Devra Weber

Weber also signed her name to a list of individuals endorsing the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI).

On December 5, 2013, Weber signed the “Campaign to Boycott the Oral History Conference at Hebrew University of Jerusalem,” authored by the BDS movement.

The petition encouraged historians and academics to boycott an upcoming conference at Hebrew University (HUJI), claiming that “while all Israeli universities are deeply complicit in the occupation, settler-colonialism, and apartheid, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem is particularly noteworthy.”

In May 2013, Weber signed a petition of UC faculty members in support of a bill “divesting from companies that provide significant support for the Israeli military.”

Weber also signed “A Statement of Determination to Boycott Israel” published by the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine (BRICUP).

Demonizing Israel

Weber signed an open letter, published on January 17, 2018 that condemned the Women’s March in Los Angeles for having Scarlett Johansson as its guest speaker. The letter said Johansson was “unabashedly a supporter of Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights.”

The letter went on to ‘ object to tone set as a result of the key role played by The National Council of Jewish Women LA” and described anti-Israel agitator, Ahed Tamimi as “a young Palestinian Rosa Parks.”


Weber signed another open letter, published on July 13, 2014, to Israeli academics. The letter alleged that the “government of Israel, having provoked the firing of rockets by its rampage through the West Bank, is now using that response as the pretext for an aerial assault on Gaza.”

Signatories of the letter went on to call upon Israeli academics “to join your voices in an open and resounding protest about these war crimes by the Israeli government – your government.”

The letter came in response to an Israeli effort to recover three Israeli teenagers who had been kidnapped from a bus stop on June 12, 2014. Following the kidnapping, Israeli forces entered into the West Bank, hoping to find and rescue the teenagers.

On June 30, 2014, it was discovered that the boys had been murdered when their bodies were found buried in Palestinian-controlled territory.

Weber signed an open letter, published on March 31, 2009, opposing the reinstitution of the University of California Education Abroad Program (EAP) in Israel.

Signatories of the petition claimed that "Israel has deprived hundreds of thousands of Palestinians of their right to education” and that “The designated site of UC’s EAP, Hebrew University (HU), has a longstanding and documented record of discriminating against Palestinian students.”

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: http://history.ucr.edu/people/faculty/devraweber.html