{"id":70014,"date":"2016-02-22T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-02-22T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=70014"},"modified":"2016-02-22T12:37:33","modified_gmt":"2016-02-22T12:37:33","slug":"greatest-threat-to-free-speech-in-the-west-criminalizing-activism-against-israeli-occupation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/02\/greatest-threat-to-free-speech-in-the-west-criminalizing-activism-against-israeli-occupation\/","title":{"rendered":"Greatest Threat to Free Speech in the West: Criminalizing Activism Against Israeli Occupation"},"content":{"rendered":"

16 Feb 2016 – <\/em>The U.K. government\u00a0today announced<\/a> that it is will be\u00a0illegal for \u201clocal [city] councils, public bodies, and even some university student unions \u2026 to refuse to buy goods and services from companies involved in the arms trade, fossil fuels, tobacco products, or Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.\u201d Thus, any entities that support or participate in the global boycott of Israeli settlements will face \u201csevere penalties.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"free-palestine-article-header<\/a><\/p>\n

This may sound like an extreme infringement of free speech and political activism\u00a0\u2014 and, of course, it is\u00a0\u2014 but it is far from unusual in the West. The opposite is now true. There is a very coordinated and well-financed campaign led by Israel and its supporters literally to criminalize<\/em>\u00a0political activism against Israeli\u00a0occupation, based on the particular fear that the worldwide campaign of Boycott, Sanctions, and Divestment, or BDS \u2014 modeled after the 1980s campaign that brought down the Israel-allied\u00a0apartheid regime in South Africa \u2014 is succeeding.<\/p>\n

The Israeli website +972 reported last year<\/a>\u00a0about a pending bill that \u201cwould ban entry to foreigners who promote the [BDS] movement\u00a0that aims to pressure Israel to comply with international law and respect Palestinian rights.\u201d In 2011, a law passed<\/a>\u00a0in Israel that\u00a0\u201ceffectively ban[ned] any public call for a boycott \u2014 economic, cultural, or academic \u2014 against Israel or its West Bank settlements, making such action a punishable offense.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the current censorship goal is to make such activism a crime\u00a0not only in\u00a0Israel, but in Western countries generally. And it is succeeding.<\/p>\n

This trend to outlaw activism against the decades-long Israeli occupation \u2014 particularly though not only through boycotts against Israel \u2014 has permeated multiple Western nations and countless institutions within them. In October, we reported on<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0criminal convictions<\/em>\u00a0in France of 12 activists \u201cfor the \u2018crime\u2019 of advocating sanctions and a boycott against\u00a0Israel as a means of ending the decadeslong military occupation of Palestine,\u201d convictions upheld by France\u2019s highest court. They were literally arrested and prosecuted for \u201cwearing shirts emblazoned with the words \u2018Long live Palestine, boycott Israel\u2019\u201d and because \u201cthey also handed out fliers that said that \u2018buying Israeli products means legitimizing crimes in Gaza.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

As we noted, Pascal Markowicz, chief lawyer of the\u00a0CRIF umbrella organization<\/a>\u00a0of French Jewish communities, published this celebratory decree<\/a>\u00a0(emphasis in original<\/a>): \u201cBDS is ILLEGAL\u00a0in France.\u201d Statements advocating a boycott or sanctions, he added<\/a>, \u201care completely illegal. If [BDS activists]\u00a0say their freedom of expression has been violated, now France\u2019s highest legal instance ruled otherwise.\u201d In Canada last year, officials threatened criminal prosecution<\/a>\u00a0against anyone supporting boycotts against Israel.<\/p>\n

In the U.S., unbeknownst to many, there are similar legislative proscriptions on such activism, and a pending bill would strengthen the outlawing of BDS. As the Washington Post<\/em> reported last June<\/a>, \u201cA wave of anti-BDS legislation is sweeping the U.S.\u201d\u00a0Numerous bills in Congress encourage or require<\/a>\u00a0state action to combat BDS.<\/p>\n

Eyal Press warned in a must-read\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0op-ed<\/a> last month that under a Customs Bill passed by both houses of Congress and headed to the White House, \u201cAmerican officials will be obligated to treat the settlements as part of Israel in future trade negotiations,\u201d a provision specifically designed \u201cto combat the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, a grass-roots campaign.\u201d But as Press notes, under existing law \u2014 which is almost never discussed \u2014 \u201cWashington already forbids American companies to cooperate with state-led boycotts of Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

