Omar Barghouti and Chandan Reddy: How BDS is changing the Palestinian struggle for justice

KBOO’s One Land Many Voices explores the rapidly-growing and historic grassroots global campaign known as Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, or ‘BDS’ through interviews with two courageous BDS leaders. 
Omar Barghouti (pictured above) is the founding member of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel and author of “BDS: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights”.  He joins us from occupied Palestine. 
 
Chandan Reddy (pictured below) is a professor at the University of Washington specializing in Critical Race Theory and Globalization Studies.  He is active in the American Studies Association and will discuss the recent ASA resolution calling for the boycott of Israeli academic institutions.
 
In these interviews, both Omar and Chandan are not only tremendously insightful, but also quite inspiring.  They paint the picture for us of a movement that is radically altering the political terrain of the Palestine-Israel conflict, and point out the significance of connecting our own liberation struggles with the Palestinian struggle.
 
Though nonviolent action has always been a part of Palestinian resistance, BDS is perhaps the broadest and most organized expression of that nonviolent resistance to Israeli colonial policies and human rights abuses.   Initiated by Palestinian civil society in 2005, its aim is to have people of conscience around the world apply moral, legal and political pressure on the Israeli government until it complies with international law and internationally recognized human rights.
A groundbreaking victory for the BDS campaign occurred in December when the American Studies Association, the nation’s largest association of professors devoted to the study of American culture and history, overwhelmingly voted to endorse BDS.