![\"Rebecca](\"https:\/\/footballagainstapartheid.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/rebecca-vilkomerson-jewish-voice-for-peace.png\")
By Rebecca Vilkomerson June 24 at 9:34 AM<\/p>\n
Rebecca Vilkomerson is the executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace.<\/p>\n
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In 2009, I was living in Tel Aviv during Operation Cast Lead. During that offensive, Israel killed about\u00a01,400 Palestinians in Gaza<\/a>.<\/p>\n I wanted to take concrete action to\u00a0bring about freedom and full rights for Palestinians. So I embraced\u00a0the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions<\/a>\u00a0movement. The non-violent effort, started in 2005 by a broad coalition of Palestinian civil society organizations,\u00a0is a call for solidarity from the international community until Israel complies with international law and ends its violations of Palestinian rights.\u00a0It\u2019s hard going though \u2014 the governor of my own state, New York, recently condemned BDS in a unilateral executive order.<\/p>\n Seven years later, there have been two more horrific assaults on Gaza. About\u00a0500<\/a> Palestinian children were\u00a0killed in 2014.<\/p>\n Even when there are no intensive bombing campaigns, Palestinians in Gaza live under siege. West Bank residents are severely curtailed by Israel\u2019s matrix of control\u00a0in\u00a0the area, including checkpoints, administrative detention and home demolitions. Inside Israel, Palestinians with Israeli citizenship live in a system of unequal laws and rights.\u00a0Outside of Israel, refugees cannot return home.<\/p>\n Of course, during this time there have been attacks on Israeli civilians too. These\u00a0are a horrifying symptom of ongoing occupation and repression, as Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai\u00a0pointed out<\/a>\u00a0after a recent attack in Tel Aviv killed four Jewish Israelis.<\/p>\n I believe that Israel won\u2019t change its policies until outside pressure becomes impossible to ignore. BDS is a powerful way to encourage the state to act. And during my time with the movement, we\u2019ve had growing success.\u00a0Mainstream churches<\/a> have divested from companies profiting from the occupation. Dozens of American campuses have passed divestment resolutions. More than 100 artists refuse to perform in Israel<\/a>, and multinational corporations\u00a0like\u00a0G4S and Veolia have withdrawn from the Israeli market.<\/p>\n During this time, there\u2019s also been a shift in\u00a0public opinion. A 2015 Brookings\u00a0Institute poll found that 49 percent of Democrats<\/a>\u00a0support imposing economic sanctions against Israel over settlement construction. A\u00a0Pew poll<\/a>\u00a0released last month found that for the first time, liberal Democrats were more sympathetic to Palestinians than to Israelis.\u00a0In May,\u00a0the research firm Ipsos found that\u00a0one-third of Americans<\/a>\u00a0support the boycott, divestment and sanctions of Israel until it respects Palestinian rights<\/p>\n This is wrong. It\u2019s not discrimination to hold a state accountable for its violations of international law and human rights abuses. The state of Israel is not the same as the Jewish people.<\/strong><\/p>\n My daughters who I dropped off at preschool in Tel Aviv in 2009 are now middle-schoolers in Brooklyn. If as Israeli citizens they choose someday to live in Israel\/Palestine, I hope it will be a place where all people, Jewish and Palestinian, can live in equality and freedom. I believe that BDS is the best tool that we have to make that vision a reality.\u00a0We will look back on the attempts to legislate against BDS as the last desperate attempts to shield Israel from much-needed pressure to change its policies. Cuomo is standing on the wrong side of history.<\/p>\n![\"Cast](\"https:\/\/footballagainstapartheid.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/cast-lead.jpg\")
When small numbers of us went out into the streets to protest the war, we were often pelted with eggs or attacked by passersby. When I dropped my children off at their preschool, parents chatted as if nothing unusual was going on. When they asked me what was wrong, I would tell them I was deeply upset about what was happening just 40 miles away. Their response: awkward silence, or an angry defense of Israel\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n![\"Gaza](\"https:\/\/footballagainstapartheid.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/gaza-child-i-of-4-killed-16-july-2014.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Anrisemitism\"](\"https:\/\/footballagainstapartheid.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/anrisemitism.jpg\")
But our efforts have been threatened here in the United States by a\u00a0nationally coordinated, well-funded strategy financed by the Israeli government and advocacy organizations. Over the last year,\u00a022\u00a0states<\/a> have introduced or passed anti-BDS legislation. Many of these measures make it illegal for states to do business with companies that support BDS. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has escalated that strategy with a draconian executive order<\/a> that would create a blacklist of companies and organizations that choose not to invest in Israel or that advocate for BDS. Cuomo\u2019s executive order circumvented the state legislature, where opposition from supporters of Palestinian rights and free speech, including many members of Jewish Voice for Peace, had successfully stalled the anti-BDS legislation in committee.<\/p>\n