The authors of this article write: “BDS is a tool that — as in the case of the movement against apartheid in South Africa — challenges racial inequality, dispossession, displacement and genocidal violence.” Lets examine how many lies are in this one sentence.
1) It draws an analogy to apartheid in South Africa but Jew and Arabs living in Israel have equal rights including the right to vote. In fact Arabs have more rights in Israel than in any of the oppressive Arab countries that surround it.
2)“It challenges dispossession”. 3/4 of the Jewish National home was given by the British to Jordan. 1/2 of the remaining areas has been cut out to give to the Palestinians some of whose leaders e.g. Zuheir Mohsein, have admitted that there is no difference between Jordanians and Palestinians. Who has been dispossessed?
3) It challenges racial inequality. First of all the Arabs are not a different race. There are Jews and Muslims of all races. Israelis have flown in to Israel people of all races who are being persecuted no matter what they’re race and given them a home. Why don’t these authors condemn the real racial inequality in Arab countries where there is still slavery of blacks?
4) “BDS is against genocidal violence”. Has anyone noticed that although Israel is constantly being accused of genocide the Muslim population of Israel keeps increasing? Has anyone noticed that the Christian population in the Palestinian controlled areas is decreasing due to oppression by Palestinians?
BDS is not promoting dialog in fact as a previous DP article reported it silences opposition. This turning of reality on its head and slandering of Israel plants seeds of hate which have already born fruit at other Universities and made them a hostile environment for Jewish students. This is what people are concerned about.

And while these 22 professors have every right to their opinion, the 1.5 million member American Federation of Teachers had this to say about the whole BDS mishagas:

http://leadernet.aft.org/documents_supporting/israel boycott statement1.pdf

This group of professors decries the accusation of “genocide” by the opponents of BDS, supporters of Israel. They then go on to attack Israel and its supporters for enabling “genocidal violence.” What is the distinction between these two phrases? Their language is thoroughly dishonest.

The recreational compassion displayed by these esteemed academicians is appalling.

Two decades ago, Arab Morocco built an Apartheid Wall in occupied Western Sahara to subdue the native non-Arabs. Since then, Morocco has exterminated or expelled the natives. Only a few hundred thousand remain, walled off in ghettos. Three decades ago, Muslim Turkey built an Apartheid Wall across Occupied Cyprus, to bar native Cypriots from returning to their homes. Since then, Turkey has moved tens of thousands of settlers into Cypriot homes. And for five decades, the Chinese occupiers of Tibet has expelled hundreds of thousands of natives and settled that sad land with Chinese.

Surely, Saharans, Cypriots, and Tibetans are suffering greatly. But the Op-Ed by these highly esteemed academicians includes not one word of comfort for them.

One can hardly blame these brilliant men and women. It’s easier to pick on Jews than take a stand against evil men – particularly when the evil men have oil and grant money.

Still, Jesus said, “You must not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the study halls and at the street corners, so they may be seen by people.” As lecturers in Religious Studies, no doubt many of these esteemed individuals know this all too well.

Surely these esteemed academicians understand the definition of “apartheid”? No? Obviously not.

Far be it from me to teach these professors their ABC’s. But their willful ignorance on this subject demands it.

http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=215811

http://spme.net/cgi-bin/articles.cgi?ID=6572

http://www.stonegateinstitute.org/1111/what-about-the-arab-apartheid

http://www.stonegateinstitute.org/1953/arab-apartheid

I guess Desmond Tutu doesn’t understand the definition of apartheid either.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/1957644.stm

You figure they would distinguish the differences between Palestinians in the west bank and those in gaza

Apparently, splitting hairs and being accurate within ones field of purported expertise is not as important as condemning “silencing and intimidating letters.”

I feel your letter is both silencing and intimidate, mostly because I have never seen an effort with so many academics and so little actual content. So then what is the point of adding your credentials and opinion if you don’t write anything informational?

to silence and intimidate… Which has worked as I’ll know to avoid the university of Minnesota

I love the mentality of leftist academics. “We’ll show them! We’ll all sign a letter!” Thanks, guys. You’ve really made me reconsider my position on BDS. After all, 22 of you signed the letter. How can I argue with that?

