Saskia Sassen
Overview
Saskia Sassen has demonized Israel and is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.Demonizing Israel
On May 3, 2017, Sassen featured at an event speaking about Urban Expansion and Global Cities. In an article chronicling the event, it was reported that “Commenting on the current context in Palestine, Sassen stated that ‘the Israeli policy will definitely not last long… Walls have not, and will not, be of any use at all.’”Sassen signed a statement, published on August 12, 2014 by “American Muslim organizations, academics, Imams, community leaders and activists” who wished to “affirm our unequivocal support for Palestinian rights to freedom and dignity while forcefully condemning the illegal and oppressive occupation structure.”
Signatories of the petition wrote that “The Israeli aggression against the civilian population of Gaza has surpassed all levels of brutality and cruelty” and went on to “Support the BDS Campaign to end occupation.”
In December 2010, Sassen authored an article in which she described Gaza as “a site where Israeli forces can experiment with modes of urban warfare given the fact of occupation and control over most of the means of survival of the Gaza people. In the process it terrorizes a whole population.”
She went on to charge that Israel “has done just about all that is conceivable to destroy it and demoralize a people.”
On November 10, 2004, Sassen appeared on a panel at the University of Chicago (U of C) titled “Examining National Identity: Nationalism, Transnationalism, and the Future of the Middle East.”
In an article chronicling the event, it was reported that Sassen walked out in the middle of the panel, outraged that her co-panelist suggested that Israel is disproportionately criticized by the United Nations.
The article went on to quote Sassen, explaining that “We cannot make any headway even in our academic discussion if we talk about the Israeli government as a pure victim the way two of the speakers explicitly or implicitly did… We need to recognize that the Israeli state has operated with excess power in a situation of extreme asymmetry.”
Supporting BDS
Sassen signed an open letter to United States President Barack Obama and the American Congress, dated July 31, 2014, condemning “the disproportionate harm that the Israeli military, which the United States has armed and supported for decades, is inflicting on the population of Gaza.”The letter exclusively blamed Israel for the Gaza crisis and called upon the administration “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).
Israel commenced Operation Protective Edge (OPE) in July 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.
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/SaskiaSassenUniversity Website: https://sociology.columbia.edu/content/saskia-sassen
- Status:
- Professor
- University:
- Columbia
- Organizations:
- BDS
- Related Profiles:
- Last Modified:
- 06/23/2025
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