The BDSers are coming to town...

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Download the Divest This! Guide.

Well, to the University of Pennsylvania, anyway.

Yes, this year's big US conference on Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) targeting Israel is scheduled for February 4th and 5th at U Penn where an international lineup of boycott and divestment champions will meet, greet and try to breath life in a "movement" that has yet to achieve a single major victory after more than a decade of effort.

I've been covering BDS at my anti-divestment blog Divest This! and wanted to do something special to commemorate the U Penn event.  And so I've decided to write something inspired by each topic they have on their agenda.  These essays will be appearing at Divest This over the month of January, but this landing page has organized these responses to parallel the U Penn lineup of talks and workshops.

For those unfamiliar with BDS, feel free to download the Divest This Guide by clicking on the image to the right.

UPDATE: Because organizers of the PennBDS conference have expressed such a strong interest in dialog about the issues they will be discussing at their event, I've recently added a placeholder to allow the organizers of the PennBDS conference, or anyone else they like, to provide their response to these critiques of the topics on their agenda.  If they can send me their responses to divestthis[at]aol[dot]com, I promise to post them.  Let the dialog begin!

BIG News: All of the responses to the PennBDS agenda linked from this site are now available as an ebook in PDF, ePub and other formats.  Visit here for a free download, or go here to read the book on Scribd. 

The Lineup

BDS Successes, Challenges, and Options for 2012
     PennBDS Response: Still Waiting

Pinkwashing to Pinkwatching: Queer Organizing and BDS   
     PennBDS Response: Still Waiting

Connecting with Grassroots Palestine
     PennBDS Response: Still Waiting

BDS 101    
     PennBDS Response:  Still Waiting
    
Lessons from the South African Struggle          
     PennBDS Response:  Still Waiting      
      
Palestine in International Law          
     PennBDS Response:   Still Waiting  
 
The Economics of Israeli Occupation           
      PennBDS Response:  Still Waiting
    
The Academic Boycott/BDS on Campus II: Academic Freedom
      PennBDS Response:  Still Waiting

A Faith‐Based Approach to BDS      
      PennBDS Response:  Still Waiting
 
BDS, Hillel, and the Question of Anti‐Semitism        
      PennBDS Response:  Still Waiting
 
BDS and the Black Community         
      PennBDS Response:  Still Waiting
      
The Cultural Boycott        
      PennBDS Response:  Still Waiting
 
The TIAA-CREF Campaign          
      PennBDS Response:  Still Waiting

BDS on Campus I: Divestment Workshop           
      PennBDS Response:  Still Waiting
  
Launching a Successful Consumer Boycott             
      PennBDS Response:  Still Waiting
 
Talking to Beginners About BDS, Israel and Zionism        
      PennBDS Response:  Still Waiting
 
BDS as a Community-Wide Political Campaign             
      PennBDS Response:  Still Waiting

Community Radio: Media Opportunity of a Lifetime for the Palestine Solidarity Movement      
      PennBDS Response:  Still Waiting
 
The Zionist Response to BDS            
      PennBDS Response:  Still Waiting

BDS 2.0: Palestine Activism in the Digital Age               
      PennBDS Response:  Still Waiting

Palestine and the Media            
     PennBDS Response:  Still Waiting

BDS and Literary Expression
     PennBDS Response:  Still Waiting
  
Direct Action and Spectacle                
     PennBDS Response:  Still Waiting

Community Coalition Building (I)              
      PennBDS Response:  Still Waiting

Community Coalition Building (II)           
     PennBDS Response:  Still Waiting

Supplement: Delegitimization (removed from the original PennBDS agenda)       
      PennBDS Response:  Still Waiting 
 
Supplement: Palestine and the Occupy Movement  (removed from the original PennBDS agenda)         
      PennBDS Response:  Still Waiting

Supplement: Packaging the Movement: ‘Apartheid’ or ‘Jim Crow’?  (removed from the original PennBDS agenda)         
      PennBDS Response:  Still Waiting
  
Closing Remarks