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A fascinating debate on Democracy Now! about the boycott, divestment and boycott movement against Israel between BDS leader Omar Barghouti and… Rabbi Arthur Waskow, a longtime antiwar, civil rights activist and founder and director of the Shalom Center.
A friend comments:
Very interesting, Barghouti is all over the other guy, which is last ditch left Zionism, slipping and sliding around, let’s have some ecumenical little chat amongst ourselves here in the U.S., about 30 of us maybe, frightened to death of any form of Palestinian resistance, is there anyway he’d support a BDS when it comes to Israel under any circumstances ”¦. no, funny that, its bankrupt nonsense, the audience for this debate will know that too, the real problem is that political Zionism’s concentration on American support has actually vacated the field to civil society in a way they’re only just waking up to, these anti-BDS left Zionists hate the thought of abandoning their own privileged position as ”˜mediators’ of the conflict in favour of a grass-roots campaign.
Here’s Barghouti:
And BDS is a very nonviolent and effective form of resistance. It is growing tremendously. No one can speak on behalf of the Jews of the world, as if they’re are all in one basket. I think that’s completely inappropriate. There are many Jewish groups that do support the BDS movement, including inside Israel, including in this country. And increasingly in Western Europe, many Jewish groups are joining the BDS movement, because they see it as one that’s very morally consistent. It’s based on international law and universal human rights. It does not distinguish between people based on their identity, as the Israeli system does.
Second, the Israeli state is not standing alone in space. It is completely supported by the institutions of the state of Israel, including academic and cultural institutions. No amount of rebranding and dance groups and music and poetry can cover up Israel’s apartheid and colonial system. So this rebranding effort is exactly unethical, because it’s trying to whitewash this system of oppression.