The above letter by a gang of academic hacks is the most jargon written puffery and flabber-jabber I have ever read. The letter is also full of mis-information. First of all Penn did NOT hist the BDS hate-fest. No academic Department sponsored it or was involved with it in any way; although some individual professors did participate. The whole BDS conference was a sham since as President Gutmann made clear in multiple ways she and the university will never even consider divesting from Israel. The real purpose of the hideous conference was to hijack the prestige of an Ivy-League University to their cause in a parasite-like manner since anti-Israel people contribute nothing to create that prestige. The BDS ‘ers were NOT “courageous” but cowards and hypocrites since their festival of hate was about incitement, false anologies (Israel and South African apartheid) yet cower, whine and cringe about one short on-line essay by Dr. Gur and one flyer by the Horowitz Center. The point of Dr. gur’s essay and the flyer was merely that boycotting Jews or Israel had clear precedent in the Nazi-era. Adding to the hypocrisy is the mis-use of the Holocuast by the anti-Israel and Jew-hating crowd. It is their second most favorite rhetoric. First is the mis-use and mis-application of International Law and Human rights concepts. for anti -Israel rhetoric of Holocaust denial, minimization, reversal ( Jews / Israel are Nazi ), inversion ( Jews /Israel are like Nazis ) and worst of all slander That Jews were somehow complicit with Nazis are all give with hundreds of examples used by enemies of Israel in manfred Gerstein’s book “ the Abuse of the Holocaust” available on-line. Such slander is widespread and standard it can be classified and analyzed. For the esteemed professors to get so worked up the accurate and relevant use of the Holocaust and Nazi era to warn about where BDS is headed, what it is about and the importance of stopping it shows how utterly distorted everything has become and what complete hypocrites the not-so esteemed professors are.

Furthermore I want to elucidate more of the Jargon. and correct more of their mistakes. PennBDS was just a front-group , a bunch of stooges , a wedge so that the University of Pennsylvania would have to allow the BDS hate-fest onto campus under free-speech requirements allowed to any SAC-funded group. Free-speech that the BDS’ers refused to reciprocate like kicking out anyone they didn’t like. The real organizers were Ali Abunimah and Omar Barghouti and other parts of the International hate Israel crowd and Clown Brigade. Matt Berkmann was their Jewish mascot evidently. The real agenda of BDS is concealed in fancy phrases like the “Palestinian Struggle for self-determination”. That means the “Palestinians” get to determine what are the borders of Palestine (all of the Land;ie. no more Israel) and who are the citizens of that “Palestine.”( No more Jews ,no more Jewish State.) A “just Peace “ is a code-word for the destruction of Israel. So behind all the fancy words is what BDS is all about : hatred and destruction.

I’m commenting on the follow statement: “Indeed, BDS is a tool that — as in the case of the movement against apartheid in South Africa — challenges racial inequality, dispossession, displacement and genocidal violence.”

The authors speak in vague generalities as if they oppose genocidal violence, which sounds very good. Yet, the tool, BDS, is only aimed at one group: Jewish Israelis. So they don’t even have the courage to directly accuse Israel of genocidal violence when that is clearly what they actually think.

Furthermore, the signers of this letter are hypocrites when they say “we urge the Penn community to be wary of any language that equates critique with genocide” when they are clearly accusing Israeli Jews of genocide.

@David

You call them hypocrites for accusing the Israeli government of carrying out genocide while warning against “equating critique with genocide”. You have to realize how silly this comment is. Equating critique with genocide is very different from equating the systematic abuse of a large number of human beings with, well, genocide.

If x = y and y =/= a, then x =/= a.

Another thing, as a supporter of BDS, I can say that I don’t care one bit whether the offending party is Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Black, White, Brown, or Martian. The issue is the crime, not the ancestry or beliefs of the perpetrator. Might there be anti-semites whithin the movement? I’m quite sure they are, but they are anomalous, cancerous, and do not represent the ideals of the whole.

The accusation of antisemitism is in itself a smokescreen for islamophobia and an attempt to polarize the discussion into glorified contest of jingoistic namecalling.

