Witwatersrand University in South Africa has distanced itself from a student association decision to boycott Israel. In a statement released Monday, the university said that it does not share the initiative of the Wits Student Representative Council, adopted Aug. 31, which calls for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel, and for further support of…
The opening performance of an Israeli dance troupe at the Edinburgh International Festival was disrupted four times last night, as protesters in the audience shouted “free Palestine.” The Batsheva Dance Company members stopped as the protesters were removed by security, but then continued. The disruption was not a surprise, as pro-Palestinian activists had announced it…
In his latest column, Philologos correctly parses the linguistic problems with Yitzhak Santis and Gerald M. Steinberg’s invented term, “Jew-washing.” His political analysis, alas, fails miserably. Philologos has it completely wrong when he speaks of the “anti-Semitism in boycotts of Israel.” To begin with, Santis and Steinberg did not use the term “Jew-washing” in reference…
In the July 24 issue of the New York Jewish Week, you’ll find an article by Yitzhak Santis and Gerald M. Steinberg that begins: “At the Pittsburgh General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) earlier this month, a motion to adopt a boycott of three companies for doing business with Israel was hotly debated and…
True or false: Boycotts are bad. True. And false. Here, for example, is a good boycott, one that in fact explains the origin of the word: In 1880, an Irish landowner, in the wake of a poor harvest, offered his tenant farmers a 10% reduction in their rents. The workers, however, demanded a 25% reduction….
The U.S.-based Episcopal Church adopted a resolution at its General Convention Assembly calling for “a negotiated two-state solution” and “positive investment” as responses to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Also at the meeting in Indianapolis, delegates tabled a resolution urging “corporate engagement” by the church and dissemination of “information on products” made in the West Bank. The…
Hours after it narrowly rejected divestment from some companies that do business with Israel, the Presbyterian Church (USA) voted to endorse a boycott of products made in the occupied West Bank. The church’s general assembly also cleared the way for a vote in 2014 to establish an Israel occupation-free “conscience plan” for participants in its…
The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) rejected divestment from companies doing business with Israeli security forces in the West Bank but approved a measure backing a boycott of goods made in the Occupied Territories. The 333-331 vote, with two abstentions, in Pittsburgh late Thursday was the closest that the boycott, divestment and sanctions…
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