In a stunning victory
for the Divestment,
Boycott and Sanctions (DBS) movement against Apartheid Palestine and
its partners in the anti-Semitic Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)
“movement,” a federal judge threw
out attempts by anti-Israel partisans to quash sanctions imposed
against their illegal and bigoted project by democratically elected legislators
across the United States.
US District Judge
Brian Miller made it clear that discrimination, whether against blacks, women,
LGBTQIA, or those choosing to do business with the world’s only Jewish state,
is discrimination – an illegal activity – not protected speech.
Making clear what
anyone involved with fighting bigotry directed against any minority group
already knows, the judge pointed out that an organization can “call upon others
to boycott Israel, write in support of such boycotts, and engage in picketing
and pamphleteering to that effect,” but that this did not mean “its decision to
refuse to deal, or to refrain from purchasing certain goods, is protected by
the First Amendment.”
This victory preceded
by just a few days the unprecedented decision by the International Committee
for the Paralympics to pull their upcoming qualifying event from Malaysia
after that country’s right-wing government refused to allow Israeli
Paralympians to participate in the event.
As stated by the
organization, the decision “reinforces the IPC’s [International Paralympic
Committee’s] commitment to our fundamental moral and ethical principles that
encompass inclusivity of all eligible Para athletes and nations to compete at
IPC sanctioned events.”
Just two more examples
of how your commitment and efforts are leading to more sweeping successes for
DBS!
I thought I’d take a break from measured prose to recount a
few recent events in the kind of breathless verbiage made famous in BDS press
releases that inflates every tiny (or pretend) victory into world-shattering
significance.
The irony is that the real victories noted above are each
orders of magnitude greater than anything the BDSers have accomplished in the
last decade and a half in the category they consider most significant:
sanctions.
Consider for a moment the kind of hyperbole and fireworks
that would accompany even one state passing anti-Israel divestment or boycott
legislation, not matter how trivial. In
fact, you don’t have to imagine it since the boycotters have routinely touted
“victories” offered by must smaller political entities such as Somerville
MA (where they failed) or local government councils (where victories
have been, at most, miniscule or fleeting).
Yet in just the last few years, a majority of US states have
passed or floated anti-BDS “sanctions” bills which were passed nearly
unanimously by democratically elected bodies (vs. the back-room, last-minute
deals the BDSers rely on for their “wins”).
Similarly, the international Paralympics Committee didn’t
just slap Malaysia on the wrist or find some common ground between their
principles and Malaysia’s anti-Semitic policy, but instead refused to allow
their event to continue if it was to be marred by anti-Israel bigotry.
Three lessons we can draw from these events and the contrast
in coverage of pro- and anti-BDS votes and measures include:
(1)
Honest and sensible people
still understand the difference between virtuous principles like free speech
and the fight against discrimination, and those who engage in bigotry while
claiming the mantle of anti-racism
(2)
There are ways to present
events that make us look defensive (by stressing, for example, our opponent’s
free-speech arguments against anti-boycott legislation) vs. casting these same
events in terms that put opponents in the dock (by calling them successful
sanctions by democratically elected bodies against racists and right-wingers,
for example).
(3)
That the Israel haters are
playing a long game that can absorb these sorts of setbacks, a strategy I’ll
discuss more next time…