{"id":395180,"date":"2019-02-05T01:08:05","date_gmt":"2019-02-05T00:08:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/palestinian-rights-has-become-an-incredibly-mainstream-issue-counterspin-interview-with-josh-ruebner-on-bds-bans\/"},"modified":"2019-02-05T01:08:05","modified_gmt":"2019-02-05T00:08:05","slug":"palestinian-rights-has-become-an-incredibly-mainstream-issue-counterspin-interview-with-josh-ruebner-on-bds-bans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/palestinian-rights-has-become-an-incredibly-mainstream-issue-counterspin-interview-with-josh-ruebner-on-bds-bans\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Palestinian Rights Has Become an Incredibly Mainstream Issue\u2019 &#8211; CounterSpin interview with Josh Ruebner on BDS bans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Janine Jackson interviewed Josh Ruebner about BDS bans for the <a href=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/home\/josh-ruebner-on-bds-boycott-bans-shankar-narayan-on-face-surveillance\/\">February 1, 2019, episode<\/a> of <strong>CounterSpin<\/strong>. This is a lightly edited transcript.<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"wrapperMI_0\" class=\"wrap-mjp  \" style=\"padding:5px 0px 40px 0px;margin:0px;width:100%\">\n<div class=\"Eabove-mjp\" id=\"Eabove-mjp_0\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"subwrap-MI\">\n<div class=\"jp-innerwrap\">\n<div class=\"innerx\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"innerleft\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"innerright\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"innertab\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"interface-mjp verdana-mjp\" style=\"height:71px\" id=\"interfaceMI_0\">\n<div class=\"MI-image Himg right-mjp\" id=\"MI_image_0\" style=\"width:auto;height:71px;overflow:hidden\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"T_mp3j_0\" class=\"player-track-title left-mjp norm-mjp plain-mjp childNorm-mjp childPlain-mjp\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"bars_holder\">\n<div class=\"loadMI_mp3j\" id=\"load_mp3j_0\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"poscolMI_mp3j\" id=\"poscol_mp3j_0\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"posbarMI_mp3j\" id=\"posbar_mp3j_0\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"P-Time-MI_0\" class=\"jp-play-time\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"T-Time-MI_0\" class=\"jp-total-time\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"statusMI_0\" class=\"statusMI\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"transport-MI\">\n<div class=\"play-mjp\" id=\"playpause_mp3j_0\">Play<\/div>\n<div class=\"stop-mjp\" id=\"stop_mp3j_0\">Stop<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"buttons-wrap-mjp\" id=\"buttons-wrap-mjp_0\">\n<div class=\"mp3j-popout-MI\" id=\"lpp_mp3j_0\">pop out<\/div>\n<div id=\"download_mp3j_0\" class=\"dloadmp3-MI\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"mjp-volwrap\">\n<div class=\"MIsliderVolume\" id=\"vol_mp3j_0\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"innerExt1\" id=\"innerExt1_0\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"innerExt2\" id=\"innerExt2_0\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"Ebetween-mjp\" id=\"Ebetween-mjp_0\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"listwrap_mp3j\" id=\"L_mp3j_0\">\n<div class=\"wrapper-mjp\">\n<div class=\"playlist-colour\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"wrapper-mjp\">\n<ul class=\"ul-mjp darken1-mjp verdana-mjp med-mjp childNorm-mjp childPlain-mjp left-mjp\" id=\"UL_mp3j_0\">\n<li><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<div id=\"mp3j_finfo_0\" class=\"mp3j-finfo\">\n<div class=\"mp3j-finfo-sleeve\">\n<div id=\"mp3j_finfo_gif_0\" class=\"mp3j-finfo-gif\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"mp3j_finfo_txt_0\" class=\"mp3j-finfo-txt\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"mp3j-finfo-close\" id=\"mp3j_finfo_close_0\">X<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"mp3j_dlf_0\" class=\"mp3j-dlframe\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"mp3j-nosolution\" id=\"mp3j_nosolution_0\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"Ebelow-mjp\" id=\"Ebelow-mjp_0\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>MP3jPLAYLISTS.MI_0 = [<br \/>\n\t{ name: &#8220;CounterSpin Josh Ruebner Interview &#8220;, formats: [&#8220;mp3&#8221;], mp3: &#8220;aHR0cDovL3d3dy5mYWlyLm9yZy9hdWRpby9jb3VudGVyc3Bpbi9Db3VudGVyU3BpbjE5MDIwMVJ1ZWJuZXIubXAz&#8221;, counterpart:&#8221;&#8221;, artist: &#8220;&#8221;, image: &#8220;true&#8221;, imgurl: &#8220;&#8221; }<br \/>\n];<\/p>\n<p>MP3jPLAYERS[0] = { list:MP3jPLAYLISTS.MI_0, tr:0, type:&#8217;MI&#8217;, lstate:true, loop:false, play_txt:&#8217;Play&#8217;, pause_txt:&#8217;Pause&#8217;, pp_title:&#8217;FAIR&#8217;, autoplay:false, download:true, vol:80, height:71, cssclass:&#8217; &#8216;, popout_css:{ enabled:true, \t\t\tcolours: [&#8220;#fff&#8221;, &#8220;rgba(201,207,232,0.35)&#8221;, &#8220;rgb(241,241,241)&#8221;, &#8220;rgba(245,5,5,0.7)&#8221;, &#8220;rgba(92,201,255,0.8)&#8221;, &#8220;transparent&#8221;, &#8220;transparent&#8221;, &#8220;#525252&#8221;, &#8220;#525252&#8221;, &#8220;#768D99&#8221;, &#8220;#47ACDE&#8221;, &#8220;\/&#8221;, 600, 200 ],<br \/>\n\t\t\tcssInterface: { &#8220;color&#8221;: &#8220;#525252&#8221; },<br \/>\n\t\t\tcssTitle: { &#8220;left&#8221;: &#8220;16px&#8221;, &#8220;right&#8221;:&#8221;16px&#8221;, &#8220;top&#8221;:&#8221;8px&#8221; },<br \/>\n\t\t\tcssImage: { &#8220;overflow&#8221;: &#8220;hidden&#8221;, &#8220;width&#8221;:&#8221;auto&#8221;, &#8220;height&#8221;:&#8221;71px&#8221;  },<br \/>\n\t\t\tcssFontSize: { &#8220;title&#8221;: &#8220;16px&#8221;, &#8220;caption&#8221;: &#8220;11.2px&#8221;, &#8220;list&#8221;: &#8220;12px&#8221; },<br \/>\n\t\t\tclasses: { interface:&#8217; verdana-mjp&#8217;, title:&#8217; left-mjp norm-mjp plain-mjp childNorm-mjp childPlain-mjp&#8217;, image:&#8217; Himg right-mjp&#8217;, poscol:&#8221;, ul:&#8217; darken1-mjp verdana-mjp med-mjp childNorm-mjp childPlain-mjp left-mjp&#8217; }} };<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fair.org\/audio\/counterspin\/CounterSpin190201Ruebner.mp3\"><strong>MP3 Link<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_8930667\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-8930667\" src=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/NYT-Pro-Israel-Bill.png\" alt=\"NYT: Senate Advances Pro-Israel Bill as G.O.P. Searches for Democratic Divisions\" width=\"350\" height=\"314\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em><strong>New York Times<\/strong> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/01\/28\/us\/politics\/senate-israel-boycott-democrats.html\">1\/28\/19<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>Janine Jackson:<\/b> The <b>New York Times<\/b> doesn&#8217;t <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/01\/28\/us\/politics\/senate-israel-boycott-democrats.html\">say<\/a> exactly what&#8217;s in the provision Senate Republicans added to legislation on Middle East security policy, only that it<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>aims to curtail support for the boycott, \u00a0divest and sanctions\u2014or <a href=\"https:\/\/bdsmovement.net\/\">BDS<\/a>\u2014movement, which seeks to pressure Israel into ending the occupation of the West Bank.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The January 28 piece says a good deal, though, in its positive framing: &#8220;Senate Advances Pro-Israel Bill,&#8221; says the headline, and the lead describes rules \u201caffirming the right&#8221; of local and state governments to break ties with companies that boycott or divest from Israel.<\/p>\n<p>It is a Beltway story, about GOP efforts to seed divisions among Democrats, and tells readers that \u201cRepublicans are becoming more brash in their accusations\u201d\u2014accusations for which it proceeds to make space, \u00a0including that of a North Dakota senator who, we&#8217;re told, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SenKevinCramer\/status\/1082735222146383872\">&#8220;mused<\/a> on <b>Twitter&#8221;<\/b> that Democratic opposition to the anti-BDS measure &#8220;may be nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to hide the rising antisemitism in their own party.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The piece positions Marco Rubio, who pushed for the provision, as representing one side of the issue, citing his <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/marcorubio\/status\/1082273356777431040\">statement<\/a> that the BDS movement &#8220;isn&#8217;t about freedom and equality. It&#8217;s about destroying Israel.&#8221; But the <b>Times<\/b> seems not to see how its own use of the terms &#8220;pro-Israel&#8221; and &#8220;anti-BDS&#8221; as synonyms rather suggests the same view\u2014all of which encourages one to try looking at things under a different light.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;re joined now by Josh Ruebner; he&#8217;s policy director at the <a href=\"https:\/\/uscpr.org\/\">US Campaign for Palestinian Rights<\/a> and author of, most recently, <i>Israel: Democracy or Apartheid State?<\/i>, from <b>Olive<\/b> <b>Branch Press<\/b>. He joins us now by phone from Washington, DC. Welcome back to <b>CounterSpin, <\/b>Josh Ruebner.<\/p>\n<p><b>Josh Ruebner:<\/b> Thanks so much for having me.<\/p>\n<p><b>JJ:<\/b> \u00a0Like so much coverage, that <b>New York Times <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/01\/28\/us\/politics\/senate-israel-boycott-democrats.html\">piece<\/a> really takes as its topic political maneuvering. And in that context, the comeback, if you will, to what the story calls Republican efforts to paint some Democrats \u201cas extremist, and even antisemitic\u201d\u2014 the comeback is to have a quote from Sen. Chris Murphy<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ChrisMurphyCT\/status\/1082282062546112512\"> telling<\/a> Rubio, \u201cYou know it isn\u2019t true\u201d that a significant number \u201cof Senate Dems support BDS\u201d\u2014which, again, as text, tells us that <i>not<\/i> supporting BDS means <i>not<\/i> being antisemitic.<\/p>\n<p>So it&#8217;s partly down to the political football approach, but the effect is the same: There is no positive explication or defense of the BDS movement to be found in a news account ostensibly about that movement.<\/p>\n<p>So with that off my chest, we <a href=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/home\/boycotts-to-achieve-political-change-are-forms-of-political-speech\/\">spoke<\/a> with you two years ago July about an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/115th-congress\/senate-bill\/720\"> Israel Anti-Boycott Act<\/a>. \u00a0Is this that again? What should we know about this Senate iteration?<\/p>\n<p><b>JR: <\/b>No, this is a different bill, that was also introduced in the previous Congress and the one before that, and it&#8217;s called the &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/115th-congress\/senate-bill\/170\/text?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22death+with+dignity%22%5D%7D\">Combating BDS Act<\/a>.&#8221; And the reason why Marco Rubio has been unsuccessful for the past four years in trying to enact this bill into law is because it&#8217;s patently unconstitutional. It&#8217;s a bill that encourages states to penalize individuals for their political and moral and religious beliefs on boycotting for Palestinian rights, by denying those people governmental contracts.<\/p>\n<p>And we&#8217;ve had two federal district judges already <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/after-court-defeat-kansas-changes-law-aimed-boycotts-israel\">overturn<\/a> these laws, in Kansas and Arizona, thanks to lawsuits brought by the ACLU, and there are three pending lawsuits <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/news\/opinion\/oped\/bs-ed-op-0123-bds-lawsuits-20190122-story.html\">challenging<\/a> similar laws in Texas and Maryland as well. And the reason why Senator Rubio is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6_FWCa1ERJE&amp;feature=youtu.be\">attaching<\/a> this very controversial bill to this broader bill is because he knows he can&#8217;t pass it as a standalone bill, because of its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/blog\/free-speech\/rights-protesters\/new-israel-anti-boycott-act-still-unconstitutional\">unconstitutionality<\/a>. So he&#8217;s trying to hide it within a broader bill.<\/p>\n<p><b>JJ: <\/b>So who is this aimed at? Is it governments? Is it businesses? Who would be affected by this?<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5592043\" style=\"width: 254px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5592043\" src=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Josh-Ruebner-Portrait.jpg\" alt=\"Josh Ruebner (image: World Can't Wait)\" width=\"244\" height=\"305\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Josh Ruebner: &#8220;This is a bill that attempts to encourage states to coerce individuals and companies to toe a particular line regarding Israel and the Palestinians.&#8221; (image: World Can&#8217;t Wait)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>JR:<\/b> This is a bill that attempts to encourage states to coerce individuals and companies to toe a particular line regarding Israel and the Palestinians, and to punish individuals and companies that support Palestinian rights through nonviolent efforts to engage in campaigns of boycott, divestment and sanctions. And it&#8217;s a patently unconstitutional call, because what it&#8217;s doing is it&#8217;s trying to leverage the power of government to punish people for having a certain political viewpoint.<\/p>\n<p>And it should be noted that the Supreme Court of the United States has <a href=\"https:\/\/caselaw.findlaw.com\/us-supreme-court\/458\/886.html\">upheld<\/a> that engaging in political boycotts, whether the government agrees with them or not, is a constitutionally protected right under the First Amendment.