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Join your host, J. Kehaulani Kauanui for Part I of a two-part series that explores Palestinian self- determination as question of indigenous sovereignty and the politics of Israeli occupation and settler colonialism with a specific focus on the Boycott, Divest, Sanction movement. This installment features interviews with Omar Barghouti, a founding member of the Palestinian campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, and Steven Salaita, an assistant professor of English at Virginia Tech and author of The Holy Land in Transit: Colonialism and the Quest for Canaan, along with several other books. Barghouti will tell us about the conditions that compelled him to co-found the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI). Salaita will address issues of settler colonialism in Palestine and how they compare to the colonization of Native North America. The BDS campaign against Israel is growing around the world. The Palestinian Campaigns have inspired similar campaigns in France, Spain, Belgium, Norway, Australia, South Africa, and the United States among other countries, ranging from boycotts of everything from Israeli produce to Israeli academic institutions. Tune-in to learn about the boycott of Israel - and hear answers to frequently asked questions: why “single out” Israel? Doesn’t an academic boycott create more barriers when we should be “building bridges”? What does the boycott entail? How does this relate to issues of academic freedom? How can we productively critique Israel and Zionism and stand firm against all forms of anti-Semitism? Israeli state violence against the Palestinians is fully supported by the US government through military aid and diplomatic oversight. But many people of conscience believe they have a moral obligation to speak out in solidarity with the Palestinian fight for nationhood and protest Israel’s illegal apartheid regime. As author Naomi Klein writes, “the best strategy to end the increasingly bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa.” Original air-date: 05-12-2009.
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