Creating a counterhegemonic praxis: Jewish-Israeli activists and the challenge to Zionism

Abstract

Despite over 20 years of peace process, Israel’s occupation, colonisation and repression continue, and the political and geographical fragmentation of the Palestinian people is proceeding apace. In this context, re-conceptualisations of the conflict and alternative visions of the future will take on increased urgency—both in Israel and Palestine. This article therefore focuses on two activist groups in Israel—Zochrot and Boycott from Within—engaged in provoking a confrontation with the hegemonic narrative of Zionism through a praxis of ‘re-framing’, ‘counter-branding’, solidarity and direct action. Theoretically, the research is placed within debates regarding hegemony and counterhegemony, and how activists develop praxis. Empirically, it is based on in-depth interviews with activists from these groups, analyses of their writings, observations of their social media activities and attendance at their events over a two-year period.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank all the activists who generously gave their time, and patiently answered my questions. I would also like to thank Elian Weizman, Toufic Haddad, Sai Englert, Jeremy Seigman and Michael Pugh, as well as the anonymous peer reviewers, for suggestions made on an earlier draft. But all perspectives expressed and errors which remain are the fault of mine alone.

Notes

1. Eran Efrati, Boycott from Within activist, Facebook post, 1 August 2014.

2. Despite the wide variation in definitions adopted by critical Jewish-Israeli perspectives, anti-Zionism here is defined as a perspective that opposes the privileges to Jews afforded by the Israeli state, is for the right of return, and is for the end of the occupation of Arab lands.

3. Eran Efrati, Facebook post, 2 August 2014; ‘You Can Shoot—Was Gaza Killing a War Crime?’. Channel 4 News, 7 August 2014. Available at: http://www.channel4.com/news/gaza-israel-killing-salem-shamaly-shujaiya-inside-story [Accessed 23 July 2015].

4. Interview with BfW activist, August 2014.

5. Haggai Matar, ‘The Night it Became Dangerous to Demonstrate in Tel Aviv’. +972 Webzine, 13 July 2014. Available at: http://972mag.com/the-night-it-became-dangerous-to-demonstrate-in-tel-aviv/93524/ [Accessed 23 July 2015]; Matan Kaminer, ‘Dispatch from a Left on the Defensive’. Jadaliyya website, 7 August 2014. Available at: http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/18828/dispatch-from-a-left-on-the-defensive [Accessed 23 July 2015].

6. UNOCHA, ‘Gaza Crisis Appeal’, September 2014. Available at: www.ochaopt.org/documents/gaza_crisis_appeal_9_september.pdf [Accessed 23 July 2015].

7. Tova Dvorin, ‘Netanyahu Vows: “Hamas will Pay” for Boys’ Murder’. Arutz Sheva [Israel National News website], 30 June 2014. Available at: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/182364#.U9zyt2PvKSo. [Accessed 23 July 2015].

8. Max Fischer, ‘The Full Text of the Deleted Times of Israel Post Backing Genocide in Gaza’. Vox website, 10 August 2014. Available at: http://www.vox.com/2014/8/1/5959635/heres-the-full-text-of-the-deleted-time-of-israel-post-backing?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=ezraklein&utm_content=friday [Accessed 23 July 2015]; Martin Sherman, ‘Why Gaza Must Go’. Jerusalem Post, 24 July 2014. Available at: http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Into-the-fray-Why-Gaza-must-go-368862 [Accessed 23 July 2015]; Irwin E. Blank, ‘1 Samuel 15:18’. The Times of Israel, 1 August 2014. Available at: http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/1-samuel-1518/#ixzz39A3n9dyQ [Accessed 23 July 2015]; Alex Shams, ‘Israeli Discourse of Sexualized Violence Rises amid Gaza Assaults’. Maan News Agency, 6 August 2014. Available at: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=717908 [Accessed 23 July 2015].

9. Yarden Skop, ‘Right-wingers Attack Leftists in Tel Aviv Demonstration’. Haaretz, 13 July 2014. Available at: http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel/.premium-1.604697 [Accessed 23 July 2015].