<\/p>\n<p><b>JJ:<\/b> It sounds as though, legislatively, this may have no legs, but it&#8217;s clearly about something more than that. I have to return to this troubling sentence, also<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/01\/28\/us\/politics\/senate-israel-boycott-democrats.html\"> from<\/a> the <b>New York Times<\/b>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>With Britain\u2019s Labour Party embracing anti-Israel policies, and other left-wing parties in Europe courting Muslim immigrant voters, Jews in the United States have eyed the toehold that Palestinian rights activists have secured in the Democratic Party with trepidation.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>There&#8217;s a lot happening there. You could engage what strikes you, but what bums me out is the crude zero-sum presentation of Muslims against Jews against Palestinians. It seems like politics without people.<\/p>\n<p><b>JR:<\/b> Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it&#8217;s presumptuous of the <b>New York Times<\/b> to assume a certain political viewpoint because of someone&#8217;s religious affiliation. And I would go even further to say that that&#8217;s even <i>bigoted<\/i>, to consider that a particular group would hold a political ideology just based on their identity.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s very clear that the movement for Palestinian rights in the United States is comprised of people of all faiths, including people of the Jewish religion, who support boycott, divestment and sanctions to achieve Palestinian rights. So it&#8217;s not at all an accurate statement by the <b>New York Times<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>But what is accurate is the fact that there is more and more support within the Democratic Party, both at the base of the Democratic Party, and now we&#8217;re starting to see in Congress itself, for a new approach to the issue of Israel and the Palestinians.<\/p>\n<p>We now have elected members of Congress who not only <a href=\"https:\/\/www.haaretz.com\/us-news\/.premium-bernie-sanders-dianne-feinstein-urge-senate-leaders-to-scrap-anti-bds-bill-1.6762918\">defend<\/a> our constitutional right to engage in boycotts for Palestinian rights, but in the case of some freshmen members of Congress, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2018\/dec\/4\/rashida-tlaib-newly-elected-democrat-endorses-anti\/\">like<\/a> Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Rep. Ilhan Omar, they actually support boycotts for Palestinian rights. And they&#8217;re introducing a whole new paradigm for thinking about this issue in the halls of Congress. And this is clearly worrying those who are protecting the status quo of Israeli military occupation, and separate and unequal policies toward the Palestinians.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_8930668\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-8930668\" src=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/NYT-Silence-on-Palestine-619x1024.png\" alt=\"NYT: Time to Break the Silence on Palestine\" width=\"350\" height=\"579\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em><strong>New York Times<\/strong> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/01\/19\/opinion\/sunday\/martin-luther-king-palestine-israel.html\">1\/19\/19<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>JJ:<\/b> Yes, just to further that: Reporting does kind of suggest that we see these anti-BDS moves as responsive to the fact that, while there is still an ongoing acknowledgement that antisemitism, of course, itself is very real and indeed <a href=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/home\/charleston-and-tree-of-life-are-connected-struggles\/\">rising<\/a>, that \u201cthere seems to be increased understanding that criticism of the policies and practices of the Israeli government is not in itself antisemitic\u201d\u2014those last being the words of <b>New York Times<\/b> columnist Michelle Alexander, in her recent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/01\/19\/opinion\/sunday\/martin-luther-king-palestine-israel.html\">piece<\/a>, &#8220;Time to Break the Silence on Palestine.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Having worked around these concerns for years now, do you feel something changing, not only in Congress but just culturally, if you would, around these issues?<\/p>\n<p><b>JR:<\/b> Yeah. Absolutely. I think there&#8217;s never been a more yawning divide between the parties on this issue, with the Republican Party and its members portraying itself as the party of Israel.<\/p>\n<p>And it makes a lot of sense when you think about it, because the policies that are being enacted by the government of Israel mirror the exact <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@PaulGowder\/ethno-nationalism-is-a-form-of-racism-if-you-needed-to-be-told-that-heres-your-basket-9d4b6648e226\">ethno-nationalism<\/a> white supremacy that the Republican Party is pushing out. And that is clearly the ideology and policy of the Trump administration. Whereas the Democratic Party, which is becoming more diverse, more responsive to social justice concerns and campaigns, is naturally gravitating toward Palestinian rights as part and parcel of a broader progressive agenda.