Tbh aside from expressing sympathy for the Palestinian people, the BDS movement--as a labor movement--barely makes sense in the context of the majority of people and businesses supporting it considering neither country has a tremendous amount of relevant exports and factual inaccuracies many people do not even bother to look into.
Tbh aside from expressing sympathy for the Palestinian people, the BDS movement--as a labor movement--barely makes sense in the context of the majority of people and businesses supporting it considering neither country has a tremendous amount of relevant exports and factual inaccuracies many people do not even bother to look into.
This includes the Ahava store (a small Israeli skincare brand almost no one knows unless you are Israeli or a Jew) that is situated within the confines of the Israel border outlined in the 1949 Armistice Agreement within the Masada National Park on the Western border of the Dead Sea. You can see Jordan from the shore. It has nothing to do with Gaza, which means, no, it’s not in “occupied territory” unless you consider Israel’s entire existence to be occupying land, which many of them do—another problem with the #freepalestine movement that I refuse to co-sign. When you ask a bookstore how exactly BDS solidarity factors into their purchasing decisions of books and products they never would have carried in the first place, you realize it’s not actually about BDS at all.
The BDS movement as a labor movement has such a small and meaningless impact on labor aside from it sounding cool. The FLA, which may be less flashy to the general public, addresses actual forced labor issues around the world--something that BDS just doesn’t even care about because their only focus is making people hate Israel, even when the employees (who include Palestinians) are treated fairly with better benefits than most Americans. This is probably why the FLA doesn’t really address it because it’s not about labor unless you want to do the mental gymnastics to argue that everything is labor.
Is silencing them helpful? Probably not. But I think people give them way too much lip service because they feel helpless in a war they have no control over and are about two steps away from the “by any means” extremists.
IDK did they make up a bunch of information to do it? Did it improve everyone’s overall labor conditions both here and there by doing so? What’s going on in South African labor right now and where do the American union trade laborists stand on it now?
You guys make it sound like American unions are these historically faultless unified coalitions with beautiful shared humanitarian goals that hold themselves as accountable as they do other places lol. Please. Do you guys spend a tremendous amount of time around these people in middle America that you speak of? They’re almost entirely white heteronormative Christians, oftentimes conservative, even. Does that make them “better” if they turn a blind eye to sexism and racism because they vocally say “apartheid is bad?”
Just because they show a sign of support doesn’t necessarily mean they’re good people or have the same intentions. And if your political position is that “any help is good help” that requires lying or misleading people about it, you’re not really doing yourself or anyone else any favors by creating safe spaces for antisemites and “by any means.” How exactly would that create a better, more equitable society with that logic? I’m sorry but you can’t look are this situation with a critical journalistic eye if you cannot acknowledge that both sides are a little full of it.
To my point above: I feel like many people are latching onto the term because they are feeling emotionally compelled to offer support and struggling to figure out how to do that. And while I’m empathetic, it doesn’t change the fact that spreading inaccurate BDS information isn’t particularly helpful for either labor rights or a defined goal towards peace/structure for Palestinian self-determination. It’s like signing a contract without reading the fine print.
BDS's main effect is as a symbol of what a peaceful resistance could look like, and it reveals the derangement of American politics in how virulently various states, municipalities, and institutions crack down on BDS, real or imaginary. Like you say there may not be much of anything to boycott or divest from, but powers here want to make it clear that you will be punished severely if you at all associate yourself with that idea.
The punishment of aligning your union is the long-term implications that directly impact future efforts for work here, which obviously some members felt personally concerned about and ignored to the point they needed to file a lawsuit. If members want to go join in the streets, as Nolan points himself, they can. There are plenty of people there. To my point, it's both not a labor cause and highly inaccurate, so I'm generally very ambivalent about the BDS allyship struggles in the scheme of things aside from that it will undoubtedly be used to continue to scapegoat Jews regardless of whether or not Trump wins in the next election and all of the other things we're not paying attention to right now here because everyone is mad about Israel.
