Backdoor Legislative Efforts Show Lawmakers' True Intent: Silencing Advocacy for Palestinian Rights

Backdoor Legislative Efforts Show Lawmakers' True Intent: Silencing Advocacy for Palestinian Rights

House Resolution 246 condemning the boycott movement for Palestinian rights could be moving forward in the House Foreign Affairs Committee. While some Democratic cosponsors might believe that passing this non-binding resolution will lessen pressure to consider more binding measures (such as the House version of the anti-boycott bill passed by the Senate in February, Republican efforts to slip anti-boycott language into broad and often unrelated pieces of legislation underscore that the resolution will only open the door for more attacks against advocacy for Palestinian rights.

Read More

Talib Kweli Disinvited From German Festival Over Support For Palestinian Rights, BDS

Talib Kweli Disinvited From German Festival Over Support For Palestinian Rights, BDS

Prominent hip hop artist Talib Kweli was recently disinvited from a German music festival over his refusal to denounce the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian rights. Festival organizers disinvited Kweli after he refused to respond to their request that he make a statement about his position on BDS. The festival’s demand was prompted by a non-binding resolution passed by the German parliament last month defining the BDS movement as antisemitic and calling for the denial of public funding and forums for projects that support BDS or “question Israel’s right to exist.”

Read More

NYC DSA Reschedules BDS & Nakba Event, Canceled After Threats by Pro-Israel Groups

NYC DSA Reschedules BDS & Nakba Event, Canceled After Threats by Pro-Israel Groups

The New York City Democratic Socialists of America (NYC DSA) has rescheduled a cancelled event on “Palestinian Expulsion and Resistance: The Nakba, BDS and the Great Return March.” The event was cancelled in May after members of the church where the event was to be held were stalked and threatened by right-wing pro-Israel groups. The new event will take place on June 10 at an alternate venue.

Read More

Success! NJ Library Reinstates Palestine Children's Book Event

Success! NJ Library Reinstates Palestine Children's Book Event

The Highland Park Public Library announced late Tuesday that it would allow a book event organized by Jewish Voice for Peace-Central New Jersey (JVP) to go forward after the Library cancelled the event because of racist, Islamophobic complaints. Palestine Legal, the Center for Constitutional Rights and ACLU-NJ wrote the library board of trustees on May 29, warning that the cancellation violated the First Amendment and Article I, Paragraph 6 of the New Jersey Constitution, by which public libraries in New Jersey are bound.

Read More

Meera Shah in The Intercept

Meera Shah in The Intercept

Senior staff attorney Meera Shah appeared in a profile on anti-boycott efforts in Texas for The Intercept. The article details the collusion between rightwing Texas businessmen, Christian fundamentalists, and Israel.

Read More

UCLA Wrongly Investigates Lecture Linking Zionism with White Supremacy

UCLA Wrongly Investigates Lecture Linking Zionism with White Supremacy

UCLA is subjecting anthropology professor Kyeyoung Park to an unwarranted investigation after a student complained about comments critical of Zionism made by a guest lecturer during Park’s course on “Constructing Race.”

Read More

Florida Redefines Antisemitism to Censor Criticism of Israel

Florida Redefines Antisemitism to Censor Criticism of Israel

It might now be a civil rights violation to call Israel “racist” in Florida. A new law imposes a definition of antisemitism on the state’s public schools that classifies advocacy for Palestinian human rights as discrimination against Jews.

Read More