<\/p>\n<p>So there are huge changes underfoot. I think we&#8217;re going to see this play out, not only in the current Congress, but especially in the upcoming presidential campaign for 2020, where the issue of Israel and the Palestinians <a href=\"https:\/\/truthout.org\/articles\/republicans-are-using-shameless-tactics-to-split-democrats-over-bds\/\">dividing<\/a> Democrats from Republicans has already become a theme in the media.<\/p>\n<p><b>JJ:<\/b> I guess, finally, I have some concern that the way that corporate media tend to map issues onto Beltway politics can sometimes muddy an issue rather than clarifying it, by not separating the ideas from their vessels, if you will.<\/p>\n<p>And if BDS is simply tracked onto new Democrats in Congress, that will not necessarily increase one&#8217;s understanding of the role that it&#8217;s playing on university campuses and on political organizations <i>outside<\/i> of two-party politics, and that broader conversation about Israel\/Palestine. So I wonder what journalism you think would be helpful in this regard, in terms of not just tracking legislation, but tracking the issues themselves.<\/p>\n<p><b>JR:<\/b> Yeah, lost in all of this discussion oftentimes is how the movement for Palestinian rights gets reduced to this acronym of <a href=\"https:\/\/bdsmovement.net\/what-is-bds\">BDS<\/a>: boycott, divestment and sanctions.<\/p>\n<p>Boycott, divestment and sanctions are a set of tactics that have been used by numerous social justice movements throughout the history of this country, and throughout the world, to advance social justice.<\/p>\n<p>So to get caught up in the acronym, and especially the Republican demonization of BDS as a set of tactics to advance Palestinian rights, is really to prevent people from having this broader understanding of just how widespread this movement has become.<\/p>\n<p>You&#8217;ve had dozens of college campuses pass <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/05\/10\/us\/campus-debates-on-israel-drive-a-wedge-between-jews-and-minorities.html\">resolutions<\/a> calling for Palestinian rights, you&#8217;ve had more than 10 mainstream church denominations, representing tens of millions of Americans, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.delphr.org\/churches\/\">calling<\/a> for boycotting Israeli settlement products, divesting their assets from companies that are complicit in Israel&#8217;s human rights abuses, and calling for an end to US weapons transfers to Israel, which are, of course, given at taxpayer expense.<\/p>\n<p>So this reduction of the movement for Palestinian rights to this BDS acronym is really helping to obfuscate the tremendous amount of support within civil society that&#8217;s growing for Palestinian rights, and how it&#8217;s become an incredibly mainstream issue.<\/p>\n<p><b>JJ:<\/b> We&#8217;ve been speaking with Josh Ruebner, policy director at the <a href=\"https:\/\/uscpr.org\/\">US Campaign for Palestinian Rights<\/a>; they&#8217;re online at <a href=\"https:\/\/uscpr.org\/\">uscpr.org<\/a>. His book <i>Israel: Democracy or Apartheid State? <\/i>is out now from <b>Olive<\/b> <b>Branch Press<\/b>. Thank you, Josh Ruebner, for joining us this week on <b>CounterSpin.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>JR:<\/b> Thanks so much for having me.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\nThis piece was reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission from <a href=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/home\/palestinian-rights-has-become-an-incredibly-mainstream-issue\/\">FAIR<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Janine Jackson interviewed Josh Ruebner about BDS bans for the February 1, 2019, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript. Play Stop pop out X MP3jPLAYLISTS.MI_0 = [ { name: &#8220;CounterSpin Josh Ruebner Interview &#8220;, formats: [&#8220;mp3&#8221;], mp3: &#8220;aHR0cDovL3d3dy5mYWlyLm9yZy9hdWRpby9jb3VudGVyc3Bpbi9Db3VudGVyU3BpbjE5MDIwMVJ1ZWJuZXIubXAz&#8221;, counterpart:&#8221;&#8221;, artist: &#8220;&#8221;, image: &#8220;true&#8221;, imgurl: &#8220;&#8221; } ]; MP3jPLAYERS[0] = { list:MP3jPLAYLISTS.MI_0, tr:0, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2521,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-395180","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\/395180","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\/2521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395180\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}