Mary Wilson
Overview
Mary Wilson is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and has demonized Israel on the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (UMass Amherst) campus.Wilson is a Professor Emerita in the Department of History at UMass Amherst.
Supporting BDS
Wilson signed an open letter to former United States President Barack Obama and the American Congress, demonizing Israel and calling for an end to foreign aid.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.”
The letter was in response to Operation Protective Edge (OPE), which Israel commenced in July 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.
Wilson also signed her name to a list of individuals endorsing the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI).
Wilson signed an open letter, published on April 27, 2014, affirming the passage of a BDS resolution which called “on the graduate students’ employer and their union to divest from and boycott companies that fuel and profit from the military occupation and repression of Palestinians.”
Signatories of the letter praised the decision, writing that: “The methods by which this pro-BDS resolution was adopted represent the best practices of union democracy.”
In a letter written by UMass alumni to the university’s chancellor in January 2014, Wilson was cited as one of seven professors at UMass who had voted in support of the resolution proposed to the American Studies Association (ASA) to adopt the academic boycott of Israel.
Demonizing Israel
On February 25, 2015, Wilson was featured on a panel with anti-Israel professor, Sut Jhally, as part of Israel Apartheid Week (IAW), hosted by UMass Amherst’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).Also during IAW at UMass Amherst, Wilson spoke at another SJP event titled: “Palestine: Professors Speak.” In an article chronicling the event, Wilson was quoted stating that “The creation of the nation Israel meant a displacement of populations for both Jews and Arabs… Everybody suffered.”
The aim of IAW at UMass Amherst was reportedly: “to educate people about the nature of Israel as an apartheid system and to build Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaigns.”
Wilson signed “A Statement in Support of Open and Free Discussion about U.S. and Israeli Foreign Policy and Against Suppression of Speech” which alleged 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 specifically 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.”
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.
SJP
SJP is a student organization engaged in anti-Israel activity on North American college and university campuses.
The first chapter of SJP was founded in 2001 at the University of California at Berkeley by Professor Hatem Bazian. Bazian has spread classic anti-Semitism, reportedly promoted religious anti-Semitism and defended the Hamas terror group. In 2004, Bazian called for “intifada” in America.
SJP organizes anti-Israel campaigns, including running annual Israel Apartheid Weeks, often in collaboration with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Muslim Students Association (MSA) campus chapters.
SJP has been a major force in pushing the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement on campuses. Chapters have initiated dozens of BDS resolutions in student governments, which have been proposed on or around Jewish holidays, a time when many Jewish students are off-campus.
SJP activists have reportedly physically assaulted, intimidated and harassed Jewish students, disrupted pro-Israel campus events and demonized pro-Israel campus organizations.
Chapters have often endorsed and campaigned for numerous terrorists and whitewashed terrorism.
