Carolyn Eisenberg

In an article published in April 2011, Goldstone wrote that while “the crimes allegedly committed by Hamas were intentional goes without saying.... The allegations of intentionality by Israel… had no evidence on which to draw.” Goldstone concluded that “If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document.”

Eisenberg signed a petition published by January 12, 2009 of “Jews who say ‘Not in Our Name’ to the Israeli Government,” which called for “an immediate end to the massacre of the Palestinian people” and “immediate steps taken to end the Israeli occupation.”

Eisenberg also signed “A Statement in Support of Open and Free Discussion about U.S. and Israeli Foreign Policy and Against Suppression of Speech,” which claimed that “there is a very well organized and continuous campaign on behalf of Israel, openly coordinated with the work of the Israel embassy and with the government in Jerusalem.”

The statement claimed that “students (in a practice reminiscent of the most sordid aspects of the McCarthy years) have been enlisted to act as informers on their teachers” and that “the U.S. Congress is under surveillance far more intense than the usual sort of lobbying.”

Calling to End U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel

On May 21, 2012, Eisenberg co-authored a statement opposing the U.S. defense budget, arguing that the money “enables reckless actions by Israel.”

Eisenberg signed a petition, published on January 30, 2003, which stated that “With an average of more than $10 million dollars per day of American tax dollars going to Israel, we believe Americans cannot remain silent while crimes as abhorrent as ethnic cleansing are being openly advocated.”

In 2002, Eisenberg signed a petition titled “AN OPEN LETTER FROM AMERICAN JEWS TO OUR GOVERNMENT,” which demanded “Israeli evacuation of all settlements in the occupied territories.”

The petition went on to state that “The U.S. bears a special responsibility for the current tragic impasse, by virtue of our massive economic and military support for the Israeli government: $500 per Israeli citizen per year. Our country has an extraordinary leverage on Israeli policy, if only our government would dare to use it.”

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

University Website: https://www.hofstra.edu/faculty/fac_profiles.cfm?id=410