U.S. Academics Back BDS Movement vs Israeli Firms, Zionist Groups

The US Middle East Studies Association (USMESA) has finally decided to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against what it termed as the apartheid Israeli state and corporations supporting policies that oppress Palestinians and support Zionist goals.

Photo Insert: A Palestinian boy faces off with an Israeli soldier at the West Bank Barrier.

The prominent academic organization pledged to “ensure that the call for an academic boycott is upheld without undermining our commitment to the free exchange of ideas and scholarship” after it approved a resolution supporting BDS, Ben Samuels reported from Washington, DC for the English edition of the Israeli daily Haaretz.

USMESA said it endorsed BDS as a means of effectively holding Israel accountable for alleged human rights violations in what can be described as a watershed moment for the BDS movement.

Palestinians and Israelis alike have condemned the repressive Jewish state for the systematic repression of Palestinians and other minorities as well as Christians, Muslims and people of other faiths.

"Israel’s cruel policies of segregation, dispossession and exclusion across all territories under its control clearly amount to apartheid. The international community has an obligation to act," Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary-general said.

The Mexican construction giant Cemex has also been criticized for building the apartheid wall on stolen Palestinian land and operating four factories in Israel’s illegal settlements.

The BDS movement aims to emulate the 1980s campaigns against South African apartheid that led to its dismantling. Its supporters claim that Israeli policies towards Palestinians in the occupied territories are a photocopy of that racist system.

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