Academe has been quick to exploit the manufactured connection between the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) and Black Lives Matter movements that began with the 2014 protests following the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. A recent Columbia University panel discussion featuring specialists in Middle East studies and African-American history proved the point. In an article written for Campus Watch and appearing today at FrontPage Magazine, Mara Schiffren reports on the panel’s ominous conclusion: “There’s no future for a Jewish state.”
The second in an annual BDS series sponsored by the Center for Palestine Studies, “The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement: Struggle and Solidarity” took place at Columbia Law School. Students, faculty, BDS activists, and community members socialized prior to the event as the capacious, semi-circular lecture hall began to fill with about 100 people.