Jeffrey Melnick

Overview

Jeffrey Melnick has demonized Israel and is a promoter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Melnick is the Graduate Program Director and a professor of American Studies in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Massachusetts, Boston (UMB).

Demonizing Israel

On July 2, 2017, Melnick participated in a conversation on Twitter, arguing that: “The founding of Israel was facilitated by white Europeans for the benefit of other white Europeans.”

On September 4, 2017, Melnick contributed to a thread on Twitter, stating that: “The World's Only Jewish State! Forged in Ethnic Cleansing! Sustained by Apartheid! #bds.”

On December 28, 2017, Melnick contributed to a thread on Twitter, stating that: “A very smart Jewish Studies scholar I know recently opined that Israel is gonna be the death of the Jews and that's right and just a tiny part of it.”

On November 17, 2017, Melnick tweeted: “@ADL [Anti-Defamation League (ADL)]_National has been in the business of scapegoating and marginalizing (and surveilling and...) for decades now.”

On November 18, 2018, Melnick wrote in a Twitter discussion that the ADL: “serve as the racist bridge from occupied Palestine to Ferguson.  Not my kind of Jews.”

Promoting BDS

On November 15, 2018, Melnick tweeted: “We  Jews really need to step up on this.  Some helped shut down a weak effort in MA to ban BDS. Time to make this a Democratic party issue nationally.  (Also, in Yiddish, we say @ADL_National is a ‘shande fur di goyim’: an embarrasment in front of all the non-Jews.)”

In 2018, Melnick signed a petition condemning anti-BDS activism. The petition accused those who opposed BDS of “unscrupulous actions that support practices of settler colonialism, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing in Palestine, and white supremacy, McCarthyism, Islamophobia, and racism in the US.”

On March 7, 2018, Melnick tweeted: “We've been revolting!  We are out here supporting BDS! Calling out craven politicians who line their pockets with AIPAC money.”

Melnick also signed a petition, published by U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI) in October of 2017, expressing “utmost solidarity with our comrade and colleague on the Organizing Collective, [anti-Israel activist] Bill Mullen.”

On August 23, 2017, Melnick tweeted: “Personally trying to leave my mark on the US-Israel relationship through the work I do on #bds through by campus group FSJP group!”

Melnick was listed as the press contact on a statement, published on May 16, 2016, by Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine organization at the University of Massachusetts Boston (FSJP-UMB) supporting the “adoption of a resolution to join the international Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS) against Israel.”

On July 20, 2017, Melnick tweeted: “I'm a state employee, member of our campus Palestine support group and member of a professional organization that endorsed #bds.”

In March 2016, Melnick was quoted in an article published by Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP), defending the BDS movement and condemning legislation that would seek to oppose it.

Melnick argued that “the boycott has been a crucial tactic by which Americans have voiced their conscience and contributed to positive social change...Today I stand with all who want to protect a time-honored American approach to political protest which has made such a difference.”

Melnick signed a 2014 open letter calling for an end to U.S. military aid to Israel.

The July 31, 2014 letter, addressed to former U.S. President Barack Obama and the American Congress, called “to suspend US military aid to Israel, until there is assurance that this aid will no longer be used for the commission of war crimes.”
On March 14, 2014, Melnick signed a “Statement in Support of Academic Boycott of Israel.” Signatories of the statement expressed support for the American Studies Association’s (ASA) adoption of BDS legislation, stating that: “We believe that support for the academic boycott of Israel and the ASA resolution is fully in keeping with the mission and values of UMass Boston.”

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

Twitter:https://twitter.com/melnickjeffrey1

University Website:https://www.umb.edu/academics/cla/faculty/jeffrey_melnick