Blanca Arriola Palma

Blanca Arriola Palma promoted the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement at the University of Maryland (UMD) in 2019. 

In an April 2019 video, Palma said [00:00:35] she was the “current president” of the Political Latinxs United for Movement and Action in Society (PLUMAS) at UMD.

PLUMAS supported a 2019 divestment bill at UMD as part of the Divest UMD campaign, which called on UMD to divest from companies that do business with Israel. 

As of August 2019, Palma’s LinkedIn page said she was studying Government and Politics at UMD, College Park from “2015 - 2019.”

Promoting BDS

On April 25, 2019, Palma featured [02:49:46] in a video posted on Facebook by the UMD Student Government Association (SGA), urging the SGA to pass a BDS bill. The bill was launched by Divest UMD.

In the video, Palma said [02:50:01]: “The system of border walls, illegal raids, surveillance and detention Israel imposes on Palestinians is painfully similar to the treatment of immigrants in the United States.”

Palma continued [02:50:16]: “Palestinian’s livelihood in occupied land is purposely limited and that alone is genocide.”

Palma added [02:50:24]: “A two-state solution cannot exist if Palestine is erased which the Israeli state is continuously pursuing. We learn about genocide, colonialism and apartheid and we wonder how did we allow this to happen? We are living one of those moments.

Palma concluded [02:50:41]: “Palestinians should have the right to return, both the Jewish and Muslim people deserve peace, but if the peace of one is founded on genocide, occupation of land and human rights of the other, that is not peace. Vote in favor of this bill.”     

On April 25, 2019, Divest UMD announced on Facebook that following a UMD student government vote, the BDS bill failed to pass with “a vote of 9 for, 25 against, and 2 abstentions.”

BDS

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by Omar Barghouti in 2005 to challenge “international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.” BDS is an allegedly “Palestinian-led movement,” although leading BDS activists have admitted [00:01:01] this is not true. 

One of the demands of BDS includes [point 3] what is generally known as the “right of return,” a demand discredited as a way to eliminate Israel. Barghouti said the “right of return” is a means to “end Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.”  

Barghouti has said that BDS “aims to turn Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.”

In his activism, Barghouti has also said [00:05:55] regarding Israel: “Definitely, most definitely, we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No…rational Palestinian, not a sellout Palestinian, will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”

The movement has been linked to numerous terrorist organizations and received a public endorsement from Hamas in 2017.

BDS initiatives include calling on institutions and individuals to divest from Israeli-affiliated companies, promoting academic and cultural boycotts of Israel, and organizing anti-Israel rallies, protests and campaigns.

The movement’s most notable achievement has been the infiltration of university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments and student groups, backed by their own anti-Israel members and affiliates, have proposed resolutions on some form of boycott of, or divestment from, Israel and Israeli-affiliated entities.

Boycott resolutions, although non-binding, have been passed by student governments on numerous North American campuses.

BDS activity is often aggressive and disruptive. It has been noted that universities that pass BDS resolutions see a marked increase in anti-Semitic incidents on campus. On one campus, when the student government debated a BDS resolution, reports emerged of violent threats against those opposing it.

Social Media and Weblinks

Facebook:www.facebook.com/100015849669888 

Twitter:https://twitter.com/blanca_aby [Protected]  

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/blanca-arriola-palma-19b027185/