More signs of the changing discourse on Israel/Palestine in the United States:
Gal Beckerman of
The Jewish Daily Forward recently covered the tax-exempt status that the U.S. arms of Israeli settler organizations enjoy, and how these organizations might be in violation of U.S. tax law (the same topic covered by
Andrew Kadi and Aaron Levitt of US Campaign member group Adalah-NY in a recent Guardian article):
"An Israeli organization handing out cash to soldiers for disobeying orders has been collecting tax-exempt donations from American donors in apparent disregard of United States tax law."
Even more intriguing, check out
this piece at The Forward. It's a collection of short pieces by prominent Jewish writers and thinkers looking back over the last decade. There's the usual anti-Palestinian garbage from folks like Elliot Abrams and Abraham Foxman, but the
Forward also published this piece by Alisa Solomon of Columbia University:
"After years of building slowly, the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement has gained real traction. The BDS conference at Hampshire College in November — which drew students from 40 campuses — marked a watershed in anti-occupation activism in the United States. BDS proponents — many of them Jewish — are picking up a time-honored, non-violent protest tool as they seek meaningful action against the 42-year-old occupation. Charges that these are “antisemitic” efforts to “delegitimize Israel” mischaracterize a multifaceted movement for human and civil rights. As BDS keeps growing, the Jewish community is going to have to grapple seriously with the issues this movement raises."
Check it out
here, and leave comments on the article (thanks to US Campaign Steering Committee member David Matos of member group
Carolina Peace Resource Center for spotting this one). You can use our
media action resources and
campus BDS resources to get more involved.
