Dear Colleagues:

Happy New Year!

As we enter the New Year we are re-launching the Faculty Forum in addition, to our other products and publications including but not limited, to the BDS Monitor and our Webinars.

Positively, in 2020 notwithstanding COVID we did see a significant amount of push back on BDS in particular with the normalization between Israel, the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco. Further, Sudan took a stance and highlighted Palestinian rejectionism.

But in contrast to these changes in the region “Cancel culture” is on the rise and antisemitism, is the only form of hate speech that cancel culture has no problem tolerating, while pro-Israel stances remain occasions to cancel those who dare express it. All of this, is motivated in part by the sense that history is either made up for the benefit of the powerful, or that history’s uncomfortable truths necessarily compel feelings of guilt, which must then be translated into political action.  And real historical understanding of events like the Civil War and the Holocaust are fading, or, like the history of Jewish nationalism—Zionism—they are deliberately distorted in order to damn supporters.

Clearly, there is much work to be done.

As always, we would love to hear from you and welcome your feedback and article submissions.

 

Sincerely,

Asaf Romirowsky, PhD