On the old Facebook machine, I posted this bit below in italics. I'll expand it a bit to include a major objection to BDS by several real life people that I think represent a lot of the neoliberal/centrist take on this. I still don't completely understand, but I'm trying to wrap my head around this pervasive point of view rather than just dismiss it out of hand.
So I saw this site pop up, We Are Not Numbers, and thought it would be possibly a way to explore the humanity of Palestinians in a way the media refuses to portray them. I mean, maybe one reason why neoliberals shy away from supporting Palestinian rights is that the only articles they read, stories they hear, or pictures they see are of Palestinian militant groups, suicide vests, and a guy who tries to blow up a bus. It's no wonder they think there are two sides to this human rights catastrophe called the occupation. There is a perpetrator and it is our dear friend, Israel. It isn't like this is a war or a tsunami where we don't know how we got here or how to get out. Israel is blockading and only allowing enough calories for bare bones survival, destroying schools and power plants, and killing children. Israel refers to Palestinian births, little babies, if you will, as demographic threat to justify ethnic cleansing. We know what is wrong and who is perpetrating the crimes and why. But we refuse to name the criminal or do anything to stop it.
This was my post:
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Probably a site to bookmark to understand the Palestinian struggle under Israeli occupation.Why BDS is necessary and the peaceful way to deal with this. I love how Palestinian rocket attacks and things get called terrorism, but then peaceful protests and BDS also get shut down as too dangerous (because Israel murders people) or as affecting too many not involved. It's not too much to ask to economically pressure people to have a conscience. It becomes "intractable" only because Palestinians are allowed NO legitimate response to their oppression, a solution impossible and unknowable only because any response is considered wrong by the International community. No. By Americans mostly. Not the world.
We Are Not Numbers: Palestinian youth tell the human stories behind the numbers in the news
https://wearenotnumbers.org/home/Story/Palestinian_weeps_displaced_by_settlers
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Before I list some links to further information, I will say that I don't deny there could be a bit of collateral "damage" from, say, a protest or a boycott. Maybe a protest about abolishing ICE or for racial equality will block a street and cause the firing of a woman in one of these very groups to be late and get fired. This is entirely hypothetical, but it could happen. Yes, Palestinians work at companies that are boycotted. I find it rather funny that neoliberals really really want to dig out these hypotheticals and lay them out as serious objections to their well-considered position on Palestine when they will gladly carpet bomb Iraq or Venezuela in the name of "democracy," killing thousands of innocents who had nothing to do with the conflict. Plus, they know it's all for oil, so the killing is entirely for financial gain and US hegemony, not for human rights or equality. But that killing and collateral damage is just fine. Necessary, in fact, in that ideology. Conservatives and neoliberals alike have no qualms there, but the BDS movement, THAT is a serious threat to someone's livelihood and we should slow down and consider the consequences, young lady.
Let's see what we have, here.
So, clearly, as I have seen, acts of violence and armed resistance are cause to call Palestinians terrorists and respond with extra judicial assassinations and/or disproportionate acts of violence aimed at sending Palestinians to the stone age. There is no call to examine both sides and see why Palestinians are rising up, only a call to murder and assassinate them. Okay. That's off the table. Are we going to put some boots on the ground and stop Israel from planting themselves in Palestinian territory and just calling it and an ever growing security area around it theirs? Are we going to send our troops to tear down the wall and give back the land Israel stole to build it? Are we going to invade Israel and install a leader that's a little more amenable to peace? No? Really? Oh. Okay. So nonviolent protest is okay, right? We, under the expertise of Nikki Haley, vetoed a UN resolution that would have condemned and or looked into the deaths of scores of non-violent protesters in Gaza.
So both armed and unarmed protest are out. Weeell, African Americans in the Southern US and the world in the fight against apartheid in South Africa used boycotts to great effect! That must be the answer! Make it painful on the pocketbook and through intellectual opportunity and the arts to support massive human rights abuses and ethnic cleansing. That must be the answer. NOPE, say many "reasonable" progressive and not so progressive people in the US who blindly support Israel.
People don't want Palestinians to respond violently to their open air imprisonment. That's sort of understandable. A bit of a double standard, but okay, I get it. AND people are against non-violent opposition to occupation of their land?? What on earth is left? The status quo? Keep begging them to come to this imaginary table that is entirely a mirage. It disappears as soon as they arrive! The only option ever given to them is give up and let Israel have everything, including their life. This is not any kind of choice. I don't understand how denying Palestinians all options to resist and object to unfair treatment is going to lead to any kind of solution in any time frame on any "roadmap" at any negotiating table.
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😕 BDS – RIGHT TACTIC, WRONG TARGET: Our true friends know this, but BDS supporters are not interested in the truth because their movement is built on lies. BY ZIONA GREENWALD https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/BDS-right-tactic-wrong-target-572883
😠Ten Reasons Why BDS Is Immoral and Hinders Peace:The Israel boycott movement threatens the peace process by promoting extortion rather than negotiation, and discourages Palestinians from agreeing to any reasonable peace offer. By Alan M. Dershowitz 💢
https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-ten-reasons-why-bds-is-immoral-1.5321568
(And you should definitely listen to the Dersh, because he knows all about immorality...)
😕 How BDS Hurts Palestinians and Hinders Peace
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/how-bds-hurts-palestinians-and-hinders-peace/
(The Times of Israel. Now, that sounds like a friendly non-partisan place for news. Or not.)
🔎🔎🔎
There are whole books on this issue, but here are a few short articles:
💠Boycotts Are Supposed to Hurt -- from Whatever: This Machine Mocks Fascists
https://whatever.scalzi.com/2016/04/14/boycotts-are-supposed-to-hurt/
💠BDS: how a controversial non-violent movement has transformed the Israeli-Palestinian debate
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/aug/14/bds-boycott-divestment-sanctions-movement-transformed-israeli-palestinian-debate
💠Rashida Tlaib And Ilhan Omar Support Palestine And The BDS Movement In A First For Congress
https://www.bustle.com/p/rashida-tlaib-ilhan-omar-support-palestine-the-bds-movement-in-a-first-for-congress-13604364
My hope for women in Congress - bringing a more accurate picture of what needs to be done and that facts aren't owned by rich white men anymore.
💠Ilhan Omar Owes No Apologies, Apologies Are Owed Her
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/02/22/ilhan-omar-owes-no-apologies-apologies-are-owed-her/
She tweeted some variation on politicians being bought by AIPAC, which is true, but it started a bit of a firestorm due to the anti-Semitic trope of Jews having lots of money and ruling the world, which isn't true. The fact that AIPAC is the first or second most successful lobby group in Congress and influences US policy in scary, unprecedented and unseen ways is a huge problem that needs exposure to the light. Demonizing Jews is neither the object or result of this. Most smart people can separate Israel from Jews and those who can't should read a book... or talk to a Jewish person. Anyway, she capitulated a bit when she should have stood behind her remarks like Marc Lamont Hill, sort of, or Angela Davis.
💠Ilhan Omar Was Right
https://jacobinmag.com/2019/02/ilhan-omar-israel-tweet-antisemitism-bds
💠Non-violent BDS Should Be Welcomed, Not Condemned by Ramzy Baroud
https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2016/04/08/non-violent-bds-should-be-welcomed-not-condemned/
This one goes into Obama and HRC's enti-BDS stance from 2016.
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