Wow, as always zionist trolls come out in droves to spew vitriolic nonsense because they are bullies and cowards and won’t debate in person because they have no argument. Sorry, but Israel’s disgusting and unforgivable racist colonial apartheid project will be flushed down the toilet as it is an untenable and abject crime against humanity. Please see following documents

http://electronicintifada.net/downloads/pdf/090608-hsrc.pdf

http://icahdusa.org/2010/03/is-israel-an-apartheid-state/

I thought it was a brilliant letter, straight to the point. I find all the responses to it here, except for the last two comments, to be purposefully invalidating and manipulative and dangerous. It is really sad and deeply disturbing that people will justify Israel’s actions and these human rights atrocities against the Palestinian people, paint a nasty picture of all of these people who in most cases have risked their careers, and some of them their life and limb, to get the truth out and to take a stand for the Palestinian people. To demonize these academic professionals and dehumanize the Palestinians is both cowardice and obviously prejudicial. You are bullies! I mean what freakshow fantasy are you people living in? Martin Luther King Jr. said once, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” I say to BDS, scream it loud and clear for all to hear and know! Palestinians are humans too! They deserve their human rights to be recognized and respected like everyone else! Having their human rights violated by Israel and funded by the US needs to addressed! We need to hold all criminals responsible for their actions, not just the ones that don’t suit US agendas.

Go BDS! Go Daily Penn! Go University of Pennsylvania! Keep up the great work!

Furthermore, you should all be ashamed of yourselves for ridiculing and inciting a smear campaign against these people who are brave enough to stand up against the inherent wrongness of Israel’s human rights violations and to try to justify these abhorrent actions. How dare you try to obstruct justice from happening and pervert compassion, truth, and understanding. Shame on you David, Karl, Scott Sonntag, Arafat, and the rest of you who echo their sentiments hereafter.

Aloha, I apologize. In a moment of weakness, I thought I had the freedom to express an opinion, but you’ve reminded me that in your leftist world, freedom of expression belongs only to those who share your particular skewed view of life. The only correct way to view a situation is your way. You’re always correct. Those who disagree with you are always stupid and shameful. But let me guess. You love diversity, just not diversity of thought. You embrace inclusiveness and acceptance, except for those you decide must be excluded and rejected.

The only time you should ever utter the phrase “shame on you” is when you look in the mirror, for your hypocrisy and close-mindedness is appalling.

As a long time Pro-Palestinian and human rights activist, let me say that the best thing zionist internet trolls can do in their trolling is to drag Israel into America’s “right vs left” fox news style culture wars of us vs them.

That has already happened broadly in American political discourse, and so the more Israel supporters are adamant about framing the issue as such- the faster Israel loses support. It’s almost like clockwork. Just like any issue that gets framed as a culture war issue in America rather quickly over time loses to the forces of popular democracy: civil rights, gay rights, women’s equality, economic inequality, etc.

The faster Israel firsters draw parallels between Israel’s ‘forever wars” and America’s endless wars, the sooner you can expect that nominal public support for the “pro-Israel” position will fall off of a cliff. More and more Americans will connect the dots between the deceitful lying used to manipulate and scare the American public into pouring vast resources into pointless wars and the relentless propaganda campaigns waged by the Israeli government and it’s American boosters.

Hucksters of a feather, flock together- as the saying goes.

I applaud the scholars of the BDS Conference for exercising their right to freedom of speech and using that freedom to speak of things that matter – humanity, freedom, and solidarity. I see too much hate spewing forth from those who would condemn them for speaking on behalf of those who are being silenced – who’s lives are being ended. We see through the rhetoric and diatribe and we say, “FINALLY! Someone brave enough to speak up.” Thank you for doing that and keep doing it. We are listening and we do care.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

http://outloud.wordpress.com/2007/01/15/for-dr-martin-luther-king-jr/

I don’t know if the fact that people are making this into an argument about Left or Rightwing ideology is something I should find laughable or something that I should be sincerely saddened about. How one votes is no one’s business and it certainly shouldn’t be used to invalidate them. What if I happen to be another Republican such as Maureen Walsh? A person who actually used her position and conscience to voice her opposition to the bullying of the status quo. That’s what these people who are doing too. You can try to say they are being hypocrites for speaking out against genocide – but it’s obvious to me an to others who the real hypocrites are. Aloha!