David Moshman

Overview

David Moshman is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post, where he has published articles promoting the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and propagating anti-Israel accusations.

Moshman is a self-declared "intellectual freedom activist" and, in this role, has defended the anti-Semitic statements of Professor Steven Salaita.

David Moshman is a professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL).

Decontextualizing the 1948 War

On February 24, 2017, Moshman promoted the one-sided Nakba narrative of Israel’s establishment and the 1948 Arab-Israeli War by stating that "418 Palestinian villages [were] depopulated in 1948 in order to make Israel a Jewish country... Israel’s ongoing campaign of Judaization has played out in the depopulated villages."

"Nakba" is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 War. It is a term often used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel through defining it as a catastrophe.

He further wrote that Arabs were "expelled by Jewish authorities, attacked by Jewish militias, or terrorized by military attacks in nearby villages and reports of massacres which were often accurate."

Moshman went on to claim that "In all cases, Israel forbade [Arabs] to return, reclaimed all their land and property for the benefit of Jews, and refused compensation of any sort."

Defending Steven Salaita

On October 6, 2016, Moshman published a blog in the Huffington Post, expressing support for the BDS movement and defending Steven Salaita, the Edward Said Chair of American Studies at the American University of Beirut (AUB).

In 2014, The University of Illinois withdrew an offer of employment to Salaita after becoming aware of his anti-Semitic tweets. One tweet, posted shortly after Hamas kidnapped three teenage Israeli high school students, read: "You may be too refined to say it, but I’m not: I wish all the f**king West Bank settlers would go missing.” In 2017, Salaita posted to Facebook: “People ask if I would go back in time and change anything. I would not…I will die unapologetic.” In February 2019, Salaita stated that he had become a school bus driver in the Washington, D.C., area.

In his blog, Moshman cited the university’s action as a an example of "seriously [violating] basic academic standards" and, on this basis, justified its inclusion on the American Association of University Professors list of censured institutions.

Signatory to Anti-Israel Petitions

In 2013, Moshman signed a petition entitled "Jews for Palestinian Right of Return."

The petition states that "Since 1967, Israel has… occupied and colonized the remainder of historic Palestine. Today, this relentless ethnic cleansing continues… on both sides of the 1948 ‘Green Line.’"

The petition goes on to say that "To hide these crimes and shield itself from their consequences, the Zionist regime officially denies the Nakba, the ethical equivalent of Holocaust denial."

Moshman also signed his name to a petition, authored by the anti-Israel Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) organization, condemning Canary Mission.

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:https://www.facebook.com/people/David-Moshman/100011774570653