Devorah Stavisky

Devorah Stavisky [Amanda Devorah Stavisky] promoted the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement at the University of Maryland (UMD), in 2019. 

As of August 2019, Stavisky’s Facebook page said she was a “KESTY Advisor” at Temple Emanuel of Kensington, MD, since August 2018, and a Teaching Assistant at UMD, College Park, since January 2018.

As of the same date, Stavisky’s profile on researchgate.net said she was affiliated with the Department of Sociology at UMD and Stavisky’s Instagram bio said “Sociologist in Training - UMD '2019.”  

Promoting BDS

On April 25, 2019, Stavisky was featured [01:21:55] 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.

Divest UMD is a campaign that calls on UMD to divest from companies that do business with Israel. 

In the video, Stavisky said [01:22:12]: “I care about Israel, but I cannot idly stand by a country idealized as the beacon of democracy in the Middle East, as it bulldozes over the rights of Palestinians living in the occupied territory, literally.”

Stavisky continued [01:22:22]: “The Israeli government has demolished Palestinian homes, segregated Palestinian and Jewish schools, strips Palestinians of their voting rights and has built a literal wall, dividing Jews and Palestinians.”

Stavisky went on to say [01:23:24]: “Regardless of the goals of the wider BDS movement, I support this particular resolution. I urge SGA legislatures to support the resolution and see this bill, not as the end of the conversation about Israel Palestine, but as the beginning of a conversation… about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict...”

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/100000612955343   

Twitter:https://twitter.com/devstavisky 
 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stavorah

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKHsMXuYnOht6V-WTV9ydYg