BDS Movement
News about economic and academic attacks against the Jewish state
Israel ‘must go on offensive’ to counter fallacious content by Amnesty International, urge watchdogs
“The best thing is expose the facts—to show that that they’re making things up,” says Anne Herzberg, legal adviser for NGO Monitor. “Transparency is another big issue. I don’t think anyone has revealed yet who wrote the report.”
The move follows Ben & Jerry’s decision to break its contract with its Israeli licensee, who refused to stop selling the company’s ice-cream in Judea and Samaria.
The state will also direct additional resources to the fight against BDS, says Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
Losses not directly connected to boycott • Ben & Jerry’s Israel owner Avi Zinger calls the news “a tremendous boost” • Israeli Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked: “It doesn’t pay to boycott Israel.”
“This concerted effort to drive down reviews as a way to harm individuals and not a political entity is what ends up being problematic and downright anti-Semitic,” said Alexander Rosemberg, deputy regional director of the ADL NY/NJ Region. “It is absolutely wrong.”
A subsidiary of Unilever, Ben & Jerry’s announced in mid-July that it plans to stop selling its ice cream in “Occupied Palestinian Territories.”
MESA’s institutional members must “adhere to federal and state non-discrimination laws and their own institutional non-discrimination and academic freedom protections,” said Cornell Law School professor William Jacobson.
“People in the human rights community were looking for a cause to replace the South African anti-apartheid movement, and they found it in Tutu. It’s a tragic part of his story and a real problem for his historical legacy,” said Dexter Van Zile, a Christian media analyst for CAMERA.
Responding to the Illinois decision, Yinam Cohen, the consul general of Israel to the Midwest, said, “Israel has always claimed that any solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must be reached through direct, bilateral negotiations between the two sides.”
The Illinois Investment Policy Board is scheduled to vote on divesting its pension funds of investments in Unilever at its meeting on Wednesday morning in Chicago, multiple sources told JNS.
“I do think BDS is being beaten back here,” said MP Robert Jenrick of the Conservative Party.
Experts say the resolution ignores the reality of academic freedom in Israel. According to the Israeli Council for Higher Education, approximately 54,000 Arab students attend Israeli universities, comprising 17 percent of all students in Israel.
