Divestment/Boycott News

ADL's Abe Foxman threatens boycott of UK academics:

The Anti-Defamation League is considering launching a counter academic boycott against British academia if Britain's Association of Union Teachers (AUT) fails to cancel its boycott of Bar-Ilan and Haifa universities

Britain's Middle East minister has called for an end to the boycott:

"The British government fully supports academic freedom and appreciates the independence of the AUT. But as a friend of both Israel and the Palestinians, we believe that we can best encourage both sides to take the steps needed for progress through close engagement to achieve a peaceful resolution."

The South African Council of Churches and over 100 South African academics have endorsed the Palestinian Call for Boycott that lead to the British boycott:

This momentous support for boycotting Israel comes in the context of the rapidly growing South African awareness and recognition of the significant parallels between Israel's distinct form of apartheid and its South African predecessor. It also expresses a laudable moral stand by South Africans in solidarity with the people of Palestine.

The Presidents of Hebrew University and Al-Quds University issued a declaration in London opposing the boycott.  It should be noted that Sari Nusseibeh, president of Al-Quds, has gone against the popular will of the university's staff and students in stating his opposition to the boycott:

Two university presidents, one a Palestinian and the other an Israeli, joined Thursday to urge an end to an academic boycott of Israeli universities by Britain's leading higher education union.

The American Jewish Committee and the American Friends of Haifa University have established a fund to combat the UK boycott:

This fund will allow Israeli institutions injured by a boycott to use legal means not only to overturn such decisions, but to extract an apology. It is unfair for any Israeli entity so defamed to have to wage this fight on its own. Nor should an Israeli university have to divert funds from its academic programs for this purpose.

Jews in the diaspora are organizing against the boycott and Protestant divestment:

A Diaspora grassroots movement organized by graduates of a Jewish Agency-run Israel Ambassadors program have already gathered close to 41,000 signatures of people calling to rescind an academic boycott against two Israeli universities.

Their next mission is to fight Protestant-led divestment from Israel.

The Weaver's Way food co-op in Philly voted against boycotting Israeli products:

Members of a Philadelphia food cooperative overwhelmingly defeated a resolution to boycott Israeli products. The resolution, brought Wednesday night, would have banned products grown or produced in Israel's West Bank and Gaza Strip settlements, as well as all produce from Israel.

The Church of England met recently to consider divesting from Caterpillar:

The Church’s Ethical Investment Advisory Group will be examining whether the £197,000 of shares currently held in Caterpillar are consistent with the Church’s ethical investment policy, which prohibits investment in arms companies or companies making ‘weapons platforms’ such as naval vessels or tanks.

Comments

[Womble]

In other words, the "divestment" movement mostly finds support among the corrupt clergy (and even then mostly against the will of the ordinary church members), while totally failing to seduce anyone with real economic or political power. In the meantime, the AUT boycott has generated more support for Israel worldwide than any other event in the recent years, exposed the anti-Zionist crowd for what they really are and, most importantly, rallied the Jewish people in support for Israel even in the places where dominant opinion on Israel was indifferent bordering on hostile. There is a huge Jewish awakening even in Britain, where the chief rabbi once said something along the lines that "Israel makes him ashamed to be Jewish".

Maybe Israel should consider funding the "divestoids".

[scott]

"the corrupt clergy" - Example?

"In the meantime, the AUT boycott has generated more support for Israel worldwide than any other event in the recent years"

But largely amongst the already pro-Israel crowd. The AUT did a horrible job explaining it and framing it and the pro-Israel folks have started a bunch of reactionary campaigns.

"exposed the anti-Zionist crowd for what they really are" - Example? And if your response is going to be a trite "anti-Jewish" I'm not gonna have it.

[Peter]

Hi Scott,

Womble has a point about the AUT boycott. From what I've seen, it's not only mobilized Jewish academics worldwide against the AUT, but also it's mobilized the Jewish community in Britain. There is far more open debate among Jews in Britain about Israel than there is in the United States, but the AUT boycott has shifted the focus in Britain from The Occupation to the anti-Zionism, "double standards" and alleged anti-semitism of the AUT.

As Henri Picciotto of the Jewish Voice for Peace says, divestment campaigns that appear to call Israel's "right to exist" into question will generate far too much of a backlash, especially among diaspora Jews who are ambivalent about Israel's actions, to overwhelm any positive effect (and there is no question that some of the figures involved with the AUT boycott do question Israel's legitimicacy)

That's why it is much more smarter to focus on targeted campaigns like Caterpillar and/or on settlement products, and/or on companies that profit from the occupation, as the Presybterian Church did. That's not to say that "selective divestment" isn't controversial -- it is, especially in the United States -- but, at least you have a chance to keep the debate centered on specfic Israeli practices rather than on defending yourself against charges of the "new anti-semitism".

And, Womble, can you explain what you mean by "corrupt clergy"? I don't see how the old-line Protestant churches are any more corrupt than any other religous organization; Certainly, Israeli rabbis appear to have partaken in their share of corruption (e.g. Yona Metzger, Aryeh Deri).

[scott]

Hi Peter,
I see what you're saying. It's a shame the boycott has had such a backlash. I lament the fact that the AUT didn't see that coming and really work on framing the message the boycott was trying to send. I support the boycott, but it seems to definitely have backfired.

It is true as well that corporate boycotts are much easier to defend and overall probably have a larger impact anyway.

In the end, whatever successful boycott is first implemented - corporate or academic or otherwise, there is sure to be a huge blowback. I hope the AUT stands tall and weathers this storm to make it easier for others to follow suit. There's a petition going around for Israelis to sign that aptly notes,

"Boycotting Israel and Israeli institutions for comitting such crimes may be one of the last non-violent ways to put an end to this carnage."

[Womble]

Scott-

"The AUT did a horrible job explaining it and framing it and the pro-Israel folks have started a bunch of reactionary campaigns."
Nope, they did a horrible job in raising the very idea of boycotting. The rest of their screw ups naturally followed from the very desire to boycott. They had no choice but to make it a "sneak attack" on Passover eve in order to exclude maximum Jewish academics from the voting procedure and to cut off any discussion of arguments against the boycott, or else they would fail to push it through. Now they reap what they were so eager to sow. A classic case of confrontation politics: you convert one and alienate a hundred. With enemies like AUT- and you- who needs friends? ;)

Oh and as for exposing the anti-Zionist crowd for who they are- check out the recent "anti-Zionist" demonstration in London, where the AUT boycott initiator had joined a whole bunch of other scum, headed by George Galloway himself.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1116642367186&apage=1

Quite entertaining, with some amusing historical parallels invoked and some moronic views expressed. I especially love Azzam Tamimi's pan-Islamist take on the "22 stupid Arab states".

Peter-

"Womble, can you explain what you mean by "corrupt clergy"? I don't see how the old-line Protestant churches are any more corrupt than any other religous organization; Certainly, Israeli rabbis appear to have partaken in their share of corruption (e.g. Yona Metzger, Aryeh Deri)."

MORE corrupt- of course they aren't. But they command money they did not earn as they please, without consulting the wishes of those who have donated it. More often than not, it results in corruption.