The real purpose of this new law, as Press explains it, is to force American companies to treat settlements in the West Bank \u2014 which virtually the entire world views as illegal<\/a> \u2014 as a valid part of Israel, by\u00a0outlawing<\/em> any behavior that would be deemed cooperative with a boycott of companies occupying\u00a0the West Bank. U.S. companies would be\u00a0forced<\/em> to pretend that products produced in the occupied territories are actually produced in \u201cIsrael.\u201d The White House announced<\/a> that it will sign the bill despite its opposition to the AIPAC-backed pro-settlement provision<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rahul Saksena of Palestine Legal said that \u201cthe BDS provision in the federal customs bill, and the dozens of anti-BDS bills being introduced in Congress and state legislatures across the U.S., are examples of the lengths that Israel\u2019s fiercest advocates and the lawmakers who bend over backward to accommodate them will go to shut down any conversation critical of Israeli policies and supportive of Palestinian freedom.\u201d Dylan Williams, vice president of government affairs for J Street (which opposes BDS), told\u00a0The Intercept<\/em>:\u00a0\u201cThe references in the Customs Act to \u2018Israeli-controlled territories\u2019 are just one instance of a larger effort to sneak Green Line-blurring language into legislation at both the state and national level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under the existing laws, American companies have been\u00a0fined<\/em> for actions deemed supportive of boycotts aimed at Israel.\u00a0For decades, U.S. companies and their foreign subsidiaries, for instance, have been required by law<\/a> to refuse to\u00a0comply with the Arab League boycott of Israel.\u00a0Penalties for violators include up to 10\u00a0years of imprisonment.<\/p>\n

In 2010, G M Daewoo Auto & Technology Company, a Korean firm owned by General Motors, was fined<\/a> $88,500 by the Office of Antiboycott Compliance<\/a>\u00a0for 59 anti-boycott violations, including the \u201ccrime\u201d of declaring on a customs form: \u201cWe hereby state that the carrying vessel \u2026 is allowed to enter the Libya ports [sic].\u201d At the time, Libyan law did not allow Israeli goods or ships that had previously stopped in Israel to enter Libyan ports, and the company\u2019s seemingly banal declaration that it was complying with Libyan law was deemed by the U.S. government to constitute support for a boycott of Israel, and it was\u00a0thus fined.<\/p>\n

The suppression of anti-occupation activism is particularly acute on American college campuses. Among other things, that is deeply ironic.\u00a0In the U.S. over the past year, there has been a widespread media debate over censorship on college campuses. Notably, the pundits who have most vocally condemned this censorship and held themselves out as free speech crusaders \u2014 such as\u00a0New York<\/em>\u2019s Jonathan Chait<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 have completely ignored what is far and away the most widespread form of campus censorship: namely, punishment of those who engage in activism against Israeli actions.<\/p>\n

This campus censorship on behalf of Israel was comprehensively documented in a report<\/a>\u00a0last year by Palestine Legal titled \u201cThe Palestine Exception to Free Speech.\u201d The nationwide censorship effort has seen pro-Palestinian professors fired<\/a>, anti-occupation student activists suspended and threatened with expulsion, pro-Palestinian groups de-funded, and even discipline for students<\/a> for the \u201ccrime\u201d of flying a Palestinian flag. The report\u00a0documents how pro-Israel campus groups and alumni \u201chave intensified their efforts to stifle criticism of Israeli government policies.\u201d The report explains: \u201cRather than engage such criticism on its merits, these groups leverage their significant resources and lobbying power to pressure universities, government actors, and other institutions to censor or punish advocacy in support of Palestinian rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Notably, the students and administrators justifying the campus censorship of anti-Israel views invoke the very same \u201cPC\u201d rhetoric of \u201csafe spaces\u201d and \u201chate speech\u201d denounced by ostensibly free-speech pundits. The University of Illinois student who led the campaign to fire Steven Salaita for his pro-Gaza tweets, himself a former AIPAC intern, told the\u00a0New York Times<\/em><\/a>: \u201cHate speech is never acceptable for those applying for a tenured position; incitement to violence is never acceptable. \u2026 There must be a relationship between free speech and civility.\u201d Another \u201cpro-Israel\u201d student demanding Salaita\u2019s firing said, \u201cIt\u2019s about feeling safe on campus.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was a\u00a0classic and extreme case of oppressive censorship on campus \u2014 the University of Illinois ended up paying<\/a> Salaita close to $1 million to settle the resulting lawsuit \u2014 yet very few of\u00a0the pundits who turned \u201ccollege censorship\u201d into a nationwide cause uttered a peep about this case or the countless other instances of suppression of anti-Israel criticism.<\/p>\n

