When Will BDS Get to Alaska?

A lot of my friends down below and overseas are deeply involved in the Global BDS Movement, which began back in the summer of 2005. It gained more adherents after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 2006, many more during and after Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in December 2008-January 2009, and even more in the wake of the murders on board the MV Mavi Marmara in the late spring of 2010.

Since the Mavi Marmara incident, American universities, union organizations and consumer-owned food co-ops have taken up the issues. More and more anti-war coalitions are participating in this fight against American accommodation of Israeli internal apartheid and occupation policies.

Essentially, what the movement seeks to achieve is this:

Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) refers to an international economic campaign initiated by the July 9, 2005, call of 171 Palestinian non-governmental organizations "... for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel Until it Complies with International Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights."^[1] The three stated goals of the campaign are:

1. An end to Israel's "occupation and colonization of all Arab lands", as well as "dismantling of the Wall;"
2. Israeli recognition of the "fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality;" and,
3. Israeli respect, protection, and promotion of "the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194."

1. 
   

I wasn't a fan of the BDS movement until sometime this summer. And I'm still not entirely sure about some aspects of it. I stopped using a textbook for a class written by an Israeli academic, Roger Kamien, last year, but it was because a book came along that deals far better with 20th and 21st century trends in music than did the one I dropped. If someone in Israel wants to play my music there, I'm not going to try to stop it.

The push by Israeli politicians to force loyalty oaths on its citizens, the incredibly criminal wastewater practices by Israeli industries operating in the newly built industrial zones in the West Bank, the increasingly brazen treachery some American politicians are showing toward their own country on behalf of Israel, and the Israeli-backed push for what surely would end up being a thermonuclear confrontation with Iran, have all added up to convince me that it is time for BDS to come to Alaska.

I'm not sure yet what that might mean. I haven't had any discussions with any of the Alaska groups supporting Palestinian rights on this, and I'm not well versed on how economic sanctions against Israeli products available in Alaska might be dealt with. I have a lot of Jewish friends and acquaintances here. Many are Zionists. Some are growing more concerned as Israeli policies lurch rapidly toward outright apartheid, even within its own borders. A few have contacted me about my articles here on Palestinian rights, urging me on, and asking me not to tell anyone they communicated with me about this.

A vital component in the BDS movement down below and outside the USA is the participation of many Jewish peace activists. By and large, from my experience, Alaskan Jewish peace activists are mostly afraid to come forward more openly. I don't blame them.

Here's a youtube of one of scores of BDS actions that occurred recently in the lower 48: