I’m Jewish, and I want people to boycott Israel

[Little Tich]

Source: Washington Post / By Rebecca Vilkomerson

The country must be held accountable for its human rights abuses.

In 2009, I was living in Tel Aviv during Operation Cast Lead. During that offensive, Israel killed about 1,400 Palestinians in Gaza. When small numbers of us went out into the streets to protest the war, we were often pelted with eggs or attacked by passersby. When I dropped my children off at their preschool, parents chatted as if nothing unusual was going on. When they asked me what was wrong, I would tell them I was deeply upset about what was happening just 40 miles away. Their response: awkward silence, or an angry defense of Israel’s actions.

I wanted to take concrete action to bring about freedom and full rights for Palestinians. So I embraced the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. The non-violent effort, started in 2005 by a broad coalition of Palestinian civil society organizations, is a call for solidarity from the international community until Israel complies with international law and ends its violations of Palestinian rights. It’s hard going though — the governor of my own state, New York, recently condemned BDS in a unilateral executive order.

Seven years later, there have been two more horrific assaults on Gaza. About 500 Palestinian children were killed in 2014. Even when there are no intensive bombing campaigns, Palestinians in Gaza live under siege. West Bank residents are severely curtailed by Israel’s matrix of control in the area, including checkpoints, administrative detention and home demolitions. Inside Israel, Palestinians with Israeli citizenship live in a system of unequal laws and rights. Outside of Israel, refugees cannot return home.

Of course, during this time there have been attacks on Israeli civilians too. These are a horrifying symptom of ongoing occupation and repression, as Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai pointed out after a recent attack in Tel Aviv killed four Jewish Israelis.

I believe that Israel won’t change its policies until outside pressure becomes impossible to ignore. BDS is a powerful way to encourage the state to act. And during my time with the movement, we’ve had growing success. Mainstream churches have divested from companies profiting from the occupation. Dozens of American campuses have passed divestment resolutions. More than 100 artists refuse to perform in Israel, and multinational corporations like G4S and Veolia have withdrawn from the Israeli market.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/06/24/im-jewish-and-i-want-people-to-boycott-israel/

Note: Extra paragraph added for context.

[Little Tich]

1. Rebecca Vilkomerson is the Executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace:

Rebecca Vilkomerson is the Executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace:

Jewish Voice for Peace
Source: Wikipedia

Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) (קול יהודי לשלום Kol Yehudi la-Shalom), founded in 1996, is a United States organization which describes itself as a "national Jewish organization" consisting of "a diverse and democratic community of activists inspired by Jewish tradition to work together for peace, social justice, and human rights [to] support the aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians for security and self-determination." JVP seeks "an end to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem".

Writing in the Jerusalem Post, Jon Haber described JVP as an organization that "exists largely to declare anyone accused of anti-Jewish bias 'not guilty' (with a Jewish accent)." In 2010, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) identified JVP as one of the top 10 anti-Israel groups in the United States. The NGO Monitor's chief programs officer said JVP supports or has partnered with groups which label Israel a racist apartheid state, support Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, and, in some cases, support violence against Israelis.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Voice_for_Peace

[Press Virginia]

2. If she gets her way, her daughter's won't be welcome in the region

[Little Tich]

4. I dunno - for Vilkomerson, it seems to be about human rights for Palestinians.

I don't see the danger in recognizing that Palestinians have human rights, and I don't think it's equivalent to it being tantamount to supporting terrorism.

Is there really a morally valid reason why Palestinians should not have human rights?

[shira]

6. BDS is never about human rights for Palestinians. To prove it....

Suppose BDS gets what it wants. How does that make human rights better for the average Palestinian? Do tell, be specific, realistic & honest.

Dig deep....it's tough coming up with anything, isn't it?

BDS won't lead to a better quality of life for the average Palestinian & you know it.

================

BTW, Vilkomerson's version of BDS is the ugly type of BDS you sometimes say you dislike (FreeGaza, etc.).

So why the BS about "human rights"?

[Little Tich]

12. If the occupation and the 600.000 illegal settlers were removed,

the Palestinians would be able to access their own resources and build a functioning (as in self-sufficient) economy.

For starters, Palestine would be able to access their own water resources, which would mean that they could get up to and beyond the minimum WHO recommendations, which is way more than the meager 73 liters per day that Israel allows (http://www.btselem.org/press_releases/20140212_discrimination_in_water_allocation). This would mean that they would be able to advance from pre-industrial forms of agriculture to more advanced forms that requires irrigation, and even greenhouses. Currrently, the use of greenhouses on a commercial scale isn't possible due to lack of water and Israeli prohibitions on the advanced equipment needed.

Another advantage is that Palestine would be able to use 3G services. Most countries already has 3G, including the USA and Israel. Imagine how things would be in the US if people had to use 2G services - that's the tech Israel allows for Palestinians.

There would be of course advantages in every way if BDS succeeded, but a final advantage would be that Palestinians would be awarded civil rights, and there would be rule of law in the formerly occupied areas. Instead of Apartheid and military courts, Palestinians would have normal courts and a civil administration like a normal country.

So the BDS goal of ending the occupation and giving Palestinian human rights would help a lot.

For more info on how BDS would help , try reading this:
The economic costs of the Israeli occupation for the occupied Palestinian territory September 2011
Source: The Palestinian Ministry of National Economy and the Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem
http://www.un.org/depts/dpa/qpal/docs/2012Cairo/p2%20jad%20isaac%20e.pdf

[shira]

13. You really don't get the difference b/w non-democracies & free societies, do you?

Look around that neighborhood where each of those countries control their natural resources. How's it going for the average person in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, S.Arabia, and Egypt?

