My right and my moral responsibility

Now that the House of Representatives has decided that boycotting Israel is antisemitic, it is time that I confess my various crimes. 

I have indeed been boycotting products. I refuse to do business with Airbnb because the company makes money renting apartments and houses in the illegal settlements. Palestinian homes get demolished and Jewish only settlement blocks are built, then rented out by Airbnb. 

I also would never buy or sell my house using RE/MAX, another company profiting from the settlements. RE/MAX buys and sells apartments and homes there, but of course not to everyone. Only to those with the right ethnic and religious backgrounds need apply.

I refuse to buy a Volvo because the car company makes heavy equipment used to destroy Palestinian homes. HP will never get my business because of the work they do computerizing the checkpoints and surveillance systems in the West Bank. I wouldn't use HSBC Bank because it loans money to companies that arm the occupation. 

If I were a gambler, I would boycott the Sands Hotels because they are owned by Israeli/American billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who buys support for Israel by donating tens of millions to Trump and the Republican Party. If I had young children, I wouldn't let them watch Fox Kids or Power Rangers because they belong to Israeli/American billionaire Haim Saban, who ensures support for the occupation by paying millions in bribes to the Democratic Party. 

Boycotting is both my right and my moral responsibility. 

Fred Nagel

Needed to bring a just and lasting peace

Following is the LTE by Joey Naham and Jim Brown published Sunday, August 25th in Newsday,  concerning the BDS Issue:

Letter to the Editor, Newsday, published August 25, 2019.

"The controversy over Israel’s refusal to allow an official visit by two members of Congress highlights the negative effects of a misguided bipartisan attempt by representatives of both major political parties to attack and smear the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement for Palestinian rights and freedom. By an overwhelming margin in July, the House of Representatives passed a nonbinding resolution to condemn the BDS movement and to endorse an Israeli-Palestinian two-state solution. Legislatures in more than two dozen U.S. states have passed measures condemning the BDS movement or banning contracts with businesses involved with it.

Such undemocratic action is divisive and violates free-speech rights. It is outrageous that lawmakers have supported legislation to penalize or vilify anyone who advocates a boycott of Israel for its oppressive treatment of Palestinians under a decades-old occupation.
BDS is a peaceful approach to change — part of the process of negotiation, now stalled — that is desperately needed to bring a just and lasting peace to Israel and Palestine."
Joseph Naham and Jim Brown,

Editor’s note: The writers are chair and secretary, respectively, of the Green Party of Nassau County.