On Tuesday, May 14, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the University of Chicago will be hosting a lecture panel on the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement gaining traction around the world.
Palestinian civil society initiated the BDS call in 2005. Since then, countless high profile figures, artists, institutions, and organizations have cut or withdrawn connections with Israel until Israel complies with international and human rights law. If it’s any indication of how relevant and effective BDS is, Professor Stephen Hawking announced his backing of the boycott movement earlier this week.
The event, titled “From South Africa to Israel: The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement”, features Sherry Wolf, a prominent journalist and activist; Rabbi Brant Rosen, leader of the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanston; and Andrew Kadi, a digital media specialist involved in regional organizing. The three speakers will relate today’s BDS movement to previous boycott campaigns, showing how BDS can be effectively applied and advocated on campuses and beyond.
For more information, visit the event’s Facebook page.
The event is co-sponsored by the Jewish Voice for Peace chapter at the University of Chicago and is part of SJP’s annual Nakba Commemoration. The event is free and open to the public.






Irony and dilemma concerning Newseum’s decision to reverse plan to commemorate slain Palestinian journalists
The Newseum, a Washington, DC news museum, announced plans last week to memorialize 84 journalists killed in the line of duty in 2012. Included among the list of honored journalists were Mahmoud Al-Kumi and Hussam Salama who worked for Al-Aqsa TV when an Israeli air strike on November 20, 2012, killed them and at least four others. Al-Kumi and Salama were covering the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip when a missile hit their vehicle.
Al-Aqsa TV is the state television network for the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip.
The Newseum’s announcement drew harsh criticism from conservative and pro-Israel groups including the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) which issued a nasty statement belittling the lives of these journalists by calling their employer “not a legitimate news organization”.
On Monday, the Newseum unveiled the memorial. Instead of 84 names, it included only 82. The Newseum caved to the pressure and Al-Kumi and Salama’s names had been removed.
In a shoddy attempt at balanced news coverage of the Newseum controversy, a concept seemingly unfamiliar to Fox News, Fox decided to make its own judgment call by labeling the two Palestinian journalists as “operatives” working for Hamas. Ironically, the article headline begins with the question, “Terrorists or journalists?” as if Fox was actually going to approach the issue appropriately, tactfully, accurately, and intelligently. [Read more...]