{"id":319723,"date":"2017-08-01T04:33:23","date_gmt":"2017-08-01T03:33:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/shielding-israel-from-popular-outrage\/"},"modified":"2017-08-01T04:33:23","modified_gmt":"2017-08-01T03:33:23","slug":"shielding-israel-from-popular-outrage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/shielding-israel-from-popular-outrage\/","title":{"rendered":"Shielding Israel from Popular Outrage"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>A bipartisan bill in Congress seeks <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2017\/07\/25\/cardin-amend-israel-boycott-bill-bds\/\">to criminalize boycotts of Israel<\/a> with fines and imprisonment, as the so-called BDS movement passes its twelfth birthday, notes Lawrence Davidson.<\/p>\n<p>By Lawrence Davidson<\/p>\n<p>As of this July, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israeli racism and apartheid is 12 years old. This means that over the last dozen years, a worldwide grassroots movement has grown up \u2013 a movement of civil society \u2013 that has organized active opposition to Zionist racism and Israeli oppression.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_6650\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/israeli-wall.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/lazy-load\/images\/1x1.trans.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/israeli-wall-300x225.jpg\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-6650\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/israeli-wall-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/israeli-wall.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\"\/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-6650\" src=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/israeli-wall-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/israeli-wall-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/israeli-wall.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A section of the barrier \u2014 erected by Israeli officials to prevent the passage of Palestinians \u2014 with graffiti using President John F. Kennedy\u2019s famous quote when facing the Berlin Wall, \u201cIch bin ein Berliner.\u201d (Photo credit: Marc Venezia)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>While the vast majority of governments have either ignored or assisted Israel\u2019s violations of international law and the basic principles of human rights, millions of \u201ccivilians\u201d have refused to follow their leaders on this issue.<\/p>\n<p>The BDS movement is now far ranging. It presses for divestment from companies that support or do business with Israel, particularly those that operate in the Occupied Territories. It urges the boycott of all Israeli products, from foodstuffs to cosmetics. It protests the appearance of Israeli cultural organizations outside of Israel. It urges the boycott of Israeli academic institutions that lend support to the state (an effort that, in 2015, Israeli president Reuven Rivlin called a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.middleeasteye.net\/news\/bds-10-years-israel-eyes-strategic-threat-first-order-608033597\">\u201cstrategic threat of the first order\u201d<\/a>). And, it discourages tourist and artist visits to Israel, particularly by well-known celebrities. For more information about specific BDS achievements over the last 12 years, go to website of the <a href=\"https:\/\/uscpr.org\/campaign\/bds\/bdswins\/#1499799109159-8f9e0458-b327\">US Campaign for Palestinian Rights.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In all these efforts the movement has proved increasingly successful. Some surveys have suggested that as many as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.haaretz.com\/israel-news\/1.722327\">one-third of Americans<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/electronicintifada.net\/blogs\/ali-abunimah\/80-percent-canadians-back-israel-boycott-poll-0\">80 percent of Canadians<\/a> support BDS. The movement is also strong in Western Europe and growing in Australia and Latin America. Thus, no one should sell this\u00a0ongoing campaign short. Certainly, the Israeli government does not.<\/p>\n<p>Israel\u2019s Ministry of Strategic Affairs&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/2017\/07\/31\/shielding-israel-from-popular-outrage\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A bipartisan bill in Congress seeks to criminalize boycotts of Israel with fines and imprisonment, as the so-called BDS movement passes its twelfth birthday, notes Lawrence Davidson. By Lawrence Davidson As of this July, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israeli racism and apartheid is 12 years old. This means that over the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2524,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-319723","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2524"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319723\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}