What makes you think the Palestinians will do any better? They're doing just as crappy or worse under Hamas/PLO rule right now, and that doesn't seem to bother you one bit.

This isn't about human rights & it never has been.

[King_David]

5. It's very important for them to stress that they are Jews , they think it gives them

heft , cred . Well they still a tiny fraction of Jews ... A teeny minority.

From their FAQ :
DO I HAVE TO BE JEWISH TO JOIN JVP?
No you don’t. JVP is an organization that is inspired by Jewish values and traditions to work towards peace and justice. We are committed to building an inclusive Jewish community, that, like many of our families, welcomes Jews and allies who share our values and appreciate our traditions, who advocate for an end to Israeli human rights abuses, and who oppose anti-Jewish hatred, anti-Arab racism, and Islamophobia.

[shira]

9. Gives cover to the antisemites. The more anti-Israel JVP becomes...

....and the more they outdo themselves by sliming Israel, the more they prove themselves to their fellow Jew hating trolls, demonstrating they're not "bad Jews" who are Zionists. They're the good ones...

[King_David]

10. They acknowledge that on their website:

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT THAT JVP IS A JEWISH GROUP?
We represent a growing portion of Jewish Americans. Israel claims to be acting in the name of the Jewish people, so we are compelled to make sure the world knows that many Jews are opposed to their actions. There are often attempts to silence critics of Israel by conflating legitimate criticism with anti-Semitism. Israel is a state, not a person. Everyone has the right to criticize the unjust actions of a state.

[shira]

8. Vilkomerson's JVP can't seem to stay away from Alison Weir....

Despite public split with notorious anti-Jewish conspiracy theorist, JVP co-sponsors event in Cleveland.

...So cutting ties with Weir was really just another one of JVP’s savvy marketing ploys. JVP was less interested in condemning Weir’s “obvious anti-Semitic crackpottery” than in burnishing the JVP image as a champion of progressive causes and an organization committed to “love, justice, and equality for all people”.

Indeed, nowhere in JVP’s initial letter to Weir, or in its subsequent publicly released statement, is she herself labeled as anti-Semitic. JVP’s beef with Weir is solely associational—she spends too much time giving interviews to neo-Nazis and White supremacists.

Basically, from JVP’s perspective it’s OK for Weir to hate Israel. But since she’s not also willing to despise America’s “racist and white supremacist” power structures, Weir had become a liability and bad for business.

It was an entirely self-serving move. But, as we remarked in our posts, it was nevertheless great to learn that JVP, a self-styled “Jewish organization” which has long collaborated with virulently anti-Israel organizations, had finally decided to make a clean break from the likes of Alison Weir.

So much for that.

http://legalinsurrection.com/2015/12/jewish-voice-for-peace-cant-seem-to-stay-away-from-alison-weir/

[Little Tich]

11. It's pretty amazing how a tweet from Al Awda (whoever they are) can prove so much about Jewish Voice

for Peace...

I'm sure the guys at Legal Insurrection can compare notes about conspiracy theories with Paul Craig Roberts - after all, they seem to have the same level of evidentiary standards...

[shira]

14. An open letter to the U.S. Campaign and other Activists for Justice in Palestine

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1oyHWpfZtMvDez5XThztcbRMbgzQqMnCibkVk4Rjh3Hw/viewform

As active participants in the struggle for justice for Palestinians, coming from a variety of ethnic, religious, and political backgrounds, we call for an end to internal attacks on fellow activists and organizations. These only impede the work for justice.

We appreciate the important contributions to that cause made over many years by If Americans Knew, Jewish Voice for Peace, and the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation.

In that light, we are dismayed by the recent unfounded attacks on one of the top organizations working on this issue, If Americans Knew, and its dedicated leader, Alison Weir, by the leadership of Jewish Voice for Peace and the U.S. Campaign. Many of us are members of these groups and are unhappy at these significant actions made in our name but without consulting us.

There are around 100 JVP signatories in that love letter in support of Alison Weir.

That's the ugly side of BDS. You know, racist as hell & full of Holocaust deniers.

You really don't have a problem with ugly BDS, do you? Because it doesn't appear you know the difference b/w good and bad BDS, nor care very much about that difference. Not that there is a good BDS as it's all the same but...

[Little Tich]

15. So, Vilkomerson, who is the Executive Director of Jewish Voice for Peace,

is connected to Alison Weir because some members of JVP support Alison Weir, while at the same time Vilkomerson and the rest of the leadership of JVP are distancing themselves from her...

I would say that JVP is not connected to Alison Weir, and that there are some people on the fringe who don't like that and have written an open letter about it.

[shira]

16. 100 JVP signatures is not some people on the fringe. JVP is rotten to the core....

Last edited Mon Jun 27, 2016, 09:52 AM - Edit history (1)

Again, remember that after their "split" with Alison Weir they are still sponsor her hatred - along with Al Awda, CAIR, etc.

[Little Tich]

17. We seem to come to different conclusions about what the letter means.

The sentence "Many of us are members of these groups and are unhappy at these significant actions made in our name but without consulting us." doesn't mean that all of the signatories are members of JVP, for me it implies that only some of them are. When the letter criticizes official JVP policy, it also implies that the official policy is the official policy, and that JVP is still critical of Alison Weir: "We also believe that the vitriolic, ADL-like accusations that Alison Weir is "anti-Semitic" and/or racist are scurrilous and without foundation.".

[shira]

18. You're always making excuses for antisemites. Seems to be your default position.

Maybe a little self- introspection is needed.