belongings to be inspected by the Israeli army at a checkpoint outside the West Bank city of Bethlehem, March 19, 2017. (Anne Paq/Activestills.org)

Blacklists and travel bans aren’t new in Israel — the targets are

Palestinian activists and others have long faced actual travel bans, blacklists, and political persecution. Nevertheless, that some of the same methods are now being used against Israeli and American Jews is a worrying sign. One of the Israeli government’s senior-most ministers said last year that Israeli BDS advocates must be made to pay a price…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man March 22, 2017

Jeff Halper holding a sign supporting the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement — but not on the day he was detained by Israeli police. (Courtesy of Jeff Halper)

Supporting BDS is enough to get detained by the cops in Israel these days

Instead of simply announcing that it opposes BDS, which would be a perfectly legitimate stance, the Israeli government is criminalizing the movement and its advocates. The results won’t be pretty. On March 8 police near Jerusalem picked up an Israeli citizen who was just standing on the street. He was not doing anything illegal. Someone who lived in…

By Lisa Goldman March 14, 2017

Thousands attend a protest in Wadi Ara, northern Israel, following recent housing demolitions and the death of Yacoub Abu al-Qi'an earlier this week. January 21, 2017. (Basel Awidat/Flash90)

Arab citizens, not Israeli leftists, pay the real price for speaking out

The Israeli government may be cracking down on human rights NGOs and left-wing activists, but Palestinians citizens of Israel are the ones suffering from concrete persecution — with sometimes fatal results. The recently-passed law prohibiting the entry of boycott supporters into Israel is just the latest in a string of legislation and administrative measures aimed at curtailing…

By Roi Maor March 12, 2017

Participants in the Open Hillel Conference, Harvard University. (photo: Gili Getz)

Israel passes ‘dissenter ban’ barring entry to boycott advocates

It’s impossible to predict how and against whom the new law will be applied, but the message it sends is clear: if your politics don’t toe the Israeli government line, you won’t be allowed in. Even if your opposition is entirely non-violent. As Donald Trump signed a revised travel ban against nationals of six Muslim countries…

By Mairav Zonszein March 7, 2017

Two Palestinian women walk along Israel’s separation wall in the West Bank village of Abu Dis. (Anna Kaplan/Flash90)

Nearly half of Americans support sanctions on Israel, poll finds

As the Democratic party regroups ahead of the next election cycle, it would be wise for its leadership to examine areas where the Clinton campaign diverged from the party’s base. Israel-Palestine is one of those issues. The number of Americans who support imposing sanctions on Israel over its defiant settlement policies has shot up to…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man December 3, 2016

Palestinians wave flags during a protest against the expansion of the Ma'ale Adumim Israeli settlement, Al Eizariya, West Bank, February 13, 2014. The protest took place hours before thousands of Israeli settlers held a march in the E1 area. Israel had planned construction in the East-1 area, but kept back implementation due to international pressure in 2009. Further settlement construction in the area would effectively separate Palestinians in East Jerusalem from the West Bank. All Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are illegal under international law. (photo: Tali Mayer/Activestills.org)

Why a settlement boycott is so scary for Israel

The Israeli government sees the idea of a settlement boycott as a farce because it knows how impossible it would be to stop even a targeted boycott from bleeding right through the Green Line it’s been working so hard to erase. A year after the European Union published guidelines for labeling Israeli settlement products, France…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man November 28, 2016

The visitor’s center at the West Bank archeological site of Shiloh, in the Israeli settlement of Shilo. (Mendy Hechtman/Flash90)

Because BDS, Israeli archeologists want West Bank work kept secret

An Israeli court rejects a freedom of information request for the names of archeologists digging, under IDF license, in the occupied territories, and where Israel is storing the antiquities they uncover. The reason: so they don’t face academic boycott. The Jerusalem District Court on Monday refused to reveal the names of archeologists performing digs at…

By Haggai Matar November 22, 2016