Beth Baron

Beth Baron is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and the president of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA). 

As the MESA president, Baron has written dozens of letters to the Israeli government condemning its actions and defending terrorists. 

Baron is a professor of Middle Eastern Studies and the Graduate Center of City University of New York (CUNY). 

Since assuming her position as MESA president in 2016, Baron has authored dozens of letters to members of the Israeli government, including to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Minister of Justice, the Minister of Education and the Public Security Minister. 

Throughout her letters, Baron refers to the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) as the “Israeli occupation authorities,” and Israel as “Occupied Palestinian Territories.”

Baron also expresses support for convicted terrorists and individuals detained by Israeli security forces, including Omar Barghouti and Imad Barghouthi. 

Baron has also written letters on behalf of those participating in the 2017 hunger strike, participants of which are mostly convicted terrorists being held in Israeli prisons. 

Although MESA has not, as of 2017, taken an official position on BDS, there have been reports of growing support for the movement under Baron’s leadership. 

On August 6, 2014, Baron signed her name to a petition of scholars and librarians, calling for the academic boycott of Israel. 

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.

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