IMEU Institute for Middle East Understanding
The New Jersey state legislature is expected to pass legislation on Monday that will prevent the state from investing in companies that participate in the "boycott, divestment, and sanctions" movement against Israel, joining a growing number of states that already have similar regulations in place.
on June 27, 2016
overnors have significant authority in issuing executive orders, and in many situations, they do so to circumvent legislative roadblocks. But executive orders cannot wish away the Constitution. This, however, is precisely what New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo tried to do when he signed Executive Order 157 on June 5.
on June 23, 2016
Last month, a group of students at University of California at Irvine gathered to protest a screening of the film “Beneath the Helmet,” a documentary about the lives of recruits in the Israeli Defense Forces. Upset about the screening of a film they viewed as propaganda for a foreign military, the students were also protesting the presence of several IDF representatives who here holding a panel discussion at the screening.
on June 23, 2016
Last week Viet Thanh Nguyen, a professional associate of mine, became the fourth winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction to endorse the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS), joining Alice Walker, Richard Ford, and Junot Diaz. Besides the Pulitzer, his novel, “The Sympathizer,” won several other prestigious awards and made it to over 30 book-of-the-year lists, including The Guardian, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.
on June 22, 2016
Jo Cox, a Labour Party member of the UK Parliament, was slain on Thursday in what police said was likely the work of a lone gunman. She was fatally injured as she left a meeting with her local constituents. Some eyewitnesses are reported as saying the killer lay in wait for her. Shortly after the attack, a suspect was arrested and weapons were recovered, police said at a press conference.
on June 16, 2016
I watched and listened, often with tears, as Muhammad Ali was eulogised. I cried when the service opened with a reading from the Quran, because it was the first time in the history of the United States that a recitation of the Quran was read and heard in reverence on major national American television networks. I thought, even in death, he is a revolutionary.
on June 13, 2016
Believe it or not, New Jersey politicians are trying to rush through legislation that would prohibit our pension fund from being invested in any business put on their industry "blacklist. "You read that right: Blacklist. This time, though, it's not about rooting out the seditious pinko commies. It's about rooting out the anti-Israel thought offenders, and punishing them. See how different?
on June 10, 2016
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed an Executive Order on Sunday that “unequivocally rejects the BDS campaign and stands firmly with Israel,” effectively alienating many Palestinian New Yorkers and Palestinian-Americans. Cuomo made his official announcement, which has since been widely criticized as unconstitutional, during a meeting held immediately before the governor and his staff marched in New York City’s annual Celebrate Israel parade.
on June 7, 2016
“Why is this happening now?” That’s the question a senior adviser to President Obama asked when my team and I met with him last week to urge the President’s leadership to stop the crisis of demolitions underway in Area C of the West Bank. Tangible action by the President, Senators and Representatives, and by U.S. citizens as their constituents, is needed now...
on June 6, 2016