TIAA-CREF and DIVESTMENT JEWISH VOICE FOR PEACE FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS and BDS
What is BDS? In July 2005 a broad range of Palestinian civil society organizations issued a call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Against Israel as part of a non-violent campaign to end the Israeli occupation of Gaza and West Bank, including East Jerusalem. 1 There is a parallel Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. 2 What is JVP's position on BDS? The boycott/divestment/sanctions movement (BDS) encompasses a variety of tactics and targets.  JVP rejects the assertion that BDS is inherently anti-Semitic, and we encourage discussion both within our own community and outside of it of the growing BDS movement. JVP defends activists' right to use the full range of BDS tactics without being persecuted or demonized. We support divestment from and boycotts of companies that profit from Israel's occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. This includes companies operating in or from occupied Palestinian territory, exploiting Palestinian labor and scarce environmental resources, providing materials or labor for settlements, or producing military or other equipment or materials used to violate human rights or to profit from the Occupation. What are some examples of JVP's work in this area? We have supported the efforts of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Methodist Church -- among others -- to divest from companies that profit from the occupation.3 We have stood behind student-led efforts to divest from the Israeli occupation: Hampshire College, UC Berkeley,4 UC San Diego, and Evergreen College.5 In the process of our work, we have learned a few lessons about how our opposition operates: Silencing debate, confusing the facts, taking over student senates, making indiscriminate charges of anti-Semitism, criminalizing anti-occupation activism, implicitly or explicitly condoning widespread hostility against Muslims, Palestinians, and anti-occupation Jews. 6 We have vigorously defended the right of others to engage in full BDS campaigns. We reject the claim that these are inherently anti-Semitic. We see them as a non-violent response to the daily violence of the Israeli occupation.7

Read the call and find out more about the global BDS movement at www.bdsmovement.net. Read more about it at http://www.pacbi.org/ 3 Here is an example of our 2008 booklet on the subject, titled A Moral Choice, Divesting from the Israeli Occupation. We continue to support similar efforts today. 4 See for example, UC Berkeley divestment vote­it isn't over yet 5 Evergreen College students vote to divest 6 To learn more about these, go to Lessons from the UC Berkeley divestment effort 7 See for example our defense of Ben Gurion University's Prof. Neve Gordon's publishing of an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times (Boycott Israel, Los Angeles Times, Aug 20, 2009) in support of the BDS movement (Fire Gordon, without firing him).
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[June 9,2010]


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