Palestine, Boycott, and International Solidarity

This presentation will reflect on Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions as a strategy of international solidarity in support of the Palestinian people’s struggle against occupation and dispossession. It will give particular attention to the academic boycott of Israeli institutions as a part of this larger strategy, reflecting on the role that scholars and scholarly associations can play in this campaign. Drawing on my twenty-five years of experience working on and in Palestine, the paper will trace shifts in international practices of support for Palestinian people. Just as the structure of the Oslo Accords (the agreements that established the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Gaza and shifted the conditions of occupation) produced a shift in Palestinian politics from mass movements to NGO-building, so too did a lot of international action in these years become more focused on “aiding” and “helping” Palestinians. With BDS emanating from a call by Palestinian civil society organizations, supporting and joining an academic boycott can productively shift this action unto the plane of solidarity – enhancing horizontal connections in a struggle for justice, rather than hierarchical relations in a project of development.