10. Jodi Rudoren, ‘Netanyahu Says No to Statehood for Palestinians. The New York Times, 16 March 2015. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/17/world/middleeast/benjamin-netanyahu-campaign-settlement.html?_r=0 [Accessed 23 July 2015]; Naftali Bennett, ‘For Israel, Two-State Solution is No Solution’. The New York Times, 5 November 2014. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/06/opinion/naftali-bennett-for-israel-two-state-is-no-solution.html [Accessed 23 July 2015]; Tovah Lazaroff, ‘How the Parties Stand on the Peace Process’. Jerusalem Post, 16 March 2015. Available at: http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/How-the-parties-stand-on-the-Israeli-Palestinian-peace-process-394028 [Accessed 23 July 2015]; Peter Beaumont, ‘Three-Quarters of Israeli Jews Oppose Detail of Palestinian State, Poll Shows’. The Guardian, 20 October 2014. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/20/israeli-jews-oppose-palestinian-state-poll-shows [Accessed 23 July 2015].

11. Lahav Harkov and Herb Keinon, ‘Cabinet Approves “Jewish State” Bill’. Jerusalem Post, 23 November 2014. Available at: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Cabinet-approves-Jewish-State-bill-382597 [Accessed 23 July 2015]; Kai Bird, ‘Israel, a Jewish Republic?’. The New York Times, 25 December 2014. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/26/opinion/israel-a-jewish-republic.html [Accessed 23 July 2015].

12. Hermann, The Israeli Peace Movement.

13. Hilal, Where Now for Palestine.

14. There are religious versions of Jewish anti-Zionism, such as Neturei Karta and Satmar Hasidism, but this research currently is only focused on the secular leftist strand.

15. It is an underlying principle of this book and its contributors, Herf, Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism; and the Reut Institute’s report on ‘delegitimisation’ that was influential in the development of Israel’s recent policies equates anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism as the basis of its analyses: Reut Institute, ‘Building a Political Firewall’, 25.

16. Greenstein, Zionism and its Discontents.

17. Nimni, The Challenges of Post-Zionism. Elian Weizman makes the point, however, that while post-Zionism criticises the official Zionist narrative, in reality it serves to reaffirm the Jewish-democratic character of the state. See Weizman, ‘Hegemony, Law, Resistance’.

18. Although some are emerging now, Greenstein’s Zionism and its Discontents only goes up to Matzpen; also see Svirsky, Arab-Jewish Activism, which as the name suggests analyses both Palestinian and Jewish activism.

19. This was in order to protect those interviewed, based on the possibility that there may come a time when those expressing the views explored in this article might be subjected to greater scrutiny.

20. The research project is also engaging with the conceptual debate surrounding the intellectual challenges of understanding and articulating how the privileged in a settler-colonial society adopt a critical perspective and develop solidarity praxis with the oppressed. In doing so, it is utilising insights from Albert Memmi, Franz Fanon and more recent debates on the ‘paradox of the privileged’. Scholz, Political Solidarity. However, for reasons of space this article does not go into this debate.

21. Aggestam and Strömbom, ‘Disempowerment and Marginalisation’, refers to Zochrot as a ‘peace group’ and analyses it together with Peace Now, which is not appropriate. In fact, the Zochrot activists I interviewed were surprised by this label.

22. Nilsen and Cox, ‘What Would a Marxist theory’, 65.

23. Barker et al., ‘Marxism and Social Movements’, 16–22.

24. This is not to say that class does not matter at all, merely that the dominant division and source of power/inequality is that based on race/nationality. See Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth. The debates that have split the Israeli left have tended to revolve around this issue. For a discussion of this, see Greenstein, Zionism and its Discontents, 154–194.

25. Yacobi, Israel and Africa. This is despite the fact that Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews make up around 50 per cent of the Jewish population of Israel.

26. Stoddart, ‘Ideology, Hegemony, Discourse’, 203.

27. Gramsci, Prison Notebooks, 276.

28. Chalcroft and Noorani, Counterhegemony in the Colony, 11.

29. Gramsci, Prison Notebooks, 276.

30. Tawil-Souri, ‘Colored Identity’, 68.

31. Scholz, Political Solidarity.

32. Mehrez quoted in Saurin, ‘International Relations as the Imperial Illusion’, 26.

33. Algazi, ‘Zionism in the Present Tense’.

34. Kimmerling, ‘Religion, Nationalism and Democracy’.

35. Masalha, The Bible and Zionism.

36. Shlaim, Iron Wall, 1–5. The history of the state-sponsored ‘de-Arabisation’ of the Mirzahi Jews is critically analysed in Shabi, Not the Enemy.

