For the Women’s Studies Association, the BDS Vote Was Over Before It Began

[azurnoir]

The results of the vote on the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) resolution put forth by the National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) came over email this past Friday. Of those voting, 88.4 percent or 653 people approved the BDS resolution; 86 opposed. Thirty five percent of the NWSA membership voted. As a longtime member of NWSA, who has observed the organizing strategies that led to the vote, I knew its passage was a foregone conclusion.

The NWSA resolution calls for the “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions” of economic, military and cultural entities and projects sponsored by the State of Israel. The leadership of the NWSA (without consultation with the association’s Jewish Caucus) sponsored official sessions in which speakers presented only one perspective in the BDS debate. These include a 2014 plenary on Israel/Palestine in which no Israeli was asked to speak and after which attendees who had heard a litany of remarks against Israel were asked to stand in support of “freedom and justice for/in Palestine.”

I have long been involved in the NWSA, and for a time served as chair of its Jewish Caucus. My commitment to working as a Jewish feminist includes directing the Women’s Studies program and co-directing the Center for Jewish Culture at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth where I worked for twenty-five years before joining the Brandeis Women’s Studies Research Center. While I can convey my progressive politics in Jewish groups, increasingly, I do not feel I can express my Jewish voice within the progressive community, including NWSA which has been one of my homes for many years. With just a few gaps, I have returned to conference after conference since the late 1970s because I want to engage in “difficult dialogues,” the theme of not one but two recent conferences.

Since the NWSA had not offered occasions to present a legitimate discussion on pros and cons of the resolution, I felt it was important for me to accept an opportunity to speak at this year’s conference for five minutes on a BDS roundtable sponsored by the Jewish Caucus entitled “‘Two Jews, Three Opinions’: A Critical Query of the Boycott/Divestment/Sanction Movement Against the Israeli Occupation” which offered a singular opportunity to present divergent viewpoints on the resolution. One other woman spoke against the resolution and two spoke in favor.


Read more: http://forward.com/sisterhood/325637/for-the-womens-studies-association-the-bds-vote-was-over-before-it-began/#ixzz3t8LMJ49Y

[Little Tich]

1. I think it's good that there's a healthy debate about BDS.

Personally, I think that both Freedman and the NWSA are wrong. The scope of NWSA's boyott is too wide, it endorses "the 2005 call by Palestinian civil society for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) of economic, military and cultural entities and projects sponsored by the state of Israel", while I personally support boycott of Apartheid and nothing else. BDS is a logical step when other measures to make Israel listen have failed, but it must be very clear what the target is, or it might deteriorate into an anti-Semitic hatefest.

Dr Freedman OTOH, seems to be completely unable to to fathom why some people have a real problem with Israel's policies. Her thinly veiled attempt attempt at connecting BDS with anti-Semitism doesn't address the real issue at all. Her position on the issue is weak.

Finally, I don't like the resolution; it reads like an accusation, and the endorsement of BDS is like a punishment. I would really prefer that BDS was used as a corrective tool with a clear goal to promote reform instead. The resolution is divisive and it can't encompass any consensus on the issue.

The NWSA resolution here: http://www.nwsa.org/content.asp?contentid=105

[azurnoir]

4. so you find this anti semitic or a hatefest? I am sorry you feel that way

Feminists for Justice in/for Palestine Support An Indivisible Sense of Justice! Support BDS A Resolution submitted to: National Women’s Studies Association 2015 As feminist scholars, activists, teachers, and public intellectuals we recognize the interconnectedness of systemic forms of oppression. In the spirit of this intersectional perspective, we cannot overlook the injustice and violence, including sexual and gender-based violence, perpetrated against Palestinians and other Arabs in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, within Israel and in the Golan Heights, as well as the colonial displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during the 1948 Nakba. The discriminatory treatment, exclusion, military siege and apartheid imposed by Israel on its own Palestinian citizens as well as those residing in the occupied territories constitute flagrant breaches of international law, UN resolutions, and fundamental human rights. In the present moment, our counterparts in Palestine face daily violations of their human rights, including their academic rights to free speech, assembly, association, and movement. At the same time, Israeli institutions of higher learning have not challenged, but instead legitimized, Israel’s oppressive policies and violations. These violations, which severely impact the daily lives and working conditions of Palestinian scholars, students, and the society at large, are also enabled by U.S. tax dollars and the tacit support of western powers, thus making any taxpayer in the West complicit in perpetuating these injustices. As members of NWSA who are committed to justice, dignity, equality and peace, we affirm our opposition to the historical and current injustices in Palestine that we view as part and parcel of the multiple oppressions we study and teach about. We also affirm the commitment of NWSA to principles of human rights, justice and freedom for all, including academic freedom. At our 2014 national conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico, nearly 800 participants signed a petition calling upon the organization to declare its support for the international movement for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel. About 2500 members of the audience at the plenary on Palestine stood in unison in support of freedom and justice for/in Palestine. Therefore, in keeping with these principles and the strong consensus of the majority of our 2014 conference participants, let be it resolved that the National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) endorses the 2005 call by Palestinian civil society for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) of economic, military and cultural entities and projects sponsored by the state of Israel. In doing so, we join the growing grassroots international consensus and add our voices to other professional U.S. academic associations that adopted similar resolutions in recent years. These associations include the African Literature Association, American Studies Association, Association for Asian American Studies, Association for Humanist Sociology, Critical Ethnic Studies Association, National Association of Chicana and Chicano Studies, Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, Peace and Justice Studies Association, University of Hawaii at Manoa-Ethnic Studies Department, United Auto Workers Local 2865, The University of California Student Workers Union, and over 1000 members of the American Anthropological Association.

http://www.nwsa.org/content.asp?contentid=105

[Little Tich]

5. No, I don't consider the resolution to be an anti-Semitic hatefest.

I'm just very wary of what the resolution can be used for, simply because it's sloppy. Inadvertently, the resolution could become a platform for hate. It contains loaded language and it's completely disjointed where it connects the examples of Israeli wrongdoing with the actions to be taken. When a resolution like this is based on strong emotions and little substance, the results can be unexpected.

The resolution was put forward by Feminists for Justice in/for Palestine (FJP), an "ad-hoc group founded in Puerto Rico at NWSA 2014", and I think this seems more like an attempt to create the impression of consensus rather than drawing from any actual consensus.

I'm pro-BDS, but I think the issue should be vetted in open debate, and if there simply isn't enough support for BDS, the issue shouldn't be pushed.

[leftynyc]

2. I'm sure all those women

would just LOVE living under the conditions that hamas has for women in gaza. I also notice only one side of the story was told - not surprised at that at all. I sure do hope they walk the walk and don't use any medicine or medical advances that were invented by Israeli's. Until they rid bds of their anti semites or even condemn them, I will consider them nothing more than a odious organization who supports terrorists. They say NOTHING about terrorism - nothing. They're vile.

[shira]

3. These hypocrites are quiet about the situation for women under Hamas

Until they rid bds of their anti semites or even condemn them, I will consider them nothing more than a odious organization who supports terrorists. They say NOTHING about terrorism - nothing. They're vile.

Word.