Somewhat famously, when the usual suspects, led by Alan Dershowitz (that avatar of civil liberties), tried to quash a fucking conference on BDS at Brooklyn College in 2013, Michael Bloomberg reacted properly:
“If you want to go to a university where the government decides what kind of subjects are fit for discussion, I suggest you apply to a school in North Korea.” (The Chronicle of Higher Education on that story.)
I am not "for BDS," as each and every potential boycott or divestment notion needs to be independently considered. I also have some experience with the leaders of BDS; they're assholes.
I am against an academic boycott, for sure. Boycotts of Israeli products made in the occupied territories? Sounds good to me. Divestment of mutual funds from companies that profit from or are located in the occupied territories? Sounds good to me. And so on. (Sanctions are a state-level tactic; we're nowhere near that yet.)
So I'm neither "for" nor "against" BDS. So what? This push to literally criminalize what is political speech and nonviolent political action is a bipartisan endeavor, and truly awful.
No, BDS is not "antisemitic." But what if it was? We do have this little thing called free fucking speech in this country, in which people have the right to be total racist assholes. But, no, BDS support is not tantamount to antisemitism. You'd think Jews would know not to cry wolf on that score, especially with real antisemitism on the rise.
Here's Glenn Greenwald on a speech pathologist in Texas who has been fired for not signing a fucking oath that she wouldn't support a boycott of Israel. Any boycott.
Here's the speech pathologist herself explaining a few things:
(Transcript; scroll down.)
Here's the New York Times on this story. And here's a pretty much spot-on editorial by the NYT--an editorial, not a guest op-ed--on this issue.
More from Greenwald here:
(Transcript; scroll down.)
Here's the ACLU on this issue and here's their petition.
“If you want to go to a university where the government decides what kind of subjects are fit for discussion, I suggest you apply to a school in North Korea.” (The Chronicle of Higher Education on that story.)
I am not "for BDS," as each and every potential boycott or divestment notion needs to be independently considered. I also have some experience with the leaders of BDS; they're assholes.
I am against an academic boycott, for sure. Boycotts of Israeli products made in the occupied territories? Sounds good to me. Divestment of mutual funds from companies that profit from or are located in the occupied territories? Sounds good to me. And so on. (Sanctions are a state-level tactic; we're nowhere near that yet.)
So I'm neither "for" nor "against" BDS. So what? This push to literally criminalize what is political speech and nonviolent political action is a bipartisan endeavor, and truly awful.
No, BDS is not "antisemitic." But what if it was? We do have this little thing called free fucking speech in this country, in which people have the right to be total racist assholes. But, no, BDS support is not tantamount to antisemitism. You'd think Jews would know not to cry wolf on that score, especially with real antisemitism on the rise.
Here's Glenn Greenwald on a speech pathologist in Texas who has been fired for not signing a fucking oath that she wouldn't support a boycott of Israel. Any boycott.
Here's the speech pathologist herself explaining a few things:
(Transcript; scroll down.)
Here's the New York Times on this story. And here's a pretty much spot-on editorial by the NYT--an editorial, not a guest op-ed--on this issue.
More from Greenwald here:
(Transcript; scroll down.)
Here's the ACLU on this issue and here's their petition.