An Advocate for Israel Draws Fire as He Nears Confirmation to Civil Rights Post

[Borealis]

[URL]https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/18/us/politics/kenneth-marcus-civil-rights-israel-bds.html?ribbon-ad-idx=9&rref=politics[/URL]

[QUOTE]WASHINGTON — Students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison [URL="https://badgerherald.com/news/2017/04/27/asm-unanimously-approves-contentious-divestment-proposal-to-mixed-reactions-from-campus/"]had [/URL][URL="https://badgerherald.com/news/2017/04/27/asm-unanimously-approves-contentious-divestment-proposal-to-mixed-reactions-from-campus/"]gathered[/URL][URL="https://badgerherald.com/news/2017/04/27/asm-unanimously-approves-contentious-divestment-proposal-to-mixed-reactions-from-campus/"] last spring to consider a resolution[/URL] calling on the university to divest in companies and countries that abuse human rights, profit from the “military-industrial complex” and promote fossil fuels when the debate jumped the rails.

Soon, the students were in a full-scale battle over whether the resolution should cover Israel, with charges of anti-Semitism and racism rattling the room. A student representative who was Jewish said that the last-minute inclusion of Israel “crossed the line from legitimate conversation to a point where I consider it malicious.” The student government chairwoman, who is black, suggested the opposition to the resolution amounted to “white supremacy,” which she condemned with a four-letter expletive.
In the aftermath, Kenneth L. Marcus, the founder and president of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, decided to enter the fray, [URL="http://brandeiscenter.com/ldb-urges-further-action-from-uw-madison/"]writing[/URL] to university administrators to denounce calls for divestment from Israel as anti-Semitic, and to assail the meeting as hostile toward Jewish students. He urged that the black student leader be disciplined.
On Thursday, Mr. Marcus received the approval of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee to be President Trump’s assistant secretary for civil rights in the Education Department, a prestigious post known more for policing racial bias and sexual violence in schools than refereeing the battles over Israel and Palestinian rights on the nation’s university campuses.[/QUOTE]

[Scarabix]

A thing to keep in mind when divesting is whether or not you're already purchasing the products to begin with. It's easy not to buy israeli products in Europe, even if you're not actively trying to boycott Israel, so I can't imagine it's that hard a thing to do in Washington unless I'm mistaken.

Everyone who would boycott Israel is already doing it for themselves, so bds is not really in dire need of a plateform around those parts. So. How is the university itself invested in Israel then?

If you don't follow any money before jumping to argue about divestment then any discussion is irrelevant, isn't it? I can't find bits in the article pertaining to what repercussions this boycott would have. I wouldn't be so hasty and dismiss it as inconsequent just yet, but getting this information out is a priority that comes before resorting to the usual sterile shitflinging.

[Bertie]

[QUOTE]Soon, the students were in a full-scale battle over whether the resolution should cover Israel, with charges of anti-Semitism and racism rattling the room. A student representative who was Jewish said that the last-minute inclusion of Israel “crossed the line from legitimate conversation to a point where I consider it malicious.” The student government chairwoman, who is black, suggested the opposition to the resolution amounted to “white supremacy,” which she condemned with a four-letter expletive.[/QUOTE]

This honest to god sounds like a typical /pol/ caricature of what universities look like nowadays.
Also, I really think that cutting off education from countries deemed to be abusing human rights is counterproductive. You know who the biggest resisters to the current status quo in Israel are? It's people who received education. What's the point in depriving a country of the one most important thing that could help it change from within, rather than a forced change from outside (which never works well)?
At least I assume they're talking about education (higher education) when they talk about divesting of Israel.

[Bob The Knob]

[QUOTE=Bertie;53064667]This honest to god sounds like a typical /pol/ caricature of what universities look like nowadays.
Also, I really think that cutting off education from countries deemed to be abusing human rights is counterproductive. You know who the biggest resisters to the current status quo in Israel are? It's people who received education. What's the point in depriving a country of the one most important thing that could help it change from within, rather than a forced change from outside (which never works well)?
At least I assume they're talking about education (higher education) when they talk about divesting of Israel.[/QUOTE]

It's about investments the university has in Israeli companies but not can't find any more details than that

[Bertie]

[QUOTE=Bob The Knob;53064727]It's about investments the university has in Israeli companies but not can't find any more details than that[/QUOTE]

Oh. I could see more sense in that.