Naomi Braine
Overview
Naomi E. Braine has supported the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, demonized Israel and defended anti-Israel professor Rabab Abdulhadi.Braine is a professor and the department chairperson of Sociology at Brooklyn College (BC).
Supporting BDS
Braine signed a letter, authored by the anti-Israel Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) organization and published on January 25, 2017, condemning Fordham University’s decision to block the establishment of a Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at Fordham. In 2016, Fordham reportedly blocked the formation of a Fordham SJP chapter “based on the reported behavior of other [SJP] chapters on other campuses,” indicating that “the establishment of a local branch could be ‘polarizing’ and pose a safety concern to students and faculty.”Signatories demanded that Fordham “immediately rescind the rejection of SJP as a student group on campus, apologize to the students affected by this harmful decision, and reaffirm Fordham’s commitment to free speech and academic freedom.”
The petitioners also highlighted SJP’s BDS activity, characterizing SJP’s efforts to promote anti-Israel boycott as part of “a time-honored non-violent mode of political expression.” The petition accused Fordham’s administration of a “fundamental misunderstanding of what boycotts are, the purpose of a university, and the goals of SJP.”
Braine also signed an open letter, authored by anti-Israel activists Judith Butler and Rashid Khalidi and published on March 5, 2014, “Condemning Censorship of Israel Critics.” Signatories of the letter called upon “cultural and educational institutions to have the courage and the principle to stand for, and safeguard” BDS activism.
Demonizing Israel
In January 2009, during Israel’s Operation Cast Lead, Braine signed a petition titled “Jews say NO: Not in our Name,” signatories of which called for “an immediate end to the massacre of the Palestinian people” and “immediate steps taken to end the Israeli occupation.”Israel commenced Operation Cast Lead (OCL)in 2008-09 in order to stop Hamas rocket fire from Gaza targeting Israeli civilians. In 2010, Hamas admitted that nearly 700 of the Palestinian casualties in OCL were combatants.
Braine also signed “An Open Letter to LGBTIQ Communities and Allies on the Israeli Occupation of Palestine.”
Signatories claimed that “liberation from this form of colonization and apartheid goes hand in hand with the liberation of queer Palestinians from the project of global heterosexism.”
The petition went on to accuse Israel of “pinkwashing, that is, a well-funded, cynical publicity campaign marketing a purportedly gay-friendly Israel to an international audience so as to distract attention from the devastating human rights abuses it commits on a daily basis.”
On September 5, 2003, Braine participated in a plenary discussion, representing Jews against the Occupation, Washington D.C.
The discussion was part of the United Nations “International Conference of Civil Society in Support of the Palestinian People,” and its theme was “End the Occupation!”
According to the conference's web page, “The aim of the Conference is to provide civil society organizations from all regions of the world with an opportunity to discuss the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, and coordinate their activities in support of the Palestinian people.”
Defending Rabab Abdulhadi
Braine signed a letter published on July 1, 2014, by “members of Jewish communities” to San Francisco State University (SFSU) President Leslie Wong, condemning actions taken against professor Rabab Abdulhadi and her anti-Israel activism on campus.The letter defended actions by Abdulhadi, such as leading a controversial “delegation to Palestine that highlighted the plain reality of Israeli occupation and settler-colonialism” and went on to claim that “political intervention to support Israel and Zionism feeds into anti-Jewish racism.”
During a March 2014, SFSU faculty event, Abdulhadi praised international hijacker Leila Khaled as an “icon in liberations movements and… an icon for women’s liberation.”
The letter also condemned pro-Israel organizations and activists, alleging that they had weaponized the term “anti-Semitism” in order to “target Palestinian students and professors and their supporters” and “contribute to a domestic climate that is extremely hostile to Arabs and Muslims.”
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/naomi.braineLinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/naomi-braine-36317228/
University Website: https://www.brooklyn.edu/faculty-staff/naomi-e-braine/