37. See instead Shlaim, Iron Wall; and Khalidi, Resurrecting Empire.

38. Khalidi, Resurrecting Empire.

39. Kimmerling, The Invention and Decline.

40. Peled, ‘Zionist Realities’, 30.

41. Although this does not stop the obsession with debates about how to preserve the Jewish character of the state in the face of a ‘demographic threat’ (provided by the 20 per cent of the Israeli population that are of Palestinian heritage and therefore are Muslim and Christian), and this is frequently discussed at the Herzliyah conference, the annual gathering of Israel’s political and security elite. Papers and keynotes speeches can be downloaded from its website: http://www.herzliyaconference.org/eng/?CategoryID=31&ArticleID=1892.

42. Kimmerling, ‘Religion, Nationalism and Democracy’, 340.

43. ‘Israeli Court Rejects Israeli Nationality, Arguing it Could Undermine Jewish Character’, Associated Press, 4 October 2013. Available at: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/10/04/israeli-court-rejects-israelinationality-saying-it-could-undermine-jewish/[Accessed 1 November 2013].

44. Khan, ‘Learning the Lessons of Olso’.

45. Peled, ‘Zionist Realities’, 30.

46. Abu Hussein and McKay, Access Denied.

47. Adalah, ‘The Discriminatory Laws Database’.

48. Gordon, Israel’s Occupation.

49. Central to colonialism is the ‘rule of difference’. Modern empires were more explicit about codifying difference (particularly racial) than aristocratic empires—because inclusion and exclusion has enormous implications if citizenship is granted in a rights-based political system. See Cooper, Colonialism in Question, 20.

50. See Tilley’s article in this special issue.

51. Roy, Failing Peace; Gordon, Israel’s Occupation.

52. Much research has been conducted into the difference in citizenship experience between Jewish and non-Jewish citizens of Israel (as well as between different Jewish groups by origin, e.g. Ashkenazi versus Mizrahi). See, for instance, Peled, ‘The Evolution of Israeli Citizenship’.

53. Peled, ‘The Evolution of Israeli Citizenship’, 336.

54. Smooha, ‘Minority Status in an Ethnic Democracy’.

55. In the legal and judicial arena there is one system that is ‘secular and universalistic’, and another that is ‘religious and primordial’ (run according to the orthodox interpretation of Jewish law); Muslim and Christian communities also have their parallel systems. Kimmerling, The Invention and Decline, 182–185.

56. I am grateful to Elian Weizman for outlining these main privileges.

57. Freedland, ‘Liberal Zionism after Gaza’.

58. Masalha, The Bible and Zionism, 135–146; Mustafa and Ghanem, ‘The Empowering of the Israeli Extreme’; Kimmerling, The Invention and Decline, 112–121.

59. Kimmerling, The Invention and Decline, 113.

60. Yertal and Eldar, Lords of the Land; Chaim Levinson, ‘Israel Preparing Major Expansions in Four West Bank Settlements’. Haaretz, 9 February 2015. Available at: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.641520 [Accessed 23 July 2015].

61. Peri, Generals in the Cabinet Room, 17–32.

62. Shlaim, Iron Wall.

63. Honig, ‘The End of Israeli Military’, 63–74. It was named after Dahiya, the largely Shi’a neighbourhood in Beirut, Lebanon, that was attacked by the Israel Defense Force in 2006.

64. The Druze have been subject to compulsory military service since 1956, in contrast to Christian and Muslim Palestinian-Arabs for which it is not compulsory but who are allowed to volunteer. ICG, ‘Back to Basics’, 37, fn. 306. Since 2013, there has been a recruitment drive directed at Palestinian Christians. Dave Gavlak and Timothy C. Morgan, ‘Israeli Military’s Call Up of Palestinian Christians Labeled “Intimidation”’. Christianity Today, 23 April 2013. Available at: http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2014/april/israeli-militarys-call-up-of-arab-christians-viewed-as-inti.html [Accessed 23 July 2015].

