Another BDS Kerfuffle
JVL Introduction
We recently reposted Charles Lenchner’s article on Israeli denialism, drawing of his experience as a young Israeli in the eighties of becoming aware of the omnipresence of violence in the Israeli system of control.
Here he writes about difficult strategic questions which are dividing the solidarity movement in the United States. They are not – yet? – really an issue in Britain, but it is worth looking at the issues at stake.
When Sally Rooney agreed to have her latest novel published by a BDS-compliant publisher in Israel precisely to show that BDS wasn’t antisemitic, it was with the agreement of the BDS movement in Palestine.
But it opened up a division in the US movement. If the entire Zionist enterprise is racist and colonialist why bother to draw any distinctions?
So Lenchner says: “It seems fair to ask: to what extent is the Palestinian solidarity movement in the US in agreement with the leaders of the BDS movement in Palestine? Who is supposed to represent who, and how are we to know?”
It’s worth giving these divisions serious thought as they are likely to sharpen in the face of the genocide in Gaza, the Israeli public’s general enthusiasm for it, and the world’s utter failure to intervene.
This article was originally published by Pessimism of the Will on Sat 30 May 2026. Read the original here.
Another BDS Kerfuffle - And What It Means For Palestinian Solidarity
Understanding people you disagree with matters a great deal
Loading article text…
I’ve become aware of these divisions in the last year, due to a funding application for Standing Together which came to the Network for Social Change. In the end there was a decision to give ST a grant, but only after a sensitive and thoughtful discussion which helpfully coincided with a similar discussion inside JVL. This article doesn’t seem to me to measure up to that openness to discussion. While claiming to be concerned about divisions in our movement and calling for nuance, the writing actually comes down heavily one side. I find it malicious. Although I’m OK with JVL publishing it, I became increasingly disappointed with an article which I had hoped I could share with many others and take our thinking further.
Maximise your allies. Isolate your enemy. The rest is gobshite.