“War by other Means” or Nonviolent Resistance? Examining the Discourses Surrounding Berkeley’s Divestment Bill
Department
School of Conflict Management, Peacebuilding and Development
Additional Department
School of Conflict Management, Peacebuilding and Development
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-1-2012
Abstract
This article explores the discourses surrounding the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement aimed at ending the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Although the boycott strategy is a form of unarmed resistance and thus nonviolent in scope, it has not been widely framed as a “nonviolent” movement. Furthermore, the boycott movement has often been framed in negative terms in Western media, and Israeli representatives have gone so far as to call the BDS movement anti-Semitic, claiming it seeks to delegitimize the State of Israel. This article parses out how activists and opponents frame the movement and the extent to which these framings reflect actual practice and goals of the movement, through focusing on the case of the University of California, Berkeley student government’s effort to pass a divestment bill in spring 2010. The authors argue that supporters and opponents use different approaches to peace and conflict, which influences how they view the BDS movement.
Journal Title
Peace & Change
Journal ISSN
1468-0130
Volume
37
Issue
3
First Page
389
Last Page
412
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
10.1111/j.1468-0130.2012.00756.x