What the Movement for Black Lives Teaches Us About the Appeal of BDS

[Little Tich]

Source: The Forward, by Raphael Magarik

Why did the newly released Movement for Black Lives platform call Israel an “apartheid state” and accuse it of “genocide” against Palestinians? Mainstream Jews and radical activists want to debate the justice or morality of the platform, but neither group is interested in explaining how it came to be. But that means they are missing a basic shift in the American conversation about Israel. From being a third-rail of progressive politics, Palestine has not only become discussable. It is rapidly becoming a compelling, attractive cause that leftist organizations tactically embrace to mobilize their base.

I first observed this shift when my Berkeley student-worker union voted on BDS in 2014. I opposed the resolution, and I complained to my union friends that the vote risked splitting workers and weakening the union. I still oppose BDS, but on the question of whether this was good for the union, I was dead wrong. Not only did the resolution win in a landslide; more importantly, the 2,100 members who voted constituted “one of our local’s historically highest voting turnouts.”

In other words, far from being divisive, BDS organizing proved a good tool for mobilizing members. This stands to reason, too. The union invested significant resources in the vote, even though it has little practical significance. While I know that the union leadership is sincerely pro-Palestinian, an intensive campaign on a remote issue was also surely tactical. Similarly, when doctoral students at the City University of New York endorse BDS amidst a contentious contract fight between the union and the administration, the tactical connection is obvious. Pro-Palestinian student groups are a lively, radical base and an attractive partner.

Tactical concerns like these are rarely discussed. Mainstream Jewish groups still like to pretend that BDS is a marginal fringe, and leftist activists prefer the moral, idealistic language of “solidarity” to the blunt realism of admitting you are pandering to the kids. But occasionally, thinkers on the left explicitly connect the left’s newly intense interest in Palestine with its usefulness in mobilizing youth. When the radical Jacobin magazine convened a forum on Palestine in 2013, for instance, they wrote:

Why now? Because almost without anyone noticing, the movement in solidarity with Palestinian rights… has grown to become one of the most important, inspiring, and fast-growing social movements in the country… the bloom of student interest in this old and bloody colonial conflict is something the Left ought to take interest in, because the Left is not just an idea but also the masses in motion, and scarcely anywhere… are young people in motion with such a mix of revolutionary élan and disciplined militancy as they are in the case of Palestine.

Read more: http://forward.com/opinion/347256/what-the-movement-for-black-lives-teaches-us-about-the-appeal-of-bds/