Tbh aside from expressing sympathy for the Palestinian people, the BDS movement--as a labor movement--barely makes sense in the context of the majority of people and businesses supporting it considering neither country has a tremendous amount of relevant exports and factual inaccuracies many people do not even bother to look into.
This includes the Ahava store (a small Israeli skincare brand almost no one knows unless you are Israeli or a Jew) that is situated within the confines of the Israel border outlined in the 1949 Armistice Agreement within the Masada National Park on the Western border of the Dead Sea. You can see Jordan from the shore. It has nothing to do with Gaza, which means, no, it’s not in “occupied territory” unless you consider Israel’s entire existence to be occupying land, which many of them do—another problem with the #freepalestine movement that I refuse to co-sign. When you ask a bookstore how exactly BDS solidarity factors into their purchasing decisions of books and products they never would have carried in the first place, you realize it’s not actually about BDS at all.
The BDS movement as a labor movement has such a small and meaningless impact on labor aside from it sounding cool. The FLA, which may be less flashy to the general public, addresses actual forced labor issues around the world--something that BDS just doesn’t even care about because their only focus is making people hate Israel, even when the employees (who include Palestinians) are treated fairly with better benefits than most Americans. This is probably why the FLA doesn’t really address it because it’s not about labor unless you want to do the mental gymnastics to argue that everything is labor.
Is silencing them helpful? Probably not. But I think people give them way too much lip service because they feel helpless in a war they have no control over and are about two steps away from the “by any means” extremists.
Was it wrong for American labor unions to take a stand against South African apartheid?
IDK did they make up a bunch of information to do it? Did it improve everyone’s overall labor conditions both here and there by doing so? What’s going on in South African labor right now and where do the American union trade laborists stand on it now?
You guys make it sound like American unions are these historically faultless unified coalitions with beautiful shared humanitarian goals that hold themselves as accountable as they do other places lol. Please. Do you guys spend a tremendous amount of time around these people in middle America that you speak of? They’re almost entirely white heteronormative Christians, oftentimes conservative, even. Does that make them “better” if they turn a blind eye to sexism and racism because they vocally say “apartheid is bad?”
Just because they show a sign of support doesn’t necessarily mean they’re good people or have the same intentions. And if your political position is that “any help is good help” that requires lying or misleading people about it, you’re not really doing yourself or anyone else any favors by creating safe spaces for antisemites and “by any means.” How exactly would that create a better, more equitable society with that logic? I’m sorry but you can’t look are this situation with a critical journalistic eye if you cannot acknowledge that both sides are a little full of it.
To my point above: I feel like many people are latching onto the term because they are feeling emotionally compelled to offer support and struggling to figure out how to do that. And while I’m empathetic, it doesn’t change the fact that spreading inaccurate BDS information isn’t particularly helpful for either labor rights or a defined goal towards peace/structure for Palestinian self-determination. It’s like signing a contract without reading the fine print.
What’s an example of made-up information that concerns you?
Please re-read my original comment.
Was it wrong to boycott apartheid South Africa?
BDS's main effect is as a symbol of what a peaceful resistance could look like, and it reveals the derangement of American politics in how virulently various states, municipalities, and institutions crack down on BDS, real or imaginary. Like you say there may not be much of anything to boycott or divest from, but powers here want to make it clear that you will be punished severely if you at all associate yourself with that idea.
The punishment of aligning your union is the long-term implications that directly impact future efforts for work here, which obviously some members felt personally concerned about and ignored to the point they needed to file a lawsuit. If members want to go join in the streets, as Nolan points himself, they can. There are plenty of people there. To my point, it's both not a labor cause and highly inaccurate, so I'm generally very ambivalent about the BDS allyship struggles in the scheme of things aside from that it will undoubtedly be used to continue to scapegoat Jews regardless of whether or not Trump wins in the next election and all of the other things we're not paying attention to right now here because everyone is mad about Israel.