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| -Signs, Portents, and the Weather- |
| BDS loses in Europe and America |
| 2016-06-09 |
| Israel boycott motions scrapped in 4 Spanish cities [IsraelTimes] Reversals come amid an unprecedented judicial crackdown against resolutions supporting the BDS movement Four Spanish municipalities dropped their former policy of support for boycotts of the Jewish state, following legal action by supporters of Israel. Occurring amid an unprecedented judicial crackdown in Spain against the phenomenon, three of the four reversals last month came following court-issued injunctions that suspended municipal motions passed in support of a boycott, ACOM, a Madrid-based pro-Israel group, wrote in a statement last week. The fourth municipality, Sant Sadurnì d’Anoià, a town of 12,000 residents in Catalonia, voided its own motion in support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, or BDS, movement following ACOM’s threat to sue. Two of the rulings came on May 31, when the 3rd and 4th Administrative Courts of Barcelona nullified the BDS policies of the Catalan cities of Sant Adria de Besòs and Sant Quirze del Vallès, respectively, which have a combined population of approximately 55,000. Earlier last month, an administrative court in Oviedo ruled that a motion in support of the BDS movement passed in January by the City Council of Langreo in Spain’s north was discriminatory and must be scrapped. Also in May, the Ministerio Fiscal, an advisory judicial authority charged with guaranteeing equality in the judiciary, recommended scrapping the BDS motion passed in the northern municipality of Gijon for declaring itself "a space free of Israeli apartheid." The Ministerio, which is a constitutional court, cited anti-discrimination laws in its ruling on Gijon. The anti-BDS rulings are a recent development in Spain, which has for many years been seen as a hub of anti-Israeli lobbying in Europe. In parallel to these rulings, motions proposing to adopt BDS policies have failed in five Spanish municipalities in recent months. Another three municipalities nonetheless passed BDS motions -- ACOM has vowed to defeat them in court. Spain’s government has repeatedly expressed its opposition to BDS, which is illegal in neighboring La Belle France because it is deemed discriminatory. Britannia’s ruling party is formulating similar legislation, officials said earlier this year. Spain has recently taken actions that angered BDS promoters, including a January offer of $107,000 in compensation for damages caused to an Israeli West Bank university due to its exclusion from a scientific competition for political reasons. Unlike the parliaments of Britannia, La Belle France and other European countries, which have pledged unconditional support for Paleostinian statehood, Spain’s Congress in 2014 passed a nonbinding motion saying it would only support a Paleostinian state reached by a peace agreement through talks with Israel ‐ language that was hailed as a diplomatic victory for Israel and its supporters. American Anthropological Association rejects Israel boycott [IsraelTimes] By a narrow margin, the American Anthropological Association votes against a measure to boycott Israeli academia. Participation in the vote is the largest in AAA history, according to its website, encompassing 51 percent of its members, 2,423 of whom oppose the bid and 2,384 of whom support it. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #4 Perfect, #2 B. Only thing I would add is a bag of fertilizer nearby. |
| Posted by: Barbara 2016-06-09 16:35 |
| #3 Sensei! |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2016-06-09 15:10 |
| #2 |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2016-06-09 15:07 |
| #1 I came across this in The Times of Israel, written shortly before the American Anthropological Association vote, which I find heartening: Despite important differences in outlook and methods, these organizations â the Academic Engagement Network and the Academic Council for Israel, as examples â have made important progress mobilizing faculty against BDS. The evidence is in successful faculty letter writing and mobilization campaigns on several campuses in response to BDS campaigns in 2015-16, including Minnesota, Columbia, and University of Michigan-Dearborn, a large petition drive opposed to BDS with 1,100 signatures and growing, and hopefully a close victory or close contest in the current vote on boycott in the American Anthropological Association. BDS gives off the impression that it is everywhere on the rise and winning. But it is not. During the past two years, according to statistics developed by the Israel on Campus Coalition, BDS has mounted 77 campaigns on American campuses, 44 in 2014-15 after the Gaza War, and 33, down 25%, in 2015-16. The fact is that BDS loses as much as or more than it wins. Of 33 campaigns during 2015-2016, 17 failed outright, or the resolutions were tabled or not put up to a vote. The year before, of 44 campaigns, 32 failed outright, or were tabled or did not come to fruition. In the past two years, with 77 total tries, that is, BDS won only 22 outright successes. This is not an stellar batting average. And these successes resulted in no tangible changes in respective institutional policies. None whatsoever. No boycott, no divestment. BDS is primarily about symbolic politics and radical gestures, and about skillful manipulation of the media. BDSâs real purpose is to cumulatively infiltrate a politically loaded teaching onto campuses about Israel and the Middle East, and to make of Israel a pariah state in the minds of members of the current student generation and future leaders; it is not to impact institutional policies. BDS is also being confronted in the faculty associations, where the tide may perhaps be turning. After successes in the American Studies Association, Womenâs Studies Association, and several smaller ethnic studies associations, BDS initiatives have encountered significant opposition this year in the Modern Language Association, American Historical Association, International Studies Association, the Association of American Geographers, and others. Even in the American Anthropological Association, where BDS views are particularly strong, we expect a close membership vote on the matter of boycott. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2016-06-09 14:44 |