Project

Boycott, Divest, Sanctions

In this project, documentary filmmaker Oren Rudavsky looks at the BDS movement (Boycott, Divest, Sanctions) from the perspective of the key organizers and their opponents in the US, the West Bank and Israel.

The BDS movement asks of Israel three things, which to some are realistic and morally appropriate and to others are entirely unrealistic, anti-Semitic and would delegitimize Israel. The three asks are to end the 1967 occupation of the West Bank, to allow the right of return for all Palestinian refugees from the 1948 War and finally, to have a democratic state equal for all its citizens within the pre-67 or post-67 borders.

Some leaders of the movement have said that if there were an end to the occupation that would be enough to end the BDS movement. Others disagree.

Over the past year in the United States, there has been a surprising realignment and affiliation on many campuses between African American students involved in the Black Lives Matter coalition and between Palestinian and Jewish students who see a through line from Ferguson, Baltimore and Gaza in their understanding of the issue, thereby linking disparate movements in powerful ways.

At the same time, many Jewish students across the spectrum, reject this connection and the BDS movement in general. Rudavsky’s series of short films and feature documentary addresses these interlaced story-lines.