65. Kimmerling, The Invention and Decline, 208–228.

66. Peri, Generals in the Cabinet Room.

67. Interestingly this is the view of some settlers, although the rights are not to be the same as those of Jews—this remains a marginal perspective, though.

68. Kimmerling, The Invention and decline, 84–85.

69. This whole section is derived from extensive in-depth interviews conducted over a two-year period with activists from both groups from August 2013 until August 2015. I will not individually reference each point that was expressed by them.

70. For analyses of Israel as a settler-colonial society see the two special issues of Settler Colonial Studies devoted to Israel-Palestine: Volume 2, Issue 1 (2012) and Volume 5, Issue 3 (2015). Also, see Tilley’s article in this special issue.

71. At the first J-Street conference in Washington, DC, in October 2009, I witnessed this narrative. At a Peace Now workshop, their first and main message was that activists should always express loyalty to Israel before engaging in critique. This was criticised by some of the younger, more radical attendees, who stormed the stage to protest that there should be an open discussion about critique and tactics not a lecture from Peace Now.

72. For an extensive critique of the Israeli mainstream left, see: Honig-Parnass, False Prophets of Peace. For a recent critique of the mainstream peace movement, see Tikva Honig-Parnass, ‘Zionist Left Supports for Bloody Assaults on Gaza Signifies its Erasure from Israel’s Political Map’. The Palestine Chronicle, 12 October 2014. Available at: http://www.palestinechronicle.com/zionist-left-support-for-bloody-assaults-on-gaza-signifies-its-erasure-from-israels-political-map/#.VDpjTRbEm9V [Accessed 23 July 2015].

73. Interview and conversations with Zochrot activist, August 2013.

74. The term ‘original sin’ was used by a Zochrot activist in conversation, July 2013.

75. Herzfield, Cultural Intimacy.

76. Bakan and Abu-Laban, ‘Palestinian Resistance and International Solidarity’, 29. Also see the article by Morrison in this special issue.

77. This reflects the history of the anti-Zionist left in Israel as a whole. The Jewish-Israeli anti-Zionist activists who created Matzpen, for instance, were initially in the Israeli Communist Party and were hugely influenced by the Palestinian activist, Jabra Nicola. Greenstein, Zionism and its Discontents, 158–172.

78. These are labels that the activists use to describe their activities and focus.

79. Interviews with BfW activists, August–December 2013.

80. Ibid.

81. The ADRID emerged due to the exclusion of IDPs in the Madrid peace conference in 1991 and thus signified the mobilisation of Palestinians inside Israel to campaign for the rights of the internally displaced, as they were increasingly ignored by the PLO.

82. Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian; Shlaim, Iron Wall; Pappe, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.

83. Zochrot, ‘About us’, Zochrot website: http://zochrot.org/en.

84. Kadman, Erased from Space.

85. Eitan Bronstein, ‘Mapping What’s Been Lost’. Mondoweiss, 12 June 2014. Available at: http://mondoweiss.net/2014/06/mapping-whats-lost.html [Accessed 23 July 2015]; Zochrot, ‘High Court Petition on Canada Park’, July 2005. Available at: http://www.zochrot.org/en/content/high-court-petition-canada-park [Accessed 23 July 2015].

86. Bronstein Aparicio, ‘Towards a Common Archive/Video Testimonies of Zionist Fighters in 1948’. Zochrot, September 2012. Available at: http://www.zochrot.org/en/content/toward-common-archive-video-testimonies-zionist-fighters-1948 [Accessed 23 July 2015].

87. Shah, ‘A Different Kind of Memory’.

88. Lentin, ‘The Contested Memory’, 206–220.

89. Author notes from Zochrot conference, ‘From Truth to Redress: Realising the Right of Return’, Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv, 29–30 September 2013.

90. The phrase ‘resisting the language of separation’ comes from a Zochrot activist. Interview conducted by the author, Jerusalem, July 2013.

