Description
Since 2005 Palestinian civil society has led an international campaign of boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS). Inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement, the BDS call urges action to pressure Israel to comply with international law. Since its launch BDS has been extensively discussed across multiple academic and non-academic fora, with scholarly engagements touching on core debates in IR, including human rights and international law, ethical responsibility and knowledge production, academic freedom and unfreedom, transnational solidarity and decolonial praxis. Several academic associations and student unions have adopted BDS resolutions as a form of material and symbolic action, while detractors continue to claim it is ineffective and counterproductive.
Building from traditions of anti-colonial, internationalist, antiracist, and abolitionist forms of scholarship, pedagogy, and praxis, this roundtable explores the impact of the BDS campaign. It asks how academic associations have responded and what key debates have emerged regarding academic freedom and unfreedom? And how does the BDS movement conceive of solidarity with other contemporary, and avidly decolonial movements, including those advocating for reparations, and social and economic justice? Specifically, in what ways does putting BDS in conversation with Indigenous, anti-racist, and feminist movements benefit the global and interconnected struggle against colonial carcerality?
