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Today’s Top BDS Stories:
1. Must See! SodaStream CEO Daniel Birnbaum teaches Oxfam a lesson on fighting poverty in a debate on the BBC’s flagship news program Newsnight.
Telegraph reporter Jake Wallis Simons lays out Oxfam’s links to the BDS movement despite the organization’s official line against support for boycotts. NGO Monitor published a primer on the NGO dimension of the BDS assault on Israel’s legitimacy.
Meanwhile, many people have taken to Oxfam’s Facebook page to express their opposition to the group’s position.
2.Thomas Friedman says the growing boycott threat from the EU and BDS are signs of a Third Intifada. Here is the response from HonestReporting.
3. NY Assembly withdraws anti-boycott legislation after outcry from educators and legal groups.
Since the bill attracted so much opposition from First Amendment activists, its passage may have caused the pendulum to swing back to the ASA in sympathy for its own freedom of speech.
It also forced experts such as Maria LaHood, a senior staff attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, to go on record saying, “Political boycotts, and resolutions in support of them, are unquestionably protected by the First Amendment, and the state can’t deny funding in order to suppress speech.”
Other BDS-Related Content:
* Some West Bank business owners foresee more trouble from Europe, including product labeling and boycotts, according to the JTA. Others say they are not overly concerned.
* NY Times blogger Robert Mackey says both sides in the SodaStream/BDS kerfuffle can claim victory.
* Peter Beinart, the de facto spokesman for Liberal Zionism and a supporter of boycotts of West Bank interests, wrote that fighting BDS lacks credibility without a parallel fight against the settlements.
In truth, establishment American Jewish groups don’t really support the two-state solution. Or, at least, they don’t support it enough to risk a confrontation with the Israeli government. Which is why they are more an obstacle than an asset to the American-led “peace process.” And why they can’t stop BDS.
* Forbes reporter Richard Behar published a second long article related the the ASA academic boycott, this time detailing the response he’s received after publishing his open letter to NYU demanding a more forceful statement against the ASA.
Photo source: https://twitter.com/israelproject/status/430156782531383296
See yesterday‘s Fighting BDS Roundup.
