BDS Faces Setbacks in Faith and Academic Organizations

For a number of years, activists seeking to damage Israel’s legitimacy and standing in the world have mounted a campaign to boycott, divest from and sanction the Jewish state. Reform Movement fervently opposes the BDS Movement, which has been working on college campuses, in academic associations, among church groups and beyond to encourage a set of tactics and a vision for the future of the Middle East that are heavily weighted against Israel. As such, we have been encouraged by the news that two organizations have rebuffed advances made by the BDS Movement in the past two months.

Just this week, the American Anthropological Association announced that their membership had rejected a resolution to boycott Israeli academic institutions. This is the second time this organization has voted down such a move. This time, 51% of the Association’s members participated in the vote, marking the largest turnout in the body’s history. While the AAA has decided to take other actions that are critical of Israel, their membership has clearly spoken out against an academic boycott.

Last month, the United Methodist Church also turned down a number of attempts to divest from companies that do business in Israel. As representatives of the 7.2 million-member denomination gathered in Portland, Oregon in May for their General Conference, BDS proponents had been advocating for four different resolutions, all of which failed. While the Church had rejected similar proposals in the past, this year they went even farther and withdrew from the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, a national coalition that engages in BDS work. The petition calling for withdrawal called the group a “one-sided political coalition” that disproportionately blames Israel for the ongoing violence and conflict in the region.

URJ President Rabbi Rick Jacobs issued a statement after the Methodist Church’s General Conference calling the decision to reject BDS a “welcome step in support of peace between Israel and the Palestinians.” Rabbi Jacobs’ statement echoes our Movement’s belief that, while we remain concerned about the pain and hardship felt by Palestinians, we oppose BDS, as it “ignores the complexity of Israel’s reality and favors isolation over engagement and dialogue.

These two victories can serve to hearten supporters of Israel as we speak out against the one-sided tactics espoused by the BDS Movement. As groups across North America continue to debate their role in addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we will continue to encourage our friends and partners who embrace a two-state solution to work with us towards peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and warn against the divisiveness BDS brings along with it. You can learn more about our work to oppose BDS by visiting the RAC’s new BDS issue page and about our work on Israel by visiting the RAC’s Israel issue page.

Feature Image courtesy of Akalati, Wikipedia.