Human Rights Revisionism and the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism

This article focuses on the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism (CPCCA): a self-appointed group of parliamentarians dedicated to extinguishing what it calls “the new antisemitism.” Working from a Gramscian perspective, we identify key discursive strategies in coalition publications and testimony and argue that despite the CPCCA’s pretence to being a forum for liberal-pluralist debate, in fact it is engaged in an ideological reframing of human rights designed to restrict political debate. It does so, paradoxically, by drawing on the language of left-liberalism, which contrasts with recent ideological interventions aiming to secure the priorities of the neo-liberal state

Antisemitism on campus : a new look at legal interventions

British universities have become a key conduit in the global assault on Israel's legitimacy. This paper analyses the extent and the impact of the UK's anti-Zionism campaign and argues that the most effective "fight-back" strategy now requires legal intervention

Unpacking the global campaign to delegitimize Israel: drawing a line between criticism of Israel and denying its legitimacy

In the last two decades, international delegitimization of Israel has become a new mode of operation for those denying Israel’s right to exist. It encompasses a wide range of civil-society and grassroots organizations. The campaign attempts to imitate the logic of the struggle against the South African apartheid regime - hence to undermine Israel’s inter­national legitimacy in a manner that would lead to its isolation and even­tually cause it to collapse. In its current phase, the campaign functions as a long-term effort to grad­ually change the discourse and mindset of Israel’s critics in the West. Its main goal is to mainstream delegitimization - hence to reposition anti-Zionism from the radical margins into the mainstream of Western liberal-progressive circles, with specific emphasis on critics of Israel’s policies. A key strategy to mainstream delegitimization is to blur the differences between criticism of Israeli policy and challenges to Israel’s basic legiti­macy. This includes efforts to turn items of the delegitimization agenda into an integral part of the political debate about Israel. As a result, many critics of Israel’s policies end up supporting efforts that are led by the delegitimization campaign. The discussion in the West on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is gradually developing into a dichotomous encounter between supporting Israel and its policies unquestioningly or supporting anti-Zionism. The international delegitimization campaign negates two core principles of European foreign policy. First, it stands in direct contradiction to Europe’s core commitment to Israel’s right to exist. Second, it promotes rejectionism in Palestinian society as an alternative paradigm to the long-standing European approach of negotiated solution with Israel. The key to confronting delegitimization while providing latitude for criti­cism is the application of constructive differentiation between criticism of Israel and delegitimization. Critics of Israel should apply responsibility in discourse and action by addressing both their associative context and organizational affiliations with these campaigns of criticism. European civil-society and political actors should differentiate between different types of critics and adjust their engagement policy accordingly. (author's abstract

Систематизация понятийно-терминологического аппарата кластерных структур на основе анализа работ зарубежных авторов

The article presents the results of research, showing that the clusters in Western science have not yet gained the unity of understanding; they are attributed to completely different functions and aims. But there are many definitions and similarities. Thus, the organizational and economic base for creation of any cluster organizations is the methodology of cooperation and integration of various business entities, regardless of their feld of activity.На основании проведенных исследований установлено, что кластеры в западной науке не приобрели пока единства понимания, им приписываются совершенно разные функции и цели. Но есть во множестве определений и схожие черты. Так, организационно-экономической базой создания любых кластерных организаций является методология кооперации и интеграции различных субъектов хозяйствования независимо от сферы деятельности

Lawfare against Academics and the Potential of Legal Mobilization as Counterpower

The use of hegemonic, law-based measures, or lawfare, by right-wing organisations against scholars has become prevalent, particularly on US-based campuses. Whether to try and silence scholars from publishing critical work or to try and influence an academic’s promotion or tenure prospects, this insidious use of lawfare has become a source of concern among academics. This is especially prevalent concerning scholars who are critical of Israel, some of whom have faced relentless attacks by the government of Israel and its many sponsors, using law- based measures that aim to suppress criticism of its policies and practices. But law has many sides to it and can also serve as a form of protection or counterpower to lawfare. Strategic, legal mobilization has been invoked to protect academic freedom, drawing on a range of national and international legal vocabularies. For human rights advocates, legal mobilization has ignited the civic imagination and served as both a protective shield for individual scholars, as well as a proactive sword to expose complicity in international crimes committed by the Israeli military, cultural and intellectual institutions and corporations who profit from this situation. In this chapter, I explain Israel’s legal regime in which lawfare and legal mobilization are expressed. Next, I discuss the use of law in relation to academic freedom claims, making a distinction between legal mobilization and lawfare. An analytical framework that can be used to evaluate how law is strategically used by civic actors as either legal mobilization or lawfare is not fully developed in this particular chapter, though I have explained this elsewhere (Handmaker 2019). Instead, I briefly introduce the framework and develop legal mobilization and lawfare as analytical concepts, which are then applied against various examples of law-based advocacy, either from proponents of, or objectors to the global BDS movement for Palestinian rights. I then evaluate the transformative potential of drawing on international human rights law, using legal mobilization to suppor

The “Gayfication” of Tel Aviv: Investigating Israel’s Pro-gay Brand

Satchie Snellings provides an in-depth analysis of Tel Aviv’s polit- ical move towards LGBT inclusion and its active incorporation of not only the gay citizen but the accompanying profitable gay-tourism

Bard Free Press, Vol. 11, No. 6 (March 2010)

https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/bardfreepress/1080/thumbnail.jp

RELIGION AS LAW: THE ISRAELI NATION- STATE LAW AND THE PALESTINIANS

Yousef Munayyer had to travel 6,000 miles to meet his wife, who had lived 30 miles from him their entire lives.1 When the couple decides to visit their families, they cannot fly into the same airport in Tel Aviv, although it is the closest to their hometowns. Instead, she must land in a different country, while her husband is permitted to fly into Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion Airport.2 Should they choose to land in the closest possible airport for Munayyer’s wife, Israeli law still requires the couple take different bridges, located two hours apart, and answer a series of questions in order to be permitted to return to their childhood home together.3 Munayyer is an Arab Israeli citizen. His wife is not.4 Their realities represent the sharp divide between Israelis and Palestinians. Although Munayyer is an Arab, he was fortunate enough to obtain Israeli citizenship by virtue of his birth in the city of Lod, instead of in the occupied West Bank.5 Not all Palestinians are as lucky. Aside from the nearly 5 million Palestinian refugees eligible for aid from the United Nations, there are many more Palestinians living in the occupied territories of Israel who are subject to Israeli laws. The passage of the Israeli Nation-State Law and the actions of current United States President Donald Trump will deeply impact the Palestinians and Palestinian refugees. 6 This note will first address the background of the Palestinian Refugee crisis and the creation of the State of Israel. I will then address the impact of Israel’s Nation State law in conjunction with the growth of Israeli nationalism as well as address some, possible consequences, and steps to minimize these negative effects