Dear Editors,

I applaud Shulie Weinberg’s call for “informed dialogue and respect” at the end of her article “Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction Movement: Take a Stand with Your Head, Not Your Heart,” in The Parker Weekly, April 22, 2016. I agree with her that students, and people in general, are not always fully informed about the complexity of issues, and I believe they can actually be doing their cause a disservice. However I think if students “use arguments based on firmly held convictions”, such as human rights based convictions, then that is a good reason to start taking a look at, and consider lending your support to a cause. It needs to be pointed out that in the free marketplace of ideas, the BDS movement has its well funded counterparts on the opposite end of the political spectrum who can be just as loud and closed to “real discussion and debate”. In fact, one tactic to undermine and shutdown the BDS movement and its supporters is to refer to them as anti-semitic. There are in fact many Jewish organizations in Israel and in the Jewish Diaspora that support the BDS movement based on their articulation of their values that prioritize human rights, and who do not consider themselves any less pro-Israel than pro-Israel groups who avoid discussing the Israeli Occupation and settlement of what most countries in the world, including the United States, consider the future Palestinian state. Furthermore, the U.S. and most of the world still deem the Israeli Occupation and growing settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as illegal under international law. To echo Ms. Weinberg’s exhortation, I would challenge current and future college students to redirect their organizations to do the very subversive activity of dialoguing with one another on this issue together to come up with solutions for the sake of a better future for all in Israel-Palestine. Then invite the politicians to come and observe how to move forward on this very complex and difficult issue.

Respectfully,

Kevin Conlon