Walter Hixson

Overview

Walter Hixson has demonized Israel in his writing and is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Hixson is a distinguished professor in the Department of History at the University of Akron (UAkron).

Demonizing Israel

In an article published on October 7, 2015, Hixson claimed that “The double standard of U.S. acquiescence to myriad examples of Israeli aggression and violations of international law is lost on most Americans because of their religious and cultural affinity for Israel, as well as the deep pockets of the Israel Lobby.”

In March 2015, Hixson published a book titled “American Settler-Colonialism: A History,” in which he cited Israel as an example of settler-colonialism.

In an interview, published on December 20, 2012, Hixson listed “U.S. enabling of Israeli aggression and militarism” as a key factor in America’s hegemonic decline.

In the same interview, Hixson claimed “An iron hegemony also exists around support for Israel, which no public official can challenge in the United States or he or she will be sure to lose the next election.”

In September 2012, Hixson presented a lecture in which he discussed a recent trip he had made to Israel. Hixson accented his lecture with slides, like one of a propaganda map that demonized Israel as a land thief.

The maps claim that lands once controlled by Britain, Egypt and Jordan as autonomous “Palestinian land” were purportedly stolen by Israel. In February 2016, publisher McGraw-Hill Education recalled copies of a college textbook containing the fraudulent maps. In October 2015, American cable news network MSNBC apologized for airing a similar series of maps and retracted them.

Hixson’s slide also claimed that “Israel settler colonialism has established a formidable set of ‘facts on the ground.’”

On January 1, 2001, Hixson published an editorial in which he alleged: that “Israel has eschewed a diplomatic solution in favor of aggression and an ongoing and ever widening illegal occupation of Palestinian territory, all part of its quest for a mythical Greater Israel.”

In the same article, Hixson went on to claim that “Israel — armed, backed and bankrolled by the United States — has persisted in violating international law and destroying the lives of Palestinians for some 60 years. The process began with an ethnic cleansing campaign carried out by Zionist extremists in 1948.”

Supporting BDS

Hixson 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 Gazan civilian 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.”

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.