JVP Supports Students for Justice in Palestine at Bowdoin

It’s not anti-Semitic to demand full equal rights for Palestinians

Jewish Voice for Peace Stands In Solidarity with Bowdoin SJP

We at Jewish Voice for Peace support Students for Justice in Palestine at Bowdoin College, and their referendum calling on their university to boycott academic and cultural institutions complicit in IsraelŠ__s illegal and immoral occupation of Palestine. Since 2005, Palestinians, Israelis, and hundreds of thousands of supporters worldwide have been mobilized in response to the Palestinian civil society call for non-violent boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns. As Jews committed to human rights and justice, we answer this call for BDS and we stand with all others, like Bowdoin SJP, who act with the conviction that international movement pressure is needed to move Israel to end the occupation, abide by international law, and treat the Palestinian people with dignity and respect.

Further, we at Jewish Voice for Peace insist that the Bowdoin SJP academic and cultural boycott campaign is not anti-Semitic. Jews and Israelis themselves hold a wide range of views on Israel, and there is nothing anti-Jewish about demanding an end to Israeli occupation and supporting human rights for all peoples. While we condemn in the strongest terms any actual anti-Semitic speech or action, we believe that false charges of anti-Semitism cast at Bowdoin SJP and other Palestinian human rights advocates actually diminish real charges of anti-Semitism, and do disservice to the real historical legacy of anti-Semitism and its very real victims around the world. The attempt to call Bowdoin SJP Š_…anti-SemiticŠ__ falls in line with long-term efforts on the part of Israel advocates around the world to intimidate supporters of Palestinian human rights, and marginalizes the growing number of Jews who support nonviolent efforts to hold Israel accountable for human rights violations.

We support the students of Bowdoin SJP in their exercise of freedom of speech and their demand to hold their university accountable to principles of human rights and justice for all.

 

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