USACBI welcomes 2019 with a new milestone:  despite the ongoing attempts at censorship, at stifling activism, even at criminalizing BDS, we have surpassed 2000 endorsers!  Our movement is fighting back, with coalitions coming together to secure multiple victories against the Israel lobby, and the resistance is growing, and rising from the grassroots upwards.  

Indeed, despite the seemingly relentless attacks, BDS organizers globally and nationally agree that 2018 has been an eventful, tumultuous, and empowering year. And there seems to be consensus that we are “beyond the tipping point,” as challenges to the anti-BDS legislation that would curb our activism to hold Israel responsible for its human rights violations are picking up, and the politicians have begun to listen.    

In the US, between the  appointment of Israeli lawfare strategist Kenneth Marcus to the Department of Education in January, to a speech instructor suing the state of Texas over the violation of her freedom of speech in December, we have seen some of the worst and best developments as far as the academic and cultural boycott of Israel is concerned.

USACBI has exciting plans for 2019, as we expand our End Study Abroad in Israel program, plan to convene a national strategy meeting for allied groups, and prepare for a US first:  the “Palestine Writes Back” literary festival, bringing together (in 2020) Palestinian writers from the homeland and the Diaspora, in a conversation with global writers who have endorsed BDS.  

Some of the highlights of the year are listed here, and here, reflecting the struggle, the resistance, the backlash, and our major successes.  

Join us as we welcome the new year with renewed commitment to grow the movement until there is justice and dignity for all, from every river to every sea.    

Image by Y. Taha