July 4, 2010

Broadcast Date: 
Jul 4 2010

Jewish supporters and opponents debate the wisdom of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement targeting Israel on June 15, 2010, at Advent Lutheran Church in Manhattan.

Episode segments
  • Jewish Perspectives on Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions: Introductions
    American Politics, American, Israel/Palestine, Occupation

    Donna Nevel is a community psychologist and educator, a long-time organizer for Israeli-Palestinian peace and justice--most recently with Jews Say No!  

    Esther Kaplan is co-host of Beyond The Pale, investigative editor at the Nation Institute, and produces the Communiqué, a weekly program on WNYE radio that covers labor issues..

    For decades the institutional Jewish community in the U.S. has worked tirelessly to establish and police the parameters within which discussion of U.S. policy toward Israel and its occupation of Palestinian lands takes place. At one time, the notion of a Palestinian state and of meeting with Palestinians from Fatah placed one well beyond the pale. Today, of course, both are commonplace. But in their place, a new set of prohibitions have emerged: linking the words Israel and apartheid; questioning the Jewish right of return; advocating a Palestinian right of return; proposing that Israel become, instead of a Jewish state, a state of all of its citizens; speaking of alternatives to two-states; and, the topic of today’s show, advocating the use of boycott, divestment and sanctions to pressure Israel to relinquish its occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and Gaza.

    To view the panel in its entirety (including the Q & A)  click here.  

  • Hannah Mermelstein
    Israel/Palestine, Occupation
    Hannah Mermelstein is the co-founder of Birthright Unplugged and an activist with  Adalah-New York.
  • Kathleen Peratis
    Israel/Palestine, Occupation
    Kathleen Peratis is a member of the board of J Street, former vice president of the New Israel Fund, former president of the NYCLU , and member of the Emeritus Board of Human Rights Watch.
  • Yonaton Shapira
    Israel/Palestine, Occupation
    Yonaton Shapira is a former Captain in the Israeli Air Force, initiator of the Pilots’ Letter of 2003, in which Blackhawk pilots refused to fly missions over the occupied territories, and co-founder of Combatants for Peace.
  • J.J.Goldberg
    Israel/Palestine, Occupation
    J.J.Goldberg is a senior columnist for the Forward and former editor-in-chief.  He is the author of Jewish Power: Inside the American Jewish Establishment.