91. Zochrot annual reports. Available from their website: http://zochrot.org/en.

92. Barghouti, Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, 49.

93. Boycott from Within, ‘Boycott Israel!’. Available at: http://boycottisrael.info/content/frequently-asked-questions.

94. Interviews with BfW activists, August–December 2013.

95. Ibid.

96. R. Giora, ‘Milestones in the History of the Israeli BDS Movement: A Brief Chronology’, 18 January 2010. Available at: http://boycottisrael.info/content/milestones-history-israeli-bds-movement-brief-chronology [Accessed 23 July 2015].

97. Neve Gordon, ‘Boycott Israel’. Los Angeles Times, 20 August 2009. Available at: http://articles.latimes.com/2009/aug/20/opinion/oe-gordon20 [Accessed 23 July 2015].

98. Boycott from Within, ‘Citizens of Israel Charge Israel with Genocide’, August 2014. Available at: http://boycottisrael.info/content/citizens-israel-charge-israel-genocide [Accessed 23 July 2015].

99. H. Sherwood and M. Kalman, ‘Stephen Hawking Joins Academic Boycott of Israel’. The Guardian, 8 May 2013. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/may/08/stephen-hawking-israel-academic-boycott [Accessed 23 July 2015].

100. Richard Perez-Pena and Jodi Rudoren, ‘Boycott by Academic Group is a Symbolic Sting to Israel’. International New York Times, 16 December 2013. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/17/education/scholars-group-endorses-an-academic-boycott-of-israel.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 [Accessed 23 July 2015].

101. Adalah, Nakba Law: Amendment No. 40 to the Budgets Foundation Law. Available at: http://www.adalah.org/en/law/view/496

102. Revital Hovel, ‘High Court Largely Upholds Controversial ‘Anti-Boycott Law’. Haaretz, 16 April 2015. Available at: http://www.haaretz.com/beta/.premium-1.652019 [Accessed 23 July 2015].

103. Haggai Matar, ‘Police Besiege, Arrest Activists Planning to Commemorate Nakba’. +972 Webzine, 26 April 2012. Available at: http://972mag.com/police-besiege-arrest-activists-planning-to-commemorate-nakba/43568/ [Accessed 23 July 2015].

104. Interview with BfW activist, Jerusalem, August 2013.

105. N. Sheizaf, ‘Hasbara: Why does the World Fail to Understand Us?’. +972 Webzine, 13 November 2011. Available at: http://972mag.com/hasbara-why-does-the-world-fail-to-understand-us/27551/ [Accessed 23 July 2015]; Reut Institute, ‘Building a Political Firewall’.

106. Blumenthal, ‘Israel Cranks up the PR Machine’.

107. Hasbara Fellowships website: http://www.hasbarafellowships.org/. Avi Mayer, ‘Israel Amazing in the City of Roses’. Jewish Agency for Israel, 11 February 2013. Available at: http://www.jewishagency.org/blog/1/article/58 [Accessed 23 July 2015].

108. C. Liphshiz, ‘Israel Recruits Army of “Bloggers” to Combat Anti-Zionist Websites’. Haaretz, 19 January 2009. Available at: http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israel-recruits-army-of-bloggers-to-combat-anti-zionist-web-sites-1.268393 [Accessed 23 July 2015].

109. Aouragh and Tawil-Souri, ‘Intifada 3.0?’.

110. Interview with BfW activists, August 2015; Richard Silverstein, ‘Israeli TV Ambush Interview with BDS Activist, Ronnie Barkan’. Tikun Olam, 8 June 2015. Available at: http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2015/06/08/israeli-tv-ambush-interview-with-bds-activist-ronnie-barkan/ [Accessed 23 July 2015].

111. Quote from Im Tirtzu website: http://en.imti.org.il/. In 2015, it launched the New Israel Fund (NIF) initiative, which monitors the NIF and the organisations it funds—and which it regards to be anti-Zionist and anti-Israeli. See http://www.nifwatch.org.il/#!english/cr7x.

