BDS Boycotts Geography
It really is a shame that geography is no longer taught in schools: It might make life easier for left-wing campus activists. Cary Nelson, an English professor at the University of Illinois, remembers that in January 2014, a faction supporting a movement to Boycott, Divest [from] and Sanction (BDS) Israel was brought forth at the annual Modern Language Association (MLA) convention.
“The resolution stated that ‘Israel surrounds Gaza on all sides,’” Dr. Nelson recalled. “We said that there’s this funny little country on the southern border called Egypt.”
“They had to go into conference over that one.” As Dr. Nelson, who opposes BDS, noted, their ignorance extends beyond the geographic into the economic in such a way that they are often acting to the detriment of the Palestinian people they claim to care deeply for.
“Hewlett Packard created software that enables Palestinians to move through the checkpoints,” Dr. Nelson noted in a talk here in the nation’s capital. “Hewlett Packard is high on the list of companies that BDS wants to divest from.” Dr. Nelson spoke at the monthly meeting of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington.
He recently assembled a book entitled Dreams Deferred: A Concise Guide to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict & the Movement to Boycott Israel.
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Malcolm A. Kline
Malcolm A. Kline is the Executive Director of Accuracy in Academia.
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