Louis-Georges Schwartz

Overview

Louis-Georges Schwartz has spread hatred of Israel at Ohio University (OU) and is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Schwartz is an associate professor of Film Studies in the College of Fine Arts at OU.

Spreading Hatred of Israel

In September 2014, Schwartz expressed support for a student who poured fake blood on herself and explained "I'm sending a message of student concern about the genocide in Gaza and the occupation of Palestine by the Israeli state."

Amidst major controversy surrounding the act, Schwartz posted a message on Facebook stating “I say unequivocally that those who support the murderous state dominating the territory of Palestine do not speak for me.”

According to one article chronicling the event, the act took place in Schwartz’s backyard. Schwartz declined to respond to that accusation.

Supporting BDS

Schwartz signed the “Open Letter on Gaza and BDS from the Middle East Caucus of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies,” published on August 29, 2014.

The letter described “indiscriminate and disproportionate violence that has been waged… by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) against the civilian population of Gaza” that it characterized as “the largest ‘open air prison’ in the world.”

The letter went on to endorse the BDS movement and to claim t “By all counts and in the mildest of terms, the violence has taken an unprecedented and savage turn, having reached genocidal proportions.”

Schwartz signed a petition published on April 29, 2014 to “Boycott Israeli Cinema and TV Studies Conference at Tel Aviv University.”

The petition called upon scholars to boycott a conference at Tel Aviv University (TAU) and provided a link to the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI).

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.ohio.edu/finearts/film/faculty-staff/profiles.cfm?profile=7475092A-5056-A800-48B6E2CE6C63D8A4