112. Information from NGO Monitor website: http://www.ngo-monitor.org/index.php

113. Quote from Im Turtzu website: http://en.imti.org.il/.

114. Antony Lerman, ‘Im Tirtzu: Delegitimizing the Delegitimizers’. The Guardian, 22 April 2010. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/apr/22/im-tirtzu-israel-jewish-statehood [Accessed 23 July 2015].

115. Avner Dinur, ‘The Nakba Thought Police: Irm Tirzu Acts Against the Nakba Map at Sapir College’. Zochrot, May 2013. Available at: http://zochrot.org/en/article/54877 [Accessed 23 July 2015]; Eitan Bronstein Aparicio, ‘Irm Tirtzu Targets Zochrot for Promoting the Return of Palestinian Refugees’. Zochrot, June 2012. Available at: http://zochrot.org/en/article/53843 [Accessed 23 July 2015].

116. Im Tirtzu petitioned the head of Israel’s NGO registry, claiming that Zochrot’s activities contradicted section 49 of the law regulating budgets of non-profit organisations, which allows a district court to dismantle an organisation if ‘the organization or its activities aim to reject the existence of the State of Israel or its democratic character’. E. Konrad, ‘Right-wing Group Seek to Dismantle Israeli NGO Dedicated to Palestinian Return’. +972 Webzine, 24 September 2013. Available at: http://972mag.com/right-wing-group-seeks-to-dismantle-israeli-ngo-dedicated-to-palestinian-return/79286/ [Accessed 23 July 2015].

117. It did, however, go ahead as planned. N. Sheizaf, ‘Following Right-wing Attacks, Museum Seeks to Cancel “Right of Return” Conference’. +972 Webzine, 27 August 2013. Available at: http://972mag.com/following-right-wing-attacks-museum-seeks-to-cancel-right-of-return-conference/77969/ [Accessed 23 July 2015].

118. T. Axelrod, ‘German Fund Pulls NGO Cash’. The Jewish Chronicle, 2 February 2012. Available at: http://www.thejc.com/news/world-news/62993/german-fund-pulls-ngo-cash [Accessed 23 July 2015].

119. Yossi Gurvitz and Noam Roatem, ‘What is NGO Monitor’s Connection to the Israeli Government?’. +972 Webzine, 29 April 2014. Available at: http://972mag.com/what-is-ngo-monitors-connection-to-the-israeli-government/90239/ [Accessed 23 July 2015].

120. Pappe, ‘Clusters of History’; Malka, Crossroads.

121. Too numerous to list here, the ‘Israel lobby’ consists of around one hundred groups that promote pro-Zionist and pro-Israeli perspectives. The most influential ones include the lobby groups: the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the Zionist Organisation of America, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the Anti-Defamation League, and Christians United for Israel. For an extensive list of pro-Israel and pro-Zionist groups in the US, see Mearsheimer and Walt, The Israel Lobby, 111–120.

122. Reuters, ‘Obama: Netanyahu Rift Not Permanently Destructive to US-Israel Ties’. Ynet News, 3 March 2015. Available at: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4632727,00.html [Accessed 23 July 2015].

123. Michael B. Oren, ‘Will Congress Stand Up for Academic Freedom’. PoliticoMagazine, 20 December 2013. Available at: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2013/12/will-congress-stand-up-for-academic-freedom-101379.html#.VcMnSPmqqko [Accessed 23 July 2015].

124. Eugene Kontorovich, ‘New Federal Law Fights European Boycotts of Israel’. The Washington Post, 30 June 2015. Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/06/30/new-federal-law-fights-european-boycotts-of-israel/ [Accessed 23 July 2015].

125. Ben Jacobs, ‘Hillary Clinton Condemns Anti-Israel Boycotts as Counterproductive’. The Guardian, 7 July 2015. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jul/07/hillary-clinton-anti-israel-boycott-bds-movement [Accessed 23 July 2015].

126. Calev Ben-David, ‘Israel Risks EU Settlement Label Threat as Boycott War Heats Up’. Bloomberg, 4 June 2015. Available at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-04/israel-risks-eu-settlement-label-threat-as-boycott-war-heats-up [Accessed 23 July 2015].

127. Interviews with anti-Zionist Activists, September 2014.

128. See the introduction to this special issue.

129. Reut Institute, ‘Building a Political Firewall’, 21.