It is now routine for students advocating BDS or otherwise working against Israeli occupation to be disciplined or endure other forms of sanctions. As the Palestine Legal report documents:<\/p>\n

These heavy-handed tactics often have their desired effect, driving institutions to enact a variety of punitive measures against human rights activists, such as administrative sanctions, censorship, intrusive investigations, viewpoint-based restriction of advocacy, and even criminal prosecutions. Such efforts intimidate activists for Palestinian human rights, chill criticism of Israeli government practices, and impede a fair-minded dialogue on the pressing question of Palestinian rights.<\/em><\/p>\n

This report, the first of its kind, documents the suppression of Palestine advocacy in the United States. In 2014, Palestine Legal \u2014 a nonprofit legal and advocacy organization supporting Palestine activism \u2014 responded to 152 incidents of censorship, punishment, or other burdening of advocacy for Palestinian rights and received 68 additional requests for legal assistance in anticipation of such actions. In the first six months of 2015 alone, Palestine Legal responded to 140 incidents and 33 requests for assistance in anticipation of potential suppression. These numbers understate the phenomenon, as many advocates who are unaware of their rights or afraid of attracting further scrutiny stay silent and do not report incidents of suppression. The overwhelming majority of these incidents \u2014 89 percent in 2014 and 80 percent in the first half of 2015 \u2014 targeted students and scholars, a reaction to the increasingly central role universities play in the movement for Palestinian rights.<\/p>\n

As we reported in September<\/a>, the University of California \u2014 the largest academic system in the country \u2014 has been debating proposals to literally outlaw\u00a0<\/em>BDS activism by formally equating it with \u201canti-semitism\u201d: as though opposition to Israeli government oppression (opposition shared by many Jews) is somehow the equivalent of, or is inherently driven by, animosity toward Jews. If anything, what is actually \u201canti-Semitic\u201d is to conflate the Israeli government with Jews generally (an ugly anti-semitic trope with a long history). Yet that is the Orwellian tactic being used to justify the criminalization of anti-occupation activism, as it converts that activism into \u201canti-semitism\u201d or \u201chate speech\u201d and then bans it on that basis.<\/p>\n

This attempt to formalize suppression of anti-occupation advocacy on college campuses is long-standing and widespread. The New York state legislature actually passed<\/a> \u201ca bill that would suspend funding to educational institutions which fund groups that boycott Israel.\u201d Such legislation is becoming commonplace, as the group United With Israel boasted just last month<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Florida became the fifth state in the U.S. to introduce a resolution to confront the anti-Israel BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement<\/a> when it passed a law on December 21, similar to the first anti-BDS legislation introduced in Tennessee last April.<\/em><\/p>\n

By doing so, Florida has joined Tennessee, New York<\/a>, Indiana<\/a>, and Pennsylvania. Another 35 states are reportedly considering similar legislation<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The commendably consistent pro-campus-speech group FIRE, while expressing some criticisms of the BDS movement, has repeatedly documented and denounced<\/a> attempts to suppress\u00a0BDS advocacy on campus:<\/p>\n

FIRE\u2019s position on the Israel-focused BDS movement is driven by our concern for academic freedom \u2014 for students and professors, and for its continuing importance as a meaningful concept in and of itself. Students and professors must be perfectly free to support boycott, divestment, and\/or sanctions against Israel or any other country they wish, and they must not face punishment for this support. As you might expect, FIRE has opposed attempts to punish<\/a>\u00a0organizations for supporting BDS, and we have certainly defended professors\u2019 rights to be highly critical of Israel<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 or, frankly, any other country, person, or idea.<\/em><\/p>\n

Yet this censorship effort to ban BDS and other forms of Israel criticism continues to grow, in multiple countries around the world. It\u2019s not hard to understand why. The Israeli government and its most powerful supporters have invested vast sums of money and considerable political capital into the campaign to institutionalize this censorship.<\/p>\n

Last year, GOP billionaire Sheldon Adelson and Democratic billionaire Haim Saban donated tens of millions of dollars<\/a> to a new fund to combat\u00a0BDS on college campuses. Also\u00a0last year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin\u00a0Netanyahu<\/a> \u201cdecided to implement a 2014 resolution to establish a special task force to fight the anti-Israeli sanctions\u201d; that\u00a0task force<\/a>\u00a0has funding of \u201csome 100 million Israeli shekels (roughly $25.5 million).\u201d BuzzFeed<\/em>\u2019s Rosie Gray reported in 2014<\/a> that anti-BDS legislation has become a major goal of AIPAC. As part of the controversy at the University of California, Richard Blum, the mega-rich investment banker and husband of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, threatened the university<\/a> that his wife would take adverse action against the university if it did not adopt the harsh anti-BDS measures he was demanding.<\/p>\n

None of this is to say, obviously, that suppression of anti-occupation activism is the only strain of free speech threats in the West. The prosecution of Western Muslims<\/a> for\u00a0core free speech expression under \u201cterrorism\u201d laws, the distortion of \u201chate speech\u201d legislation<\/a> as a means of punishing unpopular ideas, threats and violence<\/a> against those who publish cartoons deemed \u201cblasphemous,\u201d and pressure on social media companies<\/a> to ban ideas disliked by governments are all serious menaces to this core liberty.<\/p>\n

But in terms of systematic, state-sponsored, formalized punishments for speech and activism, nothing compares to the growing multi-nation effort to criminalize activism against Israeli occupation. Rafeef Ziadah, a Palestinian a member of the\u00a0Palestinian BDS National Committee<\/a>, told\u00a0The Intercept<\/em>:\u00a0\u201cIsrael is increasingly unable to defend its regime of apartheid and settler colonialism over the Palestinian people and its regular massacres of Palestinians in Gaza so is resorting to asking supportive governments in the U.S. and Europe to undermine free speech as a way of shielding it from criticism and measures aimed at holding it to account.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is, needless to say, perfectly legitimate to argue against BDS and to engage in activism to defeat it. But only advocates of tyranny could support the literal outlawing of the same type of activism that ended apartheid in South Africa merely on the grounds that this time it is aimed at Israeli occupation (some of Israel\u2019s\u00a0own leaders have compared its occupation to apartheid<\/a>). And whatever else is true, commentators and activists\u00a0who prance around as defenders of campus free speech and free expression generally \u2014 yet who completely ignore this most pernicious trend of free speech erosion \u2014 are likely many things, but an authentic believer in free speech is not among them.<\/p>\n

_________________________________________<\/p>\n

Glenn Greenwald<\/a> – \u2709glenn.greenwald@\u200btheintercept.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Andrew Fishman<\/a> – \u2709fishman@\u200btheintercept.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Correction<\/em>: The first paragraph has been edited to reflect that the ban on boycotts will be illegal under the UK Government\u2019s new plan, not that it already is illegal, as well as to clarify\u00a0that the penalties imposed on local entities violating the boycott ban are statutory, not criminal, in nature.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 theintercept.com<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Join the<\/em><\/strong> BDS-BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT, SANCTIONS <\/em><\/strong>campaign<\/em><\/strong> <\/span>to protest the Israeli barbaric siege of Gaza, illegal occupation of the Palestine nation\u2019s territory, the apartheid wall, its inhuman and degrading treatment of the Palestinian people, and the more than 7,000 Palestinian men, women, elderly and children arbitrarily locked up in Israeli prisons.<\/p>\n

DON’T BUY<\/strong> PRODUCTS WHOSE<\/strong> BARCODE<\/strong> STARTS WITH<\/strong> 729<\/strong>, which indicates that it is produced in Israel. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0DO YOUR PART! MAKE A DIFFERENCE!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

7 2 9: BOYCOTT FOR JUSTICE!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

16 Feb 2016 – The U.K. government today announced that any entities that support or participate in the global boycott of Israeli settlements will face \u201csevere penalties.\u201d It is, needless to say, perfectly legitimate to argue against BDS and to engage in activism to defeat it. But only advocates of tyranny could support the literal outlawing of the same type of activism that ended apartheid in South Africa merely on the grounds that this time it is aimed at Israeli occupation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70014\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}