The BDS Interlude

Been awhile, besties! Hello again! This is an episode that was ostensibly about Bechtel Corp (the construction company, not the lesbian cartoonist), but it got away from me and became an exploration into the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement. An organized, peaceful method of resistance focused on boycotting business - what could go wrong? A LOT! 

Join myself and Amy Do+Blender Bluid to continue in the military-contracting deep dive season (remember that?) and let's get some ice cream on the way! Anybody want to stop at Ben&Jerry'sIsreal? Perhaps a SodaStream to tide you over? 

NOTE: The episode starts after bitching that took precisely 5 minutes. Ep begins at 5:00 

Follow @blenderbluid and @helloamydo - both of whom have released new music on Spotify!!!! We out here! 

Thanks to Casey Synesael for your genius audio engineering!!! SAVIOR!

SOURCES (sorry there are 23): 

-Illinois bars state pensions from owning Unilever over Israel, Ross Kerber, Reuters 2021

Ben&Jerry's 2015 statement found at this link: https://web.archive.org/web/20210109062433/https://www.benjerry.com/whats-new/2015/ben-and-jerrys-business-in-israel

Ben&Jerry's 2021 statement found at this link: https://www.benjerry.com/about-us/media-center/opt-statement

40 ILCS 5/ Illinois Pension Code thingy quoted found here: https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs4.asp?ActID=638&ChapterID=9&SeqStart=100000&SeqEnd=6300000

Illinois General Assembly, this Israel amendment to our investment codes passed 49-0 in the Senate and 102-0 in the House: https://www.illinois.gov/news/press-release.13202.html#:~:text=The%20legislation%2C%20which%20was%20modeled,held%20indirectly%20inside%20larger%20portfolios.

University of Texas email quoted found here: https://www.statesman.com/story/news/politics/2019/03/26/ut-wont-reimburse-for-airbnb-lodging-after-texas-decision-on-companys-israeli-settlement-stance/5610142007/

-AIRBNB statement from 2017: https://news.airbnb.com/listings-in-disputed-regions/

-Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's statement found here: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/images/executive-management/OAG%20advisory%20on%20SB%2013%20and%2019%2010.18.23.pdf

-Texas City Tells People No Hurricane Harvey Aid Unless They Promise Not to Boycott Israel, ACLU Press release re: case Koontz v. Watson — Challenge to Kansas Law Targeting Boycotts of Israel found here: https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/texas-city-tells-people-no-hurricane-harvey-aid-unless-they-promise-not-boycott#:~:text=Free%20Speech-,Texas%20City%20Tells%20People%20No%20Hurricane%20Harvey%20Aid,Promise%20Not%20to%20Boycott%20Israel&text=HOUSTON%20%E2%80%94%20The%20city%20of%20Dickinson,in%20a%20boycott%20of%20Israel.

-Need Hurricane Aid? In One Texas City, If You Boycott Israel, You May Be Out Of Luck - Merrit Kennedy, NPR 2017

-Bechtel Settles Suit With Pledge to Stop Arab Boycott Role, William H Jones, Washington Post 1977

-The Anti-Boycott Provisions of the Export Administration Amendments of 1977, David Modi, 1977 North Carolina Journal of International Law Vol 3 No 1.

-Read the 1979 Export Administration Act here!: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-93/pdf/STATUTE-93-Pg503.pdf

-Office of Antiboycott Compliance quoted page: https://www.bis.doc.gov/index.php/enforcement/oac

-How the Israel Anti-Boycott Act Threatens First Amendment Rights, ACLU 2017

-ALLIED AIR WAR STRUCK BROADLY IN IRAQ: OFFICIALS ACKNOWLEDGE STRATEGY WENT BEYOND PURELY MILITARY TARGETS, Barton Gellman, Washington Post 1991

-In a Moment, Lives Get Blown Apart, Anthony Shadid, Washington Post March 2003

-A Boy Who Was 'Like a Flower',  Anthony Shadid, Washington Post March 2003

-IRAQ: Bechtel ends Iraq rebuilding after a rough 3 years, David R. Baker, The San Francisco Chronicle, November 1, 2006

-Don't remember if I quoted this but here's a Government Accountability Office report about us failing re: oil and electricity in Iraq: https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-07-677.pdf#page=39

-How the Bush Administration Deconstructed Iraq, Michael Schwartz, TomDispatch, May 18 2006 (HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS READ!) 

-“Wielding Antidiscrimination Law to Suppress the Movement for Palestinian Rights” 133 Harv. L. Rev. 1360, February 2020. (ANOTHER BANGER OF A READ!) 

-The "what can I do?" section quoted from the BDS website: https://bdsmovement.net/BDS-Guide